Please give widest distribution.
From: Rob
Sent: September 27, 2010 7:53 PM
To: Steven Harper ( Prime Minister of Canada )
Subject: Latest article in the Ottawa Citizen
To Mr Harper.
Prime Minister of Canada
My name is Robert Gallant and I am a disabled vet.
I feel your government is leaving me no choice but to write to you personally. Not that this will make any difference, but at the least the opposition and the press will be getting a copy of this as well.
To the best of my knowledge in the past 100 years no Veteran or group of Veterans have every rallied or protested against our Government, the very same Government we had sworn an oath to protect.
This will change on November 6th at 11:00 am of this year as you are most likely already aware.
It will be the first time that Veterans were left no choice, but to protest against the unfair treatment by our Government.
I am also part of the law suit regarding the illegal and unfair “Claw Back” of VA Disability payments by SISIP, in the case of “Manuge Vs Her Majesty The Queen”.
I know personally how bad the system is for Veterans especially under the New Veterans Charter, which came about for the sole purpose of saving money, period. This you know to be true since you were part of the below meeting.
You and your Government go to great lengths to say “we support our troops”.
To me that is a flat out lie if you stand behind what the NVC is doing to Veterans.
I quote from Ms. Guarnieri, then Minister of Veterans Affairs, in a conversation dated May 9th, 2005, on a flight coming back from attending the Victory in Europe celebrations in the Netherlands which included then Prime Minister Paul Martin and all three opposition leaders, you being one of them as the leader of the Conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois, Gilles Duceppe and the NDP,s Jack Layton.
Ms. Guarnieri as she stated, managed to bring all four leaders together at the front of the plane to hammer out a plan that would see the new Charter approved within a week with virtually no debate.
The reason, the report which is still on the Governments website stating the department’s financial liability to disabled vets had grown from $5.6 Billion in 2001 to $7.9 billion in 2004.
Ms. Guarnieri recently described the in-flight deal as the highlight of her career.
That is one hell of a legacy to leave behind especially after reading the article in the Ottawa Citizen today about DVA seizing a vetrains disability cheque for $55,000.00 from his estate, as he died waiting for that benefit.
If this letter upsets you, as it should, then I have accomplished some of what I set out to do.
Just as I am upset enough to bring tears to my eyes after reading that article.
I honestly do not know how you can sleep at night knowing the above is happening to the very individuals you choose to send to Afghanistan.
If I personally get repercussions due to writing you today then it will just be added to what I already suffer from some of my disabilities.
Robert Gallant
(902) 765-4186
Kingston NS
Rob
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