A "message" from Message - Jeff Rose-Martland - 6th November, 2010 Veterans' Rally
The Canadian Veterans National Day of Protest Rally - 6th of November, 2010 St. John's Newfoundland - Public Address...
It seems that I am in a rare position regarding this issue. I am not a politician, nor am I a Veteran. I gain neither votes nor benefits by speaking here today. I also have nothing to lose: I am not a Veteran or an employee of Veterans’ Affairs, not a member of the Mounted, not a soldier of the Forces, not the Veterans’ Ombudsman - I don’t not risk my job or benefits by speaking up. I am simply a citizen.
When I was preparing for this event, I had plenty of advice on what to say. Put a face on it, they said, tell everyone about the heartache and trouble caused by Veterans’ Affairs. They wanted me to give examples. To tell you about individuals who have been failed by our country. They wanted me to name names, to discuss cases, to play upon your heart strings to get your support. Well, I’m not going to do that. I don’t believe that you need faces and names, anymore than I believe that sympathy is the solution.
So I am not going to tell you about the decorated hero who brought helped bring peace to Cyprus, who received the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize, who has brought prestige to our flag and represents the peacekeeping we are all so proud of. I won’t tell you about the battle he has fought with Veterans Affairs – a battle longer than his Cyprus mission. I will not go in to details about long and solitary fights over $2500 for hearing aids – fights he keeps losing because Veteran’s Affairs refuses to understand that four days firing artillery might cause hearing loss.
Nor will I go into details about the Brigadier General who is dying of cancer; Cancer caused by exposure to Agent Orange. He is not unique; there are thousands just like him, fighting for benefits on their death beds. I won’t raise the name of Brian Dyck, ALS victim and tireless advocate, who was fighting for his benefits just weeks before his death.
I won’t discuss the RCMP veterans: those who kept the peace side-by-side with Forces Personnel, gaining the same injuries, who returned home to discover that their different uniform meant they were less entitled and less veterans.
Nor will I espouse at great length about veterans living on the streets or about them using food banks, or even about the fact that there IS a food bank especially for veterans. We are all aware of those shameful facts.
To illustrate the failure of the lump-sum payment, I was asked to locate a particular Peacekeeper - one of those who was chained to a lamp post in Bosnia - who was later blown up, losing an arm, a leg, and an eye in service to his Nation, to bring peace to a conflict, and for the prestige of us all. But I will not drag this hero up here to tell us how we treated him, to tell us that his award paid for an accessible house and a wheelchair, but not enough for an accessible van or to provide for his family, to show us his injuries and tell us about his family on welfare. I would not further denigrate this Veteran by parading his wounds and betrayal today, just to put a face on this farce.
It was also suggested that I have all the facts and figures. Get your information in order, they said. Tell them about percentages and amortizations, how veterans won’t be able to live on those lump-sum payments. Tell the people about the money the government is saving by eliminating monthly pensions. Talk about the unfairness of taxing death benefits, they said, Tell the public about the claw-backs from our insurance plans which guarantee will we have the same income no matter what new initiative is launched. The veterans wanted me to detail all the failings of Veterans Affairs: a system that Colonel Stogran himself describes as broken and incomprehensible. They thought that if I presented you with the facts, you would understand. Well, I’ve read the facts and I don’t understand! I don’t understand how there can be more than 20 different classifications of veteran. I don’t understand why the system has become so complicated that no one seems to know what a veteran is entitled to. And I really don’t understand how senior staff and ministers of any government department can break privacy laws in order to silence critics and go unpunished. I don’t understand any of that, so I’m not going to try to explain it to you.
Nor am I going to prattle on at great length about the fabulous work done by the RCMP and Canadian Forces. Around the world, the image of the Mountie is synonymous with Canada, representing justice and determination. In uncounted nations, the blue beret and the maple leaf mean peace, freedom, and help. Other countries are known for flags or fast food, our country is recognized for our police and military. I don’t need to remind YOU about the work these people do at home, either. None of us like speeding tickets, but what do you want to see when you are stuck in a ditch in a snowstorm? Just like me, you want to see a beaver hat with a buffalo badge! More than any other province, we know what the Canadian Forces do. We know about Search and Rescue, about people jumping out of perfectly good helicopters into the raging North Atlantic to save sailors from drowning. We know, all too well, all too recently, how much we need the Canadian Forces. When Igor devastated this island, who rebuilt bridges and roads to cut-off communities? Who met our pleas, without question, without thought, without consideration for themselves? It is easy to think of a veteran as a warrior, but Canada has shown that police and military can do so much more than fight and arrest. But you already know that, so I don’t need to tell you.
By now, you’re probably thinking: For a guy who’s not saying anything, he’s talking an awful lot! And you’d be right! But finally, here is what I am going to talk about: responsibility.
143 years ago, Canada invented responsible government. We founded ourselves on responsibility, on the belief that it is not enough to rule and to be ruled, but that we must be responsible for each other and to each other. And that sense of responsibility has forged our national character. We settle our arguments not by standing firm but by seeing the other point of view. We celebrate our cultures, knowing that our differences make us stronger, not weaker. We are secure, not by looking at our own fence but by looking at each others’. We built a social safety net because we understand that in helping each other, we also help ourselves. We consider how our actions affect each other. We stand together in crisis, prepared to do what is required.
We clear snow from each other’s driveways.
As Canadians, we have taken this sense of responsibility to the world, leading by doing. We have exported these ideas and values around the globe. We championed a Universal Declaration of Human Rights 32 years before we declared ours at home. We showed everyone how soldiers could keep peace instead of make war. All because we feel responsible.
And these veterans, these men and women of our Canadian Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, they feel an even greater responsibility: a responsibility to serve our national need. A responsibility to stand between us and harm. A responsibility to get us out of trouble. A responsibility to do whatever needs doing. A responsibility to answer our call, to follow our will, to hold firm, to disregard their interests in favour of ours’. They are willing to sacrifice their desires, their bodies, their minds, because we asked them to do so.
And how have we repaid them?
We have failed to meet our own responsibilities.
When I learned of the problems at Veterans Affairs, I could not see how such a thing could happen. I, like many of you, automatically assumed veterans were looked after. I was sure this was a long settled matter: that those who serve our country should be automatically cared for. I thought perhaps there may be a small matter, something overlooked, which could be easily remedied. I was not prepared for the length and breadth and depth of the failures.
I was not prepared for such silencing of critics. For members of the mounted, express concern about your benefits and get fired. For veterans affairs employees, talk about systemic failures and get fired. For members of the Forces, say anything out of turn and possibly get jailed! The veterans’ ombudsman, the man paid to find the problems, did so and was let go. The veterans themselves: speak up and find your benefits slashed, your name blackened, your sanity called into question.
In fact, I may be the only one present who can speak freely!
For months, I have been watching politicians and bureaucrats playing pass-the-blame and score-with-the-voter and get-your-picture-taken-with-a-veteran while the issues persist. There is a lot of talk but no action, much feeling but no movement, plenty of pointing but nothing poignant.
As a Canadian, I am here today to meet my responsibilities.
To all veterans of the RCMP and Canadian Forces, and those who have sacrificed along with them:
Thank you for serving. I am sorry for any mistreatment you have suffered.
And to Parliament, to those whom we elect to tend to our responsibilities, those who are responsible to us, we want your instructions perfectly clear:
Take Care of Our Veterans!
Go back to Ottawa and get to work. Ask those that know where the problems lie and follow their solutions. Waste no more time in passing blame; stand to your responsibility, tend to our veterans, and do so without further delay. People are suffering and dying while you debate and your inaction reflects badly on us, the people of Canada.
Citizens, join me now in sending that message to Ottawa in clear and certain terms:
Take Care of Our Veterans!
This Rally is over. May we never have to do this again.
Jeff Rose-Martland
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wd3aF9ghmY
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