Ste-Anne’s vets hospital: We have promises to keep

Today’s the day.

Today, prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau meets with Governor General David Johnson to be sworn in as Canada’s 23rd prime minister. Today, Canadian politics embark on a whole new adventure.

The prime minister’s burdens will be many, but there is one challenge I hope he tackles now — mitigating the unfortunate circumstances faced by so many of this country’s veterans.

A welcoming word of hope on their behalf, especially as we move into the melancholy celebrations of Remembrance Day, could work wonders. Indeed, it’s fair to assume that within the cornucopia of promises and obligations Trudeau has amassed, the needs of veterans stand out.

Consider his commitment of $300 million a year to expand military support programs that redress what he calls the Conservative government’s neglect of Canada’s veterans.

“For 10 years,” Trudeau declared during the campaign, “Stephen Harper has been nickel-and-diming our veterans, lacking the respect and the support that Canadians have earned through service to country, and that’s something we have to fix as a priority.”

And perhaps, sooner rather than later, he will pause to take a long look at the uncertainty surrounding our Ste-Anne’s Hospital for veterans in Ste-Anne-deBellevue.

As things stand now, the hospital is about to be transferred “from its long-standing … high standards of special care and concern for its charges under federal aegis to the disquieting and disturbing protocols of the (Quebec) provincial Health Department’s one-size-fits-all policy provisions.”

These words were written by Wolf William Solkin for a recent Montreal Gazette op-ed essay. Solkin, who calls himself a “permanent” patient at Ste-Anne’s Hospital, was expressing deep foreboding about his future, and that of his fellow veterans, virtually pleading that “the commendable conditions and standards of service so long identified with Ste-Anne’s be not diminished, degraded or destroyed as a consequence of the transfer soon to transpire.”

Solkin’s piece proffers a brilliant polemic, unapologetic, stark and thorough in its dissection of the veterans’ plight: required reading for anyone feeling equally uneasy.

When MP Jim Karygiannis, former Liberal Veterans’ Affairs critic, toured Ste-Anne’s Hospital two years ago, his trepidation mirrored Solkin’s misgivings.

“I wanted to understand the work that they’re doing (at Ste-Anne’s). I think the staff is dedicated. My only concern is that this will not be lost when it’s transferred to the province.”

Happily, today there’s a new sheriff in town, a prime minister who embraces a freshly enlightened approach to the needs and expectations of veterans.

And, fortunately, his local team includes the well-regarded veteran Liberal member for Lac-SaintLouis, Francis Scarpaleggia, and the new but experienced Liberal deputy for Vaudreuil-Soulonges, Peter Schiefke. Among other achievements, Schiefke was founder of the award-winning We Will Always Remember project which “pays tribute to veterans.”

Then there is the Liberal government in Quebec, perhaps more open and less confrontational than we have experienced in the recent past.

Surely, with these forces smoothly aligned, it’s time to tackle the Ste-Anne’s dilemma head on. May John McCrae’s immortal lines from In Flanders Fields provide the inspiration:

“To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high.” The buck does indeed stop here.

General Douglas MacArthur claimed, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”

Let’s ensure no such fading away occurs in this neighbourhood. Not with our soldiers, old or young: not on our watch.