Start treating all veterans as equals

Recent media reports have highlighted the plight of 90-plus-year-old Second World War veterans being turned away from the Camp Hill Veterans Memorial Hospital, underscoring the failing of Veterans Affairs Canada to assist these veterans in obtaining access to muchneeded care.

A much larger issue also exists: that of access to longterm care for the modern-day veteran (1953-present) and the arbitrary cutoff legislated in the Pension Act, which denies these veterans access to the same range of services that are afforded their Second World War and Korean War counterparts. This is discriminatory.

Successive governments have “institutionalized discrimination” based upon “era of service.”

The modern-day veteran is being treated as secondclass.

The government, through its inaction in bringing forth legislation and policies which would address this “denial of access,” is complicit in perpetuating a system that does not treat all veterans equally and equitably.

It boils down to the government acknowledging that “a veteran is a veteran.”

That their blood, sweat, toil, efforts and sacrifices are deemed to not be of equal value is not only wrong, it is also morally repugnant. Gordon Jenkins, CD (retired), president, NATO Veterans Organization of Canada