Closing veterans office ‘insulting’
Windsor rally decries fed decision
More than 100 people gathered outside City Hall on Friday, calling the federal government’s plan to close a Veteran’s Affairs office in Windsor sad, unfair and intolerable.
“It’s just a terrible idea,” said Windsor West MP Brian Masse, who led the hastily organized rally. “It’s insulting at best. The reality here is we have a lot of vets who have given their service during the Second World War, and the Korean War, who are aging. And they need face-to-face contact. And now we have Afghanistan veterans returning home.”
Masse told the crowd that the decision to close nine Veterans Affairs offices across the country, including in Windsor, cannot be tolerated.
Though the office closings are billed as necessary for cost savings, Masse noted that the Prime Minister’s Office budget went up more than $500,000 in the last year alone.
On Monday, Windsor city council unanimously passed a motion by Ward 2 Coun. Ron Jones to have the city urge the federal government in writing to keep the local district office open.
Windsor’s downtown Veterans Affairs office lost its Canadian Forces recruitment function in February. Now it is slated to close in February 2014. The area’s approximately 2,600 veterans, Masse said, will have to travel to London for face-toface assistance.
“It’s the saddest news I’ve heard in a long time,” said Larry Costello, 88, who served in the Canadian navy for 25 years, including in the Second World War. “It’s the wrong thing to do.”
Costello comes from a military family of seven kids who all had a connection to war service. One brother died from an injury he suffered at Dieppe.
“The Canadian government is taking money that should be put toward the veterans,” Costello said.
“We put most of our lives into the defence of our country.”
Theresa Charbonneau, mother of Col. Andrew Grenon, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2008 on his second tour of duty, said we should not forget veterans’ sacrifices.
“Is it not enough that many of our veterans, including my son, gave their lives so that Canada can be the best country in the world?” she asked the receptive crowd, noting that many vets have come back physically and mentally injured. “What do we have to do to get the government to realize that the veterans are the reason we are here?
“We owe our lives and our freedoms to these people. They need us. They need this service. Do not take it away.”
Jeff Gravel, a Canadian Forces sergeant who served in Bosnia and Afghanistan, said the government must do more to help its former soldiers.
“Half the audience has already fought once for this country,” Gravel said. “They shouldn’t have to be out here fighting for the benefits and rights that were obligated to them by a previous government following the Second World War.”