The Dominion - Canadian Military

No Man Left Behind

Kyle Hodnett — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 05:30:06 +0000

Canadian veterans failed by 2006 Veterans Charter

MONTREAL—Military training prepares you for many things.

Here are a few it doesn’t: Being utterly isolated in crowded rooms because of the nature of your experiences. Facing a lifetime of stunted potential and awkward glances because of a maimed body. The teeth-grinding rage that drives away all those closest to you. Going to funeral after funeral of once bright and strong but now unrecognizable young men and women who have died with needles in their arms in filthy alleys.

The military teaches its soldiers to never leave a man behind on the battlefield. And yet, through a lack of reintegration support and a privatized compensation program, a new generation of young Canadian veterans are being systematically left behind by their government and, by extension, their society.

The new Veterans Charter was released in 2006, promising veterans a new era of reintegration and support. One of the motives for the change was that under the old system, governed by the Veteran’s Act of 1939, even a small pension of $1,000 a month for an expected lifetime of a 27-year-old could cost the treasury $4.5 million.

“We were spending a lot of money [prior to 2006],” explained Raymond Lalonde, head of Veterans Affairs Canada’s (VAC) national centre for operational stress injuries.

The 2006 Veterans Charter uses a lump sum model. Lalonde explained that the workers compensation programs of Australia, Germany and the Nordic countries were studied in the creation of the new charter.

Robert Oliphant, Liberal critic for veterans affairs, stated in an interview that these lump sums are an inadequate way to deal with the payment system because the Government of Canada should have a lifetime relationship with veterans. Under the new system, the burden of support is passed off to Service Income Support Insurance Plan, what some allege is simply a thin veil for Manulife Financial, the multinational insurance giant. The most a veteran can expect today is a one-time lump sum of $276,079.70.

"My instincts tell me the last thing you want to do when a young soldier comes back from overseas, perhaps with an operational stress injury, or with a dependency on alcohol or drugs, is give him $250,000 to self-medicate," said Veterans Ombudsman Col (Retired) Pat Stogran, a veteran of Afghanistan and missions in the former Yugoslavia, in an interview with the Ottawa Sun.

Many of the soldiers and their families are not receiving the social and psychological support they need. Private Frederick Couture lost his foot to a land mine. He attempted suicide several times. Despite this obvious indicator, the Canadian Forces (of which he was still a member) left him at home in the care of his mother, in whose arms he died after shooting himself.

Dawson Bayliss, wounded in an improvised explosive device strike in 2006, spent years fighting for treatment while displaying classic symptoms of a closed head wound. He was handed a lump sum of $30,000 and disappeared into haze of alcohol and drugs. He died in his sleep at 24 beside his pregnant wife. She receives no support.

Warrant Officer Fielsamier, a veteran of Yugoslavia, Haiti and repeated Afghan tours, killed himself after asking for help at the base clinic for symptoms of Post Tramatic Stress Disorder and being sent home with pills.

This is not an exhaustive list. The Forces recorded 16 suicides by serving members of the military this year, its highest level since tracking began in 1994. (And, according to Janice Summersby, chief public relations officer of VAC, suicides of released veterans have still not been tracked accurately.)

Veterans groups have called for sweeping changes to the Veterans Charter. Denis Manogue, a veteran who returned his medals to the Governor General because of dissatisfaction with his treatment under the new system, put it most eloquently:

“The government needs to do the right thing now. The issue some say is complex is not really a complex issue at all. It is about fundamental fairness and doing the right thing on behalf of those of us souls who were willing to sign a blank cheque made out to the people of Canada for an amount up to and including our lives."

Canadian men and women are fighting a war they didn’t start and the history of the Afghan state indicates they cannot win. They return to a society that is largely indifferent to their experiences, and to their future. This is no small problem: to date, more than 130,000 Canadians have rotated through Afghanistan, and Canada is now paying the price of their neglect through social violence and lost potential.

William Ray is a writer living in Montreal and 10-year veteran of the Armed Forces.

Past Due

Canadian Drones Patrol Afghan Airspace

dawn — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:19:45 +0000

Unmanned warplanes stretch the definition of "nation building"

MONTREAL–War is rising to new heights over Afghanistan. Flying thousands of feet over the frontlines of Kandahar are several new unmanned military planes recently activated by the Canadian Army.

Beyond reach of the human eye, the advanced spy aircraft, the Heron, will monitor territory throughout southern Afghanistan from dizzying altitudes, delivering information for military strikes.

In early December two Afghans were killed in a targeted attack by Canadian forces on the basis of information gathered by the spy drones. According to military officials the Afghans killed were members of the Taliban. However, this has not been independently verified.

Far beyond the visual capacities of local Afghan authorities, the Heron will provide hyper details on human movements and activities allowing "ground forces to see...in real time [the] images acquired by the aircraft's sensors on a laptop on the ground," according to the Canadian Army.

Highly advanced spy aircrafts hovering over Afghanistan, collecting information on local movements, serve as a poignant reminder of Canada's role as a foreign military force in the country, operating beyond the domain of 'nation building' or reconstruction efforts.

Canada’s multi-million dollar unmanned spy airplanes are a direct result of recommendations stemming from the Conservative-government-initiated commission on Canada’s role in Afghanistan, headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley. The commission's report paved the way for the controversial extension of combat operations until 2011.

"There simply are not enough troops to ensure that the job can be properly done in Kandahar province...We hope that this [report] is not a poison pill," said Manley at a media conference after the release of the report. The report specifically outlined Canada’s acquisition of “high-performance unmanned aerial vehicles for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance” before February 2009 as a condition to extend the mission.

According to multiple opinion polls, the majority of people in Canada oppose the war in Afghanistan. It was the technicalities of war, however, and not the essential nature or context of the Canadian military presence in the country that were the subject of critique in the government-sponsored report.

“Operations on the ground in Afghanistan are easier for the Canadian government to present in their narrative of humanitarian war,” said Sophie Schoen, a Montreal-based anti-war activist with Block the Empire.

However, according to Schoen, “Canada’s military role in the sky makes it clear that the mission is not humanitarian. [The recent] expansions of military capabilities in the air is indicative of the real nature of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan and our role as an occupying force.”

Operating from the skies allows Canada a huge technological advantage over local guerrillas in southern Afghanistan. The advantage of aerial combat is especially important in light of recent events that suggest the US-backed government in Kabul is losing political control over major regions in the country, including Kandahar, where Canadian forces are stationed.

Last June, militias staged a spectacular jailbreak at the main prison in Kandahar, freeing up to 1,000 prisoners by blowing through the prison walls with explosives. This action set a new benchmark for the growing capacities of rebels in southern Afghanistan.

Hundreds have been killed in southern Afghanistan this past year, while US and Canadian military officials – as in Iraq – continue to ignore demands from human rights organizations that they keep records on civilian deaths.

“The number of civilians killed by the international forces in Afghanistan remains significantly underreported,” stated Amnesty International in a 2008 report.

“Taliban is a label applied to any male over 18 that the Canadian Army kills in Afghanistan, a term that is so broadly applied it is absurd,” said Schoen. "Generally this term, Taliban, is used without any verification and is used to cover up killings carried out by Canadian forces."

The spy drones that fly over Kandahar providing details for Canadian military strikes are adding another military layer to the thousands of foreign troops already occupying the country.

After decades of conflict in Afghanistan and thousands of civilian deaths since the 2001 US-led invasion, one key point has been clearly repeated by progressive voices inside Afghanistan: military-driven solutions delivered by foreign forces will not provide safety or stability for the country.

“We need liberation, not occupation,” said Malalai Joya, celebrated member of the Afghan Parliament, in a recent interview. “Afghans have a long history of fighting foreign occupation and if the[...]occupation lasts longer we may witness many mass resistance movements against it.”

A version of this article was originally published by the community newspaper, Sada al-Mashrek, based in Montreal.

Stefan Christoff is a community organizer and journalist based in Montreal and a member of Tadamon!, a collective of social justice activists in Montreal working for justice in the Middle East.

HighwayOfHeroes

Veterans Say Agent Orange Settlement Falls Short

Stuart Neatby — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:56:18 +0000

Government compensation a diversion, say former Gagetown veterans

Notorious for its devastating use by the U.S. military in the Vietnam War, the toxic defoliant Agent Orange was tested and sprayed extensively in Canada by both the Canadian military and its U.S. counterpart in the 1950s, '60s and '70s

Recently, some Canadian veterans received a long-awaited compensation package, but veterans' advocates say the reparations do not go nearly far enough.

In 1966, Ken Dobbie and thousands of other young men spent summers hacking foliage soaked in Agent Orange while clearing forests at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in the province of New Brunswick.

'We never had any protection; we would handle this stuff [brush covered in Agent Orange] with our bare hands,' Dobbie told The Dominion.

'We were never told these chemicals were dangerous, and now I am living in constant pain,' said Dobbie, 58, who is sick with brain atrophy, neurological disorders, thyroid growths, toxic hepatitis, and type 2 diabetes he blames on the time he spent working and living at Gagetown.

In 1966-67, the U.S. military, invited by the Canadian government, tested Agent Orange and Agent Purple on 83 acres at Base Gagetown.

The term 'Agent Orange' originated from the 45-gallon orange-striped barrels Monsanto and Dow Chemical used to market and ship the roughly 1:1 chemical mix of dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T). Dioxin, a known carcinogen linked to cancer and other ailments, is a component of Agent Orange and Agent Purple.

Last week, Canada's Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson announced a 94.5-million-dollar compensation package, offering lump sum payments of 19,700 dollars to some veterans and civilians who were at the base in 1966-67. 'We are proud to announce a plan that is fair and shows compassion to the thousands of Canadians whose lives have been so affected,' said Thompson in a statement.

'We may never fully know what happened when Agent Orange was tested at the Canadian Forces Base in Gagetown in 1966 and 1967, but our government has always stood firm,' said Thompson, a member of Canada's ruling Conservative Party. The federal government reportedly expects about 4,500 people will qualify for the package.

Veterans, however, say the Canadian government is using the compensation, which is only available to victims of U.S. spraying in 1966-67, to divert attention from a larger issue.

Between 1956-1984, the Canadian military sprayed 1,328,767 litres of chemical defoliants on 181,038 acres (an acre is slightly smaller than a football field) of Base Gagetown, including Agent Orange, Agent White and Agent Purple, according to a 1985 declassified briefing to the New Brunswick provincial government obtained by The Dominion through Canada's Access to Information Act.

'Restricting [compensation] payments to a few weeks in 1966-67 is dishonest,' said Tony Merchant, a lawyer representing some 3,000 veterans and civilians in a class action lawsuit against the companies who manufactured Agent Orange, including Dow Chemical and Monsanto, and the Canadian government.

'If the companies created dangerous products that hurt people than those companies are responsible,' Art Connolly, a military veteran and vice president of the Agent Orange Association of Canada, told The Dominion.

Connolly says the recent compensation package is 'part of a government campaign to bewilder, bedazzle and confuse.'

Veterans groups are pushing for a full public inquiry into the spraying of defoliants and compensation for all affected people, not just those who were sprayed in 1966-67.

In 1985, Dow Chemical and other firms paid 180 million dollars to U.S. veterans of the Vietnam War, settling a class action lawsuit. However, both Monsanto and Dow still deny Agent Orange is dangerous.

'When we allowed Americans to spray Agent Orange on a Canadian Base in 1966, the U.S. Congress had passed a law barring the spraying of Agent Orange on military bases in the U.S.' Merchant told The Dominion. 'The problems with these defoliants were known and appropriate care wasn't taken.'

In April 2007, the British government awarded a special pension to Keith Pilmoor, a British solider, who said exposure to Agent Orange at Canada's Base Gagetown in 1966 left him sick for decades.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) in the United States compensates U.S. service members who may have been exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War for health conditions including chloracne, Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, respiratory cancers (lung, bronchus, larynx and trachea), soft-tissue sarcoma, type 2 diabetes and prostate cancer.

Peter Stoffer, Veterans Affairs critic for Canada's New Democratic Party (social democrats), called the compensation package 'political perjury'.

'It is unconscionable that you can treat veterans and civilians in this manner,' Stoffer told The Dominion. 'Spraying took place in the 50s, 60s and 70s, not just in 1966-67.'

Canadian Agent Orange survivors have been in close contact with their Vietnamese counterparts.

In a 2006 interview in Vietnam, Le Duc, manager of the Ho Chi Minh City Agent Orange Association, told The Dominion, 'I call on the Canadian people to work with the Vietnamese people to take on the American chemical companies.'

An earlier version of this article appeared at Inter-Press Service

Declassified Documents