The Royal Canadian Legion is accusing the Conservative government of discrimination for offering support services only to Afghanistan veterans instead of all military personnel.
At issue is the Legacy of Care Program announced in September 2010 by former Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn and Defence Minister Peter MacKay, which promised five major support services to Canadian Forces veterans.
But an amended statement released this month says support programs, such the attendant care benefit, the caregiver benefit and the spousal education upgrade benefit would be restricted to only those who served in Afghanistan.
“Here at the Royal Canadian Legion we believe that all veterans are equal in their service and sacrifice to their country and should be treated equitably,” Legion spokesman Pierre Allard told the Toronto Star Friday.
The program promised five initiatives: barrier-free transitional accommodations, support services while in transitional accommodations, the Canadian Forces attendant care benefit, the spousal education upgrade program and enhanced case management support for seriously ill and injured personnel.
“There was no mention that any element of this was going to be Afghanistan only,” Allard said.
Patricia Varga, the Legion’s Dominion president said in a statement she was “appalled that such blatant discrimination is taking place.”
“It categorizes seriously ill and injured members by theatre of operations … that is blatantly unfair,” she said. “There are other members proudly serving their country in other far away locations. If they are unfortunate enough to be seriously ill and injured, are we to assume that the sacrifice that they made in their service to Canada is not as worthy as those that served in Afghanistan?”
The Legion is urging the government to reverse this “retrograde step” in the ongoing care of seriously ill and injured members.
Neither the MacKay’s office nor National Defence could be reached for immediate comment ....