Royal Canadian Legion Must Support Veterans

Mr. Paul Allard, Royal Canadian Legion

Our Duty and Veterans of Canada are planning a rally at the office's of Member's of Parliament and other Federal Buildings on 6 November 2010. The Rally is designed gain support from Canadians and to highlight the blatant disregard that our Government has for Veterans, RCMP, and Soldiers.

It has come to my attention that some of the Royal Canadian Legion's in Ontario have refused to support the Duty Rally that we are planning for 6 Nov 2010.

The Harper Government has taken the Department of Veterans Affairs to new lows. On 01 April 2006, military doctors were ordered not to have any dealings with DVA. The only thing DVA wanted was the medical file, nothing else. When a soldier put in a claim, it was normally denied due to "lack of information" and the soldier was requested to get a letter from their doctor. The military doctor would turn the soldier down due to the government order to not deal with DVA. So the soldier was told to get a civilian doctor to review the file and report. It would take up to 6 months to get a copy of the file under access to information and then the doctor's report would be turned down due to "not being a specialist". The soldier would then have to get a referral from the military doctor (the civilian doctor was not paid or authorized refer a soldier to a specialist). Of course, the referral was turned down by the military doctor due to it having to do with DVA. The soldier/veteran was now left without any further action on their claim and they just walked away, if they could walk at all.

Some military doctors went against the order (normally civilian doctors on staff with DND) so some soldiers got results.

The rally is planned for across Canada and must include the members of the Royal Canadian Legion. If the Legion is not in support of our cause then we will carry on without the support. Support Our Troops is a catchphrase that our government likes to state, yet they DO NOT Support Our Troops. Now they plan to shrink the DVA in size, meaning less people to deal with an ever increasing workload and more delays for injured soldiers and veterans.

In order to protect our soldiers, veterans, and RCMP from the policies that have been put in place to put them at a disadvantage when applying for compensation for injuries, we need EVERYONE onside. Failure to assist us with our rally is comparable to siding with our government and may drive a wedge between veterans and the Legion as an organization that was set up to assist veterans in the first place.

It's time we stand up for our comrades. We volunteered to fight for our country and now we must show Canadians that we need them to fight for us.