Archive for November, 2008

Members of the Canadian military who were exposed to nuclear radiation during allied countries’ atomic tests or in cleaning up accidents at one of Canada’s nuclear reactors will be recognized and compensated for their service. National Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson announced Sept. 2 that eligible veterans will be compensated with an ex gratia payment of $24,000. “Through this program, a remarkable group of individuals will finally get the acknowledgment and respect they so rightfully deserve,” said Thompson while making the announ­ce­ment in Calgary, just days before the general election was called. The payment is similar to the [...]

Born in 1925 at Winnipeg, Tom Bjarnason was the last of eight children. His love affair with airplanes began the moment he got close enough to touch one. He remembers being six or seven years old—walking for hours to get to Stevenson Field, now the location of Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. “I could see these airplanes…sitting right there, and I was touching the fabric. It was a thrill I never, ever got over.” For years Bjarnason had dreamed of becoming a pilot, but a vision problem in his right eye ensured his dream would never come to pass. He [...]

On a wooded hillside outside Vladivostok, Russia, 14 Canadians found their final resting place in 1919. Five others died at sea. They were ordinary folk who had enlisted in the closing days of the First World War for service in an unlikely theatre—Siberia. The Canadian Siberian Expedition Force (CSEF), which consisted of 4,213 men and one woman from across Canada, mobilized alongside 13 Allied armies to replace Lenin’s Bolsheviks with a more friendly government. The mission failed in the face of divided Allied strategies and heated domestic opposition, consigning the story to the margins of history. Editor’s note: University of Victoria historian [...]

The shooting this summer of a South Korean tourist cast an uncomfortable shadow over the Veterans Affairs Canada delegation that had come to Seoul to mark the 55th anniversary of the Korea Armistice Agreement signed on July 27, 1953. Park Wang Ja, a 53-year-old housewife from Seoul, was walking on a beach at a tourist area in North Korea when, according to North Korean officials, she strayed into a restricted military area and was shot twice. This was after failing to acknowledge shouts and a warning shot. The killing, coupled with North Korea’s refusal to allow South Korean authorities to examine the [...]

Members of the Canadian Forces killed or wounded since Oct. 7, 2001, may be eligible to receive a newly minted honour—the Sacrifice Medal. The Sacrifice Medal was announced Aug. 29 by Governor General Michaëlle Jean. It was created to recognize members of the CF, a member of an allied force, or a Canadian civilian under the authority of the Canadian Forces who died or was wounded under honourable circumstances as a direct result of hostile action. While it is a new honour for the CF, the Sacrifice Medal replaces the Wound Stripe, which was a distinction worn on the sleeve of soldiers [...]

Second World War veteran Phil Bradbury, 85, of Toronto was surprised to learn that in civilian life he’d been missing in action for a couple of decades. Veterans Affairs Canada has been looking for veterans like Bradbury who qualify for, but aren’t receiving benefits under the Veterans Independence Program. The VIP helps aging veterans live independently as long as possible by providing home care support like housecleaning and shovelling walkways, making meals and help with bathing, as well as home adaptation and health support services. Bradbury was on the crew of a bomber that flew 34 missions near the end of [...]

“It’s an insult,” says Gerry Pumphrey of the RCMP Veterans Association in Nova Scotia, who’s worked on the issue for more than five years. “I’m disgusted. It’s always ‘next spring, next fall.’ And the thing is, there are people dying who need this help.” There are approximately 6,000 RCMP members and RCMP veterans receiving disability pensions, but not all of those would want or qualify for VIP, says Murray Brown, chairman of the RCMP serving members’ occupational health and safety committee. Roughly 225 RCMP veterans die each year, and “if only 10 per cent were eligible,” says Pumphrey, “you have about 25 [...]

The Veterans Independence Program (VIP) has changed a lot since its introduction in 1981—and The Royal Canadian Legion has been there every step of the way. The program was implemented to help Veterans Affairs Canada handle a looming crisis in availability of long-term care beds due to aging of war service veterans. At the time, options were limited for seniors unable to live independently, and there was great reliance on long-term care facilities. “There was a concern in the late 1970s that in the absence of an alternative, the Second World War veteran was literally going to swamp the system of [...]

What follows are brief snapshots from a week in the life of one small Canadian outpost in Afghanistan—Haji Beach—in April 2008. It is a story of roads closed and being built, of enemy ambushes and the confusion and daily frustrations for soldiers at the sharp end of a war that’s very hard to see clearly, even when you’re right in the middle of it. The Enemy is Real In a random grape field in Panjwai, Afghanistan, early last spring, two Canadian patrols linked up and hunkered down as the war revealed itself on every side. About a kilometre northwest, an enemy force attacked [...]

The timing couldn’t have been better for the 2008 Royal Canadian Legion National Youth Athletic Championships. On the same weekend that Canada’s top junior athletes were gathering for the Legion competition in Sherbrooke, Que., Canada’s top senior athletes were joining the world’s best to gather in Beijing, China, for the 2008 Olympic Games. And just as many of the athletes at the Aug. 7-12 Legion event were looking forward to London in 2012, many of the athletes in Beijing could no doubt look back at their own youthful trips to the Legion national track and field event. With all this in mind, the [...]