Veterans' 100 years: Canada 'promises made to the ear are being broken to the hope'

 In the Province newspaper this morning there was an article providing a step forward on behalf of our armed forces personnel and then in a blink of an eye, the newspaper inserted an abbreviated typeset, lower case, lack of Ink, or a column's width ....   "Vets need .......".

Veterans need!

In a 2008 CBC 'Hockey Night in Canada' broadcast, Don Cherry laid into a fellow journalist for shortening Memorial to simply Mem.

(Cherry's family history: One grandfather was a Mountie who had to defend against Whiskey traders, and another fought at Vimy Ridge in the World War I.  Explains a bit about how he ALWAYS mentions soldiers and chastises those who say "Mem" Cup instead of Memorial Cup.)

The Memorial Cup was proposed by Captain James T. Sutherland during World War I, who wanted to create a trophy as a memorial to remember the OHA's players who died during the war. When the trophy was created, it was dedicated in honour of the soldiers who died fighting for Canada in the war. It was rededicated during the 2010 tournament to honour all soldiers who died fighting for Canada in any conflict.

The Province's headline punch of   VET   brought me up to attention thinking that Health Minister Terry Lake was about to have the riot act read out to him in regards to the firings of the health researchers in 2012.   Terry Lake, if you are unaware, is a certified Veterinarian, a 'Vet' without front line duties. 


2014  The Province:

Wounded war vets need special rights in the same way as aboriginals

Veterans deserve special treatment under the constitution in the same way aboriginals are guaranteed unique rights, a lawyer for six soldiers injured in Afghanistan has told British Columbia's top court.

The federal government is obligated to make good on nearly century-old promises to care for the only citizens it orders into possible death while fighting to make "our country possible," Don Sorochan told a trio of judges as he disputed that aboriginals are the only extraordinary case.

"The politicians acknowledge this. They stand by the cenotaphs," Sorochan said Thursday in the B.C. Court of Appeal.

"And yet we have an argument raised here ... that veterans are only entitled to whatever benefits the Parliament of the day may deem to be necessary. ........"

  - Tamsyn Burgmann - Canadian Press

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RETURN

Of Copies of Resolution Presented to the Premier and Members of the Executive by a Large Gathering of War Veterans, Patriotic and other Associations at the Parliament Buildings, April 10th, 1918.

Premier's Office,

11th April, 1918.

John Oliver,

Premier

Inasmuch as the delegates of the returned soldiers who went to Ottawa recently to confer with Sir Robert Borden and his colleagues in matters of vital importance in this crucial time of the Empire's history have come a way from that conference in several instances disappointed men.

Their disappointment will be shared by many and the feeling is widespread that promises made to the ear are being broken to the hope. It was known to the Government that the returned men had considered questions with regard to "enemy aliens," with respect to the conscription of men of alien races, and other matters of equal importance. The Government recognized the fact that the War Veterans were men who would debate these questions with tact, judgment, and experience, and, more than that, their sufferings and their sacrifices would give them a status for the expression of opinion which could not be ignored, but deserved and demanded consideration, and the Government, as was to be expected, very rightly asked the War Veterans to bring the result of their deliberations before them.

This has been done, and the result has been that for the present, at any rate, the War Veterans must bear the disappointment that "the Government is unable to accept their proposals."

There is not a returned man who is not alive to the difficulties and clangers of the complicated questions which now confront the Governments in all parts of the Empire.  However, it was decided at a meeting of all returned men, held in this city on April 6th, that a public demonstration is necessary, and that all bodies interested in the enemy alien question should be asked to take part in the demonstration, and also to adopt the resolution as set forth. .....................

 Is the government paying bonuses to VAC officials to cut services?

Fri, Dec 5: There was a contentious point raised in Question Period Friday as opposition MPs claimed the government has been paying Veterans Affairs Canada officials to cut jobs and services.

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December 9, 2014

Pete McMartin: Disabled veterans’ rights a matter of law, or justice?

The federal government risks political backlash by treating injured vets like liabilities>

...... “When members of the Canadian Forces put on the uniform of their country,” the suit’s statement of claim argued, “they make an extraordinary personal commitment to place the welfare of others ahead of their personal interests, to serve Canada before self and to put themselves at risk, as required, in the interests of the nation. A veteran, whether regular or reserve, active or retired, is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank cheque made payable to ‘the Government of Canada,’ for an mount of ‘up to and including their life.’ This commitment to make the ultimate sacrifice reflects their honour in the service of their country.”

As proof of an existing covenant, the statement of claim cited a 1917 speech by Prime Minister Robert Borden during the First World War: “The government and the country will consider it their first duty,” Borden said, “to see that a proper appreciation of your effort and of your courage is brought to the notice of people at home that no man, whether he goes back or whether he remains in Flanders, will have just cause to reproach the government for having broken faith with the men who won and the men who died.” .......

Snip

But here is the thing:

It’s a shame this case had to go to court in the first place. There are things worth keeping in the New Veterans Charter, but appraising the trauma of disabled veterans as you might an insurance claim — in which payouts are prorated according to the severity of a veteran’s wounds, as if losing a leg was akin to fender bender — is not one of them. Veterans are not liabilities on an actuarial table. The government should either have upped the amount of the lump sum payments substantially, as other countries have, or scrapped them altogether in favour of lifetime pensions.

The judgment in the BC Court of Appeal isn’t expected until some time in the new year.
If the government does win its case in court, I’d suggest it will be a Pyrrhic victory.

pmcmartin@vancouversun.com

Pete McMartin's Northern BC Summer travels: He should Spare some time for a Spare tire

   In the north, compact cars are as rare as Sierra Club members. Even at the Honda dealership, they said they didn’t have any tires for a Fit, in my case, a Bridgestone 185/55R/16. He said he doubted if anybody else in town did. - Pete McMartin - Vancouver Sun

Note: When it comes to increasing the mileage per litre ..........

One surprising Thing Automakers are eliminating from cars:  The Ford Focus and Honda Fit don't come with a spare in Canada, but they do in the U.S.

 http://autos.aol.com/article/eliminating-spare-tire/

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The "Sea to Sky Highway" hasn't always been a highway, it was a logging road frequented by surveyors in Land Rovers, and other four-wheeled vehicles, all equipped with winches. Then there was the weekend motorists looking for a different route out of Metro Vancouver, a less traveled way to Lillooet, Williams Lake, Gang Ranch, which included jarring potholes.   In all instances, they had a Spare Tire, a jack, and a Tire Wrench.

The road was wide enough, and plenty of pull outs too, but the bridges on that route were built with the least amount of wood "pavement"; two hefty side by side planks in way of the wheels.

The "Sea to Sky Highway" didn't have logs inside to keep the wheels on the straight and narrow planks

In 1973, there was one enterprising young woman driving down from Lac La Hache to attend her first day at University of British Columbia (Engineering???) when she came to the Historic Hat Creek Ranch crossroad.  Nearer Cache Creek than Clinton. 

Turn left to # 1 Highway's Fraser Canyon to Hope and Vancouver beyond, or go to the right via "Highway 99" (Whistler didn't exist)(neither did the highway) but there was the logging road.

To the Right she traveled in the used 1965 Volkswagen Beetle, smooth driving, no problem for the first hour and half until she encountered the first of SEVEN bridges.  She discovered quite quickly that the wheels on her car were too close together for the two wide apart double planks, and her vehicle tires were to wide to fit on one side of the doubled wide planks.

Then she got a bright idea, (Engineering???) the wheels were cupped in,  she took each tire off and flipped them over, the wheels were then cupped out, she then made the short drive across the bridge got out her jack again and flipped the wheels back, and she was off .... to the next bridge.

My 1965 1200 A VW Beetle

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Why oh why would a professional journalist like Peter McMartin start out on a trip from Metro Vancouver without even doing a cursory check of the tread on his tires?

No spare tire, no donut spare either.....

Turns out that the donut is alright to use, but not over 80km/h, nor are they permitted on the front of a front wheel drive vehicle in Snow and Ice road conditions.  Then there's the theory that because the diameter of the donut is smaller than the REAL tire, the transmission can be damaged, therefore the donut has to be moved to the back wheel axel......



Google Search Criteria:  Ft. St. John Tire shops    McMartin is one of the hits.....

LONG LAKE PROVINCIAL PARK, ALTA. — In Fort St. John, we noticed the front right tire on our Honda Fit was bald. Dangerously so. I started looking around town for a replacement.

In the north, compact cars are as rare as Sierra Club members. Even at the Honda dealership, they said they didn’t have any tires for a Fit, in my case, a Bridgestone 185/55R/16. He said he doubted if anybody else in town did.

Fort St. John has plenty of tire shops. They are nothing like those in Vancouver. They have tires with circumferences as large as redwoods, tires that are, literally, larger than my Honda Fit. Even if they did have a tire our size — as every one of the half-dozen shops we tried told us — they were so busy they wouldn’t be able to put it on for at least a week. One guy said three weeks. The last shop we tried, a Fountain Tire, the guy said there might be something in Dawson Creek, an hour’s drive away. We decided to give it a try. ......

Pete McMartin Locked-Down 'Public" pipeline hearings begone

All that Pete McMartin needs to do to put "grace" in charge, instead of disgrace into the pipeline hearings, is to have an outspoken, but the firm steady voice that the Vancouver Police Department and the RCMP alike, know, and jump to attention when spoken to.   And for good measure that other law enforcement agency, Sheriffs.

The one "force" with "grace" belongs to B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman.  The only security forces being left out thus far from the Chief Justice attention is the "Media security forces" ushering speakers to their places, and out, in what is supposed to be an Open and Transparent Public hearing.

....When I attended, security was heavy and very, very evident.  There was a police wagon parked outside the hotel, with cops in the hotel lobby and on the fourth floor.  I counted nine of them.  They were there, I'm sure, to prevent a repeat of Tuesday's incident, when ........... Pete McMartin

As to the Chief Justice's handling of the decorum in his Court House......

"That is not the profile the courthouse(s) should project. It should reflect openness - a calm and reflective atmosphere in which critical judicial proceedings can proceed impartially and where the public is free so far as is reasonable to come and go and witness the proceedings unfold."  Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun