Veterans dinner raises funds, but also message about anger with federal government

He’s said it before and he’s saying it again.

“I served in two war zones almost two years of my life and I saw people fighting for their lives and for their families and the most traumatic thing that I experienced was my three years as veterans ombudsman, where I came home and saw many of the troops that had done amazingly courageous things on the battlefield on my behalf, being mistreated by the government.”

Those are words from Col. Pat Stogran, Canada’s first commander of Kandahar troops during the Afghanistan war and former veterans ombudsman.

He is one of the speakers at Friday night’s Veterans Helping Veterans Dinner, a fundraiser for Wounded Warriors Canada, which helps provide programs for Canadian soldiers returning home.

Stogran has been a vocal critic of the New Veterans Charter, which he says seriously undermines the treatment and care of our soldiers coming home.

He said the bureaucratic problems he encountered both from Canadian Forces management and the federal government persists to this day.

“We have in Canada laws for workplace health and safety where employers are compelled by law to make the decisions safe, in the case of our military people, there are no such provisos,” he said. “The least we can do is look after them when they came back and at the end of the day, we haven’t looked after our casualties from Afghanistan and we’re sending more people into harm’s way today in Iraq.”

About 125 people are attending the dinner, which will see a presentation by Canpraxis Co-Founder Steve Critchley, which uses Alberta horses to help soldiers overcome PTSD and is also supported by Wounded Warriors Canada.

He said making sure soldiers are treated as soon as possible is critical.

“The reality is if you’re not talking, you’ll die,” he said. “It’s that brutal, so what we need to do, the very first step is to help these individuals find the means where they’re able to have one conversation a day with an individual.”

Wounded Warriors Canada National Program Director Phil Ralph said these events are critical for their programs and one of their major goals is getting homeless veterans out of homelessness.

“When you think of homeless veterans, you think older, but there are people living on the streets of Calgary I’m sure,” Ralph said. “I’ve seen veterans living on the streets of Toronto and Vancouver that are in their mid-20s, they’ve been released, they can’t come to terms with what’s going on.”

Ralph said another strategy is reintegrating soldiers with civilian life, especially with their families.

This event comes just one day after the chief of staff of Veterans Affairs Minister, Julian Fantino, resigned.

Fantino has had a troubled tenure during his time as minister, angering veterans groups on multiple occasions when it comes to resources, services and legion closures.

Last winter in Ottawa, he walked out on a room of ex-soldiers after they questioned him about what kinds of services they would receive, as well as on an angry military wife last spring.

Just three days after Remembrance Day, Stogran explained how he feels when he sees Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Fantino and other officials talk about veterans.

“I dismiss them out of hand, the two ministers I worked for were two of the stupidest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of interacting with professionally,” Stogran said. “Force protection was one of my daily concerns and what I see right now is we’re not protecting the force.”

“We don’t have leaders today in the bureaucracy in the Canadian Forces or indeed in Parliament who are really protecting the forces that they send overseas, I won’t turn this into a political issue, to me, the troops are being let down at the management level.”

660News has yet to here back from Julian Fantino’s office for a comment.

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