Veterans champion
Cape Breton woman who took on Ottawa dead at age 90
Though small in stature, Joyce Carter will forever be remembered for successfully waging a nationwide battle for fairness for widows of veterans that took her from the small community of Sampsonville to the steps of the House of Commons.
Carter died on Sunday at the age of 90, some 15 years after she first began writing letters, sending emails and making phone calls that would eventually lead to benefits from the Veterans Independence Program (VIP) being reinstated for all widows.
Carter’s husband of 55 years was Murdock, who served in France, Holland and Germany during the Second World War.
For one year after he died in November 2000, she received VIP benefits that include things considered essential for widows to maintain their homes and their standard of living.
However, she would be denied further benefits because of changes to the program.
Midway through 2003, she was well into her charge to have those benefits restored for all widows for the rest of their lives when she spoke with the Post.
“A lot of other widows have had to give up their homes which is one of the hardest things to do to leave the home where you were married and raised your kids,” she said at that time. “I can’t imagine having to do that. I hope I never have to.”
When Cape Breton-Canso MP Rodger Cuzner came to know Carter shortly after he was elected in 2000, he already knew her as an advocate for veterans, mostly because of her letters to local newspapers.
“She was a sweet lady — small in stature but every ounce of her body was committed to a purpose and that was to help veterans.”
She was also a very proud war bride, he said, and a friendship was struck up with his office, particularly with Rose Mary MacIntyre, who was the daughter of a war bride.
“I was always taken by her level of commitment. She would write at least 30 letters every month — hand-written letters — to members of parliament, the prime minister, minister of veterans affairs, committee members — with regard to the VIP program as well as letters to various media outlets.”
In 2002, the ruling Liberal government reinvested in the VIP program. Carter was covered by those changes but still continued to advocate for those who were not, which Cuzner felt was quite noble.
“I know initially the changes
that we made and the investments we made in 2002 you could sort of see her fingerprints
on those changes. It’s hard to measure the impact she had because again she just kept veterans issues on the front burner.”
Her requests for full reinstatement of the program continued when Stephen Harper’s Conservatives came into power.
Carter famously accused Harper of breaking a promise to look after veterans’ widows as he was walking into the House of Commons in 2007.
The exchange was caught on camera and was one of the things that led to a meeting with the prime minister.
“There’s no excuse for him not to keep his promise,” said Carter, 80 at the time, told the Canadian Press. “I just want him to keep his promise.”
Cuzner said Greg Thompson, the minister of veterans affairs at that time, first agreed to meet with Carter and then arranged the meeting with the prime minister.
Initially, she didn’t want to meet with Harper because Cuzner was not invited, but with some convincing, she did take that meeting.
“From all indications she let him know what she felt, where she felt his government was failing veterans. She was very much to the point.”
By February 2008 the cause she championed proved successful when $282 million was set aside in the federal budget for the expansion of the VIP program.
Still, Carter’s fight for veterans would go on.
A 2011 letter to the editor in the Post, is one example. It displayed her support for injured soldiers returning home after serving in Afghanistan.
Cuzner, who would drop by her Sampsonville home for tea from time to time, said she continued to keep that advocacy pace up to the last couple of years, until she started to have problems with her sight.
“She was never disrespectful and never got into personalities. She stuck to the issue and was consistent and respectful.”