Disrespecting Veterans

From The Globe and Mail:

"Veterans review board abusive and demeaning, ex-soldiers say"

They once referred to her as “the little woman” and suggested the post traumatic stress she’d suffered as a peacekeeper in the Bosnia war meant she couldn’t handle the rigours of service. “It was so patronizing, it was unreal,” Rhoni Speed of Ottawa said of her 2008 appearance before a panel of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, the independent agency where ex-soldiers turn to fight for benefits. The word “respect” repeatedly bounced off the walls in the House of Commons on Monday as MPs debated an opposition motion to halt possible cuts at Veterans Affairs Canada. But Ms. Speed said there’s not much respect when the doors of the hearing room are closed. She related her 1990s experience as a reservist intelligence photographer in the war-torn Medak region, where Canadian troops fought a violent battle with Croatian forces and uncovered a massacre of Serbian civilians. There was little appreciation, however, from the two civilians who sat in judgment of her claim. “The whole feeling throughout was I was a little woman and I couldn’t deal with life,” said Ms. Speed, who finally was granted a disability benefit in 2010 after several appeals. “It was easier in Bosnia than it was here.” It wasn’t the seemingly endless bureaucratic process that got her down as much as it was the snide, often disrespectful comments that rained down from a board that was supposed to provide an impartial but sympathetic hearing. It’s a complaint heard over and over from ex-soldiers, many of whom loathe the quasi-judicial agency which they’ve described as a dumping ground for appointed, partisan hacks. Liam Stackwood, a former master corporal, military police officer and amateur body-builder from Comox, B.C., was once told by one adjudicator that “if he wasn’t so fat” he wouldn’t have back problems. That was despite the fact he was injured on a mission in the Golan Heights. Current and ex-members of the appointed board, who asked that their names not be used, said questioning of claimants sometimes can be tough and clearly stressful. But they blamed both Veterans Affairs and National Defence for sloppy paper trails that make decisions tough to call. An advocate for ex-soldiers, Mike Blais, said he’s fielded hundreds of calls and emails from disgruntled veterans in the last year, many of whom either didn’t know they could complain or were afraid to open their mouths on the chance they’d jeopardize their case. A spokeswoman for Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney said the board is expected to show manners. “The Veterans Review and Appeal Board is an arms-length, quasi-judicial organization comprised of qualified individuals,” Codie Taylor said in a written statement. “Minister Blaney expects departmental officials and board members to treat veterans and their families with the respect they deserve.”

^ I believe the soldiers and veterans are being treated badly by this commission. It seems just like the sort of way these types of commissions (whether in Canada, the US or other countries) treat those that put their lives at risk to protect their country. It seems like a universal concept to look-down on soldiers and their families during and after their military service and yet the commissions get to enjoy the freedoms that the soldiers fought for. The Canadian Government needs to do a complete overall of the Veterans Review Board. No soldier should have to be treated with disrespect or as a criminal especially by the Government that they served for. ^

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/veterans-review-board-abusive-and-demeaning-ex-soldiers-say/article2359909/