Assorted Merged Stored Topics

Royal Canadian Navy to commemorate Battle of Atlantic, reflect on accomplishments.

Vice Admiral Mark Norman, commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, has provided this article to Defence Watch:


Mottos are, by design, inspiring. From where I sit, there are none more so than the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) credo: “Ready, Aye Ready!” This motto is a lot more than a collection of words; Canada’s Navy has a rich history of excellence at sea, both at home and abroad, to back it up.

On Sunday, May 1st, the RCN will nationally commemorate the longest campaign of the Second World War — the Battle of the Atlantic.  On April 28th, the annual Battle of the Atlantic Gala, held at the Canadian War Museum, will reflect, with our veterans, their Navy’s accomplishments, past and present.

By looking to the past, we seek inspiration from the brave men and women who sacrificed so much in service to Canada. We can see echoes of the RCN’s contributions to global peace and security throughout the decades. We see how the Canadian Government has, over and over again, called upon its Navy as the instrument of “first resort”, responding in times of crisis and threats to global instability.

In World War II, when the Allies’ backs were literally against the ocean, Canada signalled its steadfast commitment and deployed HMC Ships Skeena, Restigouche and St. Laurent from Halifax on May 24, 1940, while HMCS Fraser deployed from Bermuda. This modest — but tangible — contribution to what would become known as the Battle of the Atlantic grew exponentially, and Canada would eventually have one of the largest fleets in the world, which helped to turn the tide of the war.

Shortly after the Second World War, when the recently established United Nations called for its members to provide forces to repel the attack on the Korean Peninsula, the Canadian government responded swiftly. To restore peace and security, HMC Ships Cayuga, Sioux and Athabaskan sailed from Esquimalt on July 5, 1950.

When the United Nations condemned the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq on 2 August, 1990, in only 10 short days, HMC Ships Protecteur, Athabaskan and Terra Nova, updated with new weapons systems, were deployed with their air detachments as a strong signal of Canada’s commitment to global stability.

After the tragic and terrible terrorist attacks of 9/11, when NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time in its history, the Canadian government directed HMCS Halifax to re-deploy from the Mediterranean Sea.  In a very visible manner, Prime Minister Jean Chretien signalled our nation’s support to our closest ally by personally bidding farewell to the Canadian Task Group comprised of HMC Ships Iroquois, Charlottetown and Preserver, and their respective air detachments as they sailed from Halifax.

RCN ships have also been instrumental “first responders” providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief worldwide.  In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit the American south with such devastation that it displaced thousands of families, the Canadian Government sent HMC Ships Athabaskan, Toronto and Ville de Québec, in addition to the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Sir William Alexander, to provide Canadian support and assistance.  In 2008, HMCS Ville de Québec provided a naval escort to 10 ships under contract to the World Food Program in order to protect them from piracy off the coast of East Africa.

After the horrific earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, HMC Ships Athabaskan and Halifax were deployed within three days as the government reacted quickly to provide relief to pain and suffering being experienced by the Haitian population.

Today’s RCN remains faithful to the spirit of  our motto “Ready, Aye Ready”. The importance of being prepared for anything is reinforced daily.  Whether in counter-trafficking missions in the Caribbean, keeping tonnes of drugs off the streets in North America, or NATO security operations in Eastern Europe, adaptive and flexible naval capabilities continue to enable Canada to play its desired role in the world.

As our commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic approaches, I invite Canadians to reflect on your Navy’s rich past, to celebrate its excellence at sea today, and to join us in building the RCN of the future.

Yours Aye,

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman

Commander, Royal Canadian Navy

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/royal-canadian-navy-to-commemorate-battle-of-atlantic-reflect-on-accomplishments

I saw Michael Blais in two different TV interviews yesterday, this guy gets better at getting the message out, each time he conducts and interview.

Great work Mike !

Campbell Clark

Ottawa — The Globe and Mail

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper attends Remembrance Day ceremonies Tuesday, he will have cut short his attendance at an international summit in China to pay tribute. Yet for an increasingly vocal set of this nation’s veterans, he is guilty of paying too little attention to those who served.

His government has lionized Canadian military symbols, and sent equipment to troops in Afghanistan. Many Conservative MPs care; many see veterans as part of their natural constituency. So why did Mr. Harper’s government become a target for veterans? How did its image instead become Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino lecturing a medal-wearing vet not to point his finger, or dodging a veteran’s wife?

The answer depends on whom you ask – and that’s perhaps how things went wrong.

Many veterans say they don’t have big complaints. But a minority, notably among those with serious injuries – often newer veterans clashing with the Veterans Affairs bureaucracy – feel mistreated. And there’s a new crop of vocal advocates, too, who often think the big traditional groups like the Royal Canadian Legion, are not speaking out for seriously injured vets. The new breed are far more blunt.

Mike Blais, of Canadian Veterans Advocacy, regularly blasts the government on TV. Injured Afghan vets formed Equitas to sue the government for “arbitrary, substandard, and inadequate” benefits. Mr. Fantino meets many of them, but Don Leonardo, who founded Veterans Canada, doesn’t see much point any more. “It’s nice to talk. But show me some action,” Mr. Leonardo said.

Mr. Fantino’s office didn’t act on requests to interview the minister or a government spokesman on the issue. But inside the government, officials suggest the complaints are exaggerated, and promoted by a small group of activists. Budgets have gone up, they note, and in fact, during Mr. Harper’s tenure, spending on Veterans Affairs has increased at about the same rate as overall government spending. But there’s little doubt it has become a tricky issue.

This year’s Remembrance Day has become a particularly top-of-mind memorial after the Ottawa shootings and the death of Corporal Nathan Cirillo as he guarded the National War Memorial. This government wants it that way, and wants to be associated with the country’s military community.

Now, Mr. Harper’s government has appointed a Mr. Fix-It in the form of the country’s former Chief of Defence Staff, retired General Walter Natynczyk. He has stature in Ottawa, credibility with the military community and was part of Afghanistan-war-era efforts to expand support programs for military families.

That could be critical, because the experience of injured Afghanistan vets has certainly fuelled current criticism.

As troops in 2008 or 2009, many felt support from the public. But those who are injured go from being “members” of the Forces to “clients” of Veterans Affairs. Forces’ members go through a medical board when they’re released because of an injury, then a new one when they apply to Veterans Affairs, Mr. Leonardo said.

The case workers at Veterans Affairs Canada care, he said. “It’s not the front line. They’re the most caring people in the world. The problem is the policies, the bureaucracy at the top, the funding.”

Much of the anger grew from the New Veterans Charter, put forward by Paul Martin’s Liberals and tweaked by Mr. Harper’s Conservatives. It was supposed to be a new deal, but sparked complaints, particularly about lump-sum settlements injured vets received instead of pensions.

Part of the problem for the government is that different veterans advocates propose different prescriptions for change to a complex system. But many say they’re frustrated that oft-repeated consensus recommendations – such as increasing the earning-loss benefits, and paying reservists the same level of injury benefits as regular-force soldiers – have languished.

The Commons veterans affairs committee repeated those again this year, but the government’s response doesn’t say what it will do about them or when. The government did promise to phase in several changes, such as ensuring Forces’ members have a Veterans Affairs case manager before they are released, but couched many of their promises to act in thick bafflegab.

Pat Stogran, the retired colonel who served as the first Veterans Ombudsman from 2007 to 2010, said the problem, in his view, stems from the fact that senior bureaucrats run Veterans Affairs like an insurance company, “just trying to write these people off as an industrial accident,” rather than an agency to help vets, he said.

And the politicians don’t have a lot of drive to delve through the bureaucracy. Veterans Affairs ministers don’t have much power, he said. They usually don’t argue with their bureaucrats’ assessment, they are concerned mainly with party politics. “They’re really non-players in this. They’re fighting the opposition,” he said.

It also seems possible that the fact that complaints come from a minority of veterans with problem cases, the government accepts the idea that, for the most part, things are okay.

Mr. Stogran said it’s not all vets who feel unfairly treated. Most leave to go on with their lives. The hard cases, and complaints, come among the disadvantaged after being put in harm’s way. “No, it’s not the majority. It’s the ones who are injured, or have a close affinity to them.”

Follow Campbell Clark on Twitter: @camrclark

To all of those who have gone before us and to all of those still with us, may I wish you and your loved ones peace and good health today and everyday.

Was that not the recommendations of that review? Maybe not official talks but there must be unofficial studies going on just for cost comparison alone?

Currently there is no plans to merge SISIP LTD with VAC.

Once there is official talks on any merger I will post it. So again no plans/talks about merging.

nail on the head bigrex and may I add if they win they will have a few more years to take it back and more.

propat

My guess is not a cent. We won't see any changes until the next budget, but no actual improvements will be made until a month or so before the election.

The Veteran ombudsman issued reports on the NVC on how to correct it. The newest report on PIA and PIA supplement show what need to be done to adress the situation regarding this allowance.

Are we gonna see money committed in the next fall economic update ? Your guess

Cosmo

One veteran. One standard.

Absolutely. When veterans come forward, they never go unnoticed. Not by me anyways. They are a source of inspiration.

To his point about Veterans not speaking up, I agree that the volume of Veterans not speaking up is in part due to a couple of reasons;

First, I think that many Veterans are highly medicated for the conditions they suffer from, and for the most part, it is difficult in keeping a clear mind when trying to make a point with respect to speaking up.
This may be one reason.

The second reason I think is that many are in fear that speaking up may have consequences brought upon them.
Along with the fear of consequences, one may feel that if they have all their limbs, can walk, and talk, they may be looked at by others, as not being disable.
So they shy away from the spotlight.

The ones that do speak up, do and excellent job in doing so, and their voice does not go unnoticed by the Veteran community.

Combat is a humbling experience. It makes me feel that complaining would be viewed as whining. I feel the need to go forward to the public, but am scared.

HALIFAX -- There was a time when David MacLeod could have been a shoo-in candidate for the federal Conservative party.

The former military man was a card-carrying Tory whose 27 years of service in the Canadian Forces would have been a strong political asset in the rural Nova Scotia riding where he grew up.

But late last month the plain-spoken veterans rights advocate was elected to become the Liberal candidate in Central Nova, the Conservative stronghold where he will take on Justice Minister Peter MacKay in the next federal election, scheduled for October 2015.

MacLeod, 49, says his political transformation started around 2006, soon after Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper was first elected to govern with a minority.

"As the party started moving farther and farther right, I started to get more worried as time went on," he said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Antigonish

"Ever since 2006, it seems like there's been this continuous pressure ... to cut benefits for veterans. Why? For the most part, veterans will not speak up."

MacLeod says his disenchantment with the Tories grew as he studied the veterans charter, which the federal government has pledged to change after years of protests from veterans groups.

Suffering from chronic pain caused by a gunshot wound he received during a training accident in the 1990s, MacLeod was medically released from the military in February 2010.

He got involved in a advocacy group for disabled soldiers and later attracted national attention when he and another vet, Jim Lowther, made a presentation about homeless veterans to a parliamentary committee in Halifax in February 2012.

During the meeting, Conservative MP Rob Anders appeared to fall asleep, prompting subsequent complaints from Lowther and MacLeod. Anders responded by saying the two veterans were "NDP hacks" and supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Anders later apologized for his remarks and was removed from the committee within weeks.

"I was shocked that a member of Parliament would have the audacity to accuse us of being disloyal to Canada," says MacLeod. "I was so brutally insulted."

Still, the ugly incident did not push MacLeod to join the Liberal fold. He was still a member of the Nova Scotia's Progressive Conservatives at the time.

He says the tipping point came last May when Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino came under fire for walking away from Jenifer Migneault, whose husband is a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Opposition critics demanded an apology after Fantino emerged from a meeting and failed to stop after Migneault hollered several times as she followed him down a corridor.

"She was trying to get him to understand the challenges that spouses go through when they're taking care of someone with PTSD," MacLeod says. "That was infuriating. ... It had become increasingly clear that the government was becoming hostile toward veterans."

As for his looming battle with MacKay, MacLeod says he's not intimidated by squaring off with a senior cabinet minister.

"I don't fear Peter," he says. "I've seen the results of his work, and I'm not impressed."

MacLeod then switches to campaign mode, quickly pointing out that the unemployment rate in his area was around 15 per cent and that MacKay faces challenges dealing with festering environmental issues at the local pulp mill.

"There's been no real improvement since I left," says MacLeod, who grew up in New Glasgow. "The whole place has stagnated."

MacKay declined a request for an interview. He issued an emailed statement about MacLeod's candidacy saying: "I commend him for his service to Canada. We welcome everyone to the democratic process."

Still, the political rookie faces a huge challenge in Central Nova, which MacKay won by more than 12,000 votes in the 2011 election.

MacKay has held the riding -- redrawn in 2004 -- since 1997. His father Elmer held the seat from 1971 until 1993, except in 1983-84 when he stepped aside to let Brian Mulroney contest the seat in a byelection.

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/veterans-advocate-aims-to-upset-peter-mackay-in-n-s-riding-1.2040247#ixzz3FJyZJFL2

Lol