Two ways to deal with your blunders
On Tuesday, a top official at Veterans Affairs Canada apologized for the shoddy treatment of Canadians at a Vimy ceremony in France this April. The centennial event that drew 25,000 Canadians saw seniors waiting hours in tightly packed crowds without food, transportation or access to washrooms. Some suffered heat stroke.
This all came to light after Postmedia reported on hundreds of pages of complaint letters sent to the department.
Rather than deflect, distract and deny, director general Mike Jorgensen offered a full apology.
“I’m deeply, deeply sorry,” Jorgensen, a retired brigadier general, said Tuesday. “I accept full responsibility for that.”
It doesn’t make the shoddy event planning right. But the sincere apology is better than the schoolboy antics displayed by Liberal cabinet minister Kent Hehr.
The minister for persons with disabilities is under fire once again for his disrespectful behaviour, this time as alleged by a Nova Scotia activist.
Kim Davis says that while Hehr was minister for veterans affairs she and her husband Blair, a veteran of the Bosnian peacekeeping mission, met with him to discuss possible revisions to vets’ financial benefits.
Blair suffers from chronic PTSD, so much so that Kim has had to quit her job to look after her husband. This has made saving for their children’s education difficult.
They told Hehr of their hopes to have benefits currently available to families of deceased military personnel expanded to include those in their situation.
Hehr allegedly said “there’s lots of kids out there that don’t get paid education, why should yours?” It’s also claimed the minister told Davis: “You married him. It’s your responsibility.”
The minister denied he made these comments. Yet earlier this month he was under fire for disrespectful remarks made to a thalidomide survivors group and also apologized for comments made to a Calgary mother. There seems to be a pattern.
Politicians like Hehr — to say nothing of embattled finance minister Bill Morneau — could learn a thing or two from Jorgensen: Take responsibility for your blunders and apologize.
As it stands, Hehr’s past conduct has undermined his suitability to interact with community groups.
And Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in ignoring the inappropriate actions of his ministers, is now condoning their bad behaviour.