11 / 11 / 11 Part 2

In the mid 1980s the Progressive Conservatives finally came back into power after an long electoral drought.

One area of complaint by the Electorate against the former Liberal Government was the poor way in which our Veterans were being treated by their Government and in particular by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Things were so bad, a Commission of Inquiry had been established to hear Veterans' complaints and to then Recommend Needed Changes.

It is with this background that Major George Hees, M.P., P. C. was appointed at age 74 to the position of Minister of Veterans Affairs.

His first official act was to shut down the Commission. He knew what was wrong with the Department and with the former Government's treatment of Veterans and he "did not need to await a year for a Commission to report on what needed to be done." Hees went on to say, "I'll do it now".

And he did !

George Hees was supported by a small Staff Team which consisted, among others, of four persons - Shirley who had remained with Mr. Hees from his MP days and joined by Elizabeth, Del and Yours Truly.

Mr. Hees, a wounded veteran himself, taught the four of us what it meant to be a veteran in the service of Canada. "You risked having your head blown off, or an arm or a leg lost" all for the princely sum of $1.50 per day.

"Our Veterans deserve the Very Best" and he coined the Phrase - 'Courtesy, Generosity, and Speed'.

Heaven help the Bureaucrat who failed to show Courtesy to a veteran client after Mr. Hees was appointed. They deserved respect and they got it.

As for Generosity, I was with him when he told the Decision Makers in the Department that he did not want them to agonize over whether or not to grant a claim. "Give them them the Benefit of the Doubt and Give them the Money" he demanded. And they did.

And as for Speed, decisions were bogged down and were taking years to be processed. "Our guys will be dead by the time DVA renders its decision" said Hees. "Speed up the process" - and they reduced it to months. On each of his frequent visits to Veterans Affairs HQ in Prince Edward Island, he insisted on reviewing the progress the Department was continually making in improving their processing times. Bureaucrats confided in me that they truly believed Minister Hees would eventually lose interest - 'like all those before him' - but he never did and they respected him for that. As did we his personal Staff.

When his term ended four years later he would be called the Best Minister of Veterans Affairs - ever - by both Veterans and Departmental Officials alike.

(I mentioned George Hees' wound - it amounted to a shattered elbow - but should have been fatal as I will try to relate to you in a future Blog.)

So the four of us came away with great respect for what our Veterans had undergone in the up to six years fighting the powerful Axis Forces in the Second World War. Many did not return - some 55,000 Canadians were killed in that war alone. WWI saw another 66,000 remain beneath simple white crosses. So in total, for a small country like Canada, over 110,000 of our young manhood made the Supreme Sacrifice.

Reports of late once again complain about the poor treatment our Service Men and Women are receiving at the Behest of Veterans Affairs. And included in those complaints is the allegation that the Royal Canadian Legion is MIA (I will deal specifically with this latter issue later).

That said, I am admittedly not up to speed on what has gone wrong here but a recent event has convinced me that the Department has slipped sadly backwards from the days of our Boss.

My 93 year old Uncle - a veteran of WW II had a couple of serious falls of late and found himself admitted to hospital. His wife - my Aunt, remains living in their apartment at a Retirement Home. They have been married for over 70 years.

My Aunt called me recently to tell me that 'Mel' would be moving from the hospital to a nursing home and she was naturally distraught. After 70 years, to be split up is too traumatic to contemplate.

To help her somewhat, I offered to contact Veterans Affairs to see if they had any programs to assist them.

First off, I tried to telephone the District Office which serviced their home area. No number existed.

I then (given my background) called the current Minister's Office for that number and they too did not have it. (We'd have been flogged back in the 80s for lack of such info.) They suggested I call the Regional Office in Kirkland Lake.

Which I did - manoeuvring through all the prompts. I finally spoke with a person and was told that you cannot contact a District Office directly. They'd do it for me and "in due course someone from the District Office would be in touch".

At this point, I was thinking about my distraught Aunt and was most anxious to get back to her with some news.

Eventually, the District Office did call me and took the particulars of my Uncle's situation. They thought they could help but paperwork would be naturally required.

Great says I - send a councillor out asap to see my Uncle and Aunt and the councillor can get all the needed paper work done. The women on the end of the phone nearly giggled - they have not had field councillors for years. The Veteran must get his or her own paperwork in order and the send it in. We are talking here of late 80 and 90 year olds from WWII.

When George Hees was there and for years after, a contingent of councillors was available to attend at the Veteran's own home and provide advice and assistance to these mostly old fellows who, as mentioned above, laid their lives on the line for a buck and a half a day.

No more apparently. They are now on their own. Incredible. George Hees, was he alive today, would have been speechless.

I decided to do this councillor work myself.

So I said to the nice District Office Lady, could I please have a telephone number so I can reach her should any questions arise when filling out the paperwork. Nope - not possible - you need to work through the Regional Office up north in Kirkland Lake.

An e-mail address then. "No can do".

So how am I to get the necessary data to you, I enquired? She gave me their general District Office fax number.

So things have really changed.

Courtesy, Generosity and Speed seem to be something from the past - the George Hees past.

Our Veterans deserve better; they desperately need another George Hees to champion their cause.

As I see it..

'K.D. Galagher'