Canada's veterans know better

T

tay

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Last week's Day Of Honour, we were told, was about Canada's veterans.The vets know better. The day was about Stephen Harper.




If you want the quintessential Stephen Harper, look no further than last week’s National Day of Honour. Everyone knew it was the Governor General’s job to accept the last Canadian flag that flew in Afghanistan, but hey, why give up the money shot to a mere functionary? So the PM snagged the flag — and then handed it off to the hapless David Johnston, former Commander-in-Chief of Canada.

Mr. Harper suffers from what Harris calls PRD -- Public Relations Disorder:




The main symptom of PRD is the unshakeable belief that elephantine public displays of military might — tanks rolling, jets screaming overhead, guns popping off — will make people forget this government’s betrayal of Canada’s wounded veterans from the Afghanistan War.

In its terminal stages, the PRD sufferer actually believes perception is reality. In Harper’s Canada, nothing has to be true. You just need lots of commercials flogging the desired perception — paid for by the people you’re trying to indoctrinate. Nice gig.

Never mind the that veterans who suffer from PTSD or who are missing limbs will have a harder time getting help because of the closure of veterans offices across Canada:

The trouble is that returning veterans with mental or physical wounds live in a commercial-free world. They inhabit a harsh reality: how to push your kid on a swing when you’re missing an arm or a leg; how to fill a war-hardened heart with human emotions again; how to navigate the unbearably normal world of civilian life when you have seen into the abyss and know what has been done.

Their disabilities are permanent, no matter how many jets fly over the Peace Tower. The final insult? Lectures from Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino about how their treatment will be improved by slashing $226 million from the VA budget and closing treatment centres. Stories about the reduced number of Second World War and Korean War veterans justifying cuts, but not a word about the thousands of new vets from Afghanistan.

No, they were -- and are -- expendable. It's all about getting the flag in your hands. That's what counts.




Their disabilities are permanent, no matter how many jets fly over the Peace Tower. The final insult? Lectures from Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino about how their treatment will be improved by slashing $226 million from the VA budget and closing treatment centres. Stories about the reduced number of Second World War and Korean War veterans justifying cuts, but not a word about the thousands of new vets from Afghanistan.


Not a single Conservative MP — including the minister of Veterans Affairs — stood up for veterans when all that cash was on the chopping block. Rather than face the Wrath of Steve, 147 of them brought down the broadaxe on an NDP motion to spare VA from the cuts. Rarely is such base cowardice unanimous. In the Harper government, total submission is the price of membership.

more




Canadians realize if veterans can get crushed, no one is safe


http://ipolitics_assets.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Open-Quote-2.gifOne hundred and forty seven Conservative MPs brought down the broadaxe on an NDP motion to spare VA from the cuts. Rarely is such base cowardice unanimous. In the Harper government, total submission is the price of membership.
 
taxslave

taxslave

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If Harper gave every freeloader in Canada a million bucks the radical left would still find fault wigh it.
The GG don't mean s$it to Canadians. That is queenies representative here. Nothing to do with us.
 
C

Cobalt_Kid

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Feb 3, 2007
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taxslave said:
If Harper gave every freeloader in Canada a million bucks the radical left would still find fault wigh it.
The GG don't mean s$it to Canadians. That is queenies representative here. Nothing to do with us.
Click to expand...

A couple of points for this diarrhea mouth.

1. It's not Harper's money to give away, it's our money and needs to be spent on things important to us, not the political and personal needs of the PM or the conservative party which is what's been going on for the past 8 years. And the men and women who have been sent into combat in our name need to be supported when they return home, there are conditions like Traumatic Brain Injury due to the widespread use of powerful IEDs that mean that our Afghanistan veterans are probably going to need more intensive support in the coming years not less as the conservatives obviously seem to think.

Traumatic Brain Injury Among Veterans Returning From Afghanistan and Iraq | Psychiatric Times

One of the most commonly encountered weapons in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom is the improvised explosive device (IED).1-3 From October 2001 until January 2005, explosive devices were responsible for nearly 80% of all casualties reported to the Joint Theater Trauma Registry.4 Compared with casualties in earlier conflicts, military casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq incur a greater percentage of injuries to the face, head, and neck.2

Improvements to personal protective equipment and vehicle armor have reduced death rates, but by improving survival, they may have increased the incidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) among wartime casualties and perhaps also among veterans who appear physically uninjured. (We use the term “veteran” as an inclusive term for military personnel who served in a combat zone, regardless of the current status as a discharged veteran, active duty service member, or member of the military reserve or National Guard.
Click to expand...

2. There are no bigger freeloaders in Canadian society than politicians who have forgotten what it means to be public servants and instead see all of us as being there to serve them, and Harper is the worst PM we've had for this.

Conservative MPs weren't going into combat in vehicles that were often unsafe for the conditions, they didn't have to put up with the constant danger and the frequent loss of comrades and severe injury. At the very least the Harper government could have honoured the long standing though not perfect social contract that when we send our young men and women to war we support them when they get back. But instead the Harper government has stated in court that no such contract even exists.

Veterans don't have social contract, Ottawa says in lawsuit response - Politics - CBC News

The federal government is arguing it does not have a social contract with veterans in response to a class-action suit brought by veterans upset with the compensation arrangement offered to wounded soldiers under the New Veterans Charter.
Click to expand...

So if the Harper government feels no responsibility to any of us, then why should we feel any towards it?
 
Nuggler

Nuggler

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Feb 27, 2006
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taxslave said:
If Harper gave every freeloader in Canada a million bucks the radical left would still find fault wigh it.
The GG don't mean s$it to Canadians. That is queenies representative here. Nothing to do with us.
Click to expand...


Now our troops are freeloaders. Good thing we had lots of freeloaders back in `39.

Harper is just a blatent cocksucker. Hope the ArseyMP are watching.
 
C

Cobalt_Kid

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Tecumsehsbones said:
True.


False.
Click to expand...

As long as we're compelled by law to contribute billions of dollars in taxes a year to the federal government then that money is ours.

It's not meant to go for stuff like this for instance.

PMO Charged $67,789.48 In Questionable Lunch Expenses

The Prime Minister’s Office isn’t following the rules when it comes to hospitality expenses.

Over the span of the past three years, taxpayers have been on the hook for $67,789.48 to cover weekly catered lunch meetings for PMO staffers and ministerial chiefs of staff — an apparent violation of Treasury Board policy.
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or this

Canadian Senate expenses scandal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Canadian Senate expenses scandal is an ongoing political scandal concerning the expense claims of certain Canadian senators which began in late 2012. Senators Mike Duffy, Mac Harb, Pamela Wallin, and Patrick Brazeau claimed travel and housing expenses from the Senate for which they were not eligible. As a result, the Auditor General of Canada began investigating the expense claims of the entire Senate. Duffy, Wallin, and Harb eventually repaid the ineligible amount. Harb retired a few months into the scandal, and in November 2013, Duffy, Wallin, and Brazeau were suspended from the Senate without pay. The affair has attracted much public attention, with as many as 73% of Canadians following it closely.
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or this

Where the heck’s that $3.1-billion? Where’s the fury? - The Globe and Mail

“Amazing. The scale of this is unbelievable,” says former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page, who always can be relied upon to hold the Conservatives’ feet to the fire. “Can you imagine, in a private-sector world, where $3-billion went missing and they went back to shareholders and said, ‘Ah, sorry, folks, but we don’t know where it is’?”

He suspects the billions “got sloshed all over the place” in various departments and those responsible for the money’s oversight lost track. It’s also quite possible the Conservatives have found out what happened with the money, Mr. Page says, but are just not owning up. Might be too damaging to do so.
Click to expand...

How about Harper pimping his aircraft with his party's colors for $50,000?

Stephen Harper's New Plane Design Will Cost $50,000 (PHOTOS)

The new paint job on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s plane won’t be cost neutral after all.

Repainting the grey Polaris CC-150 military aircraft, red, white and blue, will cost taxpayers an additional $50,000, The Huffington Post Canada has learned.
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If we're the ones being forced to pay for most of the stuff like this in Canada, and the public tax burden has risen to over 60% under Harper while the corporate tax burden has fallen to about 15% and if we're the ones responsible for the huge debt being created by this government, then how is the money not ultimately ours?
 
Tecumsehsbones

Tecumsehsbones

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Cobalt_Kid said:
As long as we're compelled by law to contribute billions of dollars in taxes a year to the federal government then that money is ours.
Click to expand...
I take no position on Canadian politics, it's none of my business. But Canada is a legal person with the authority to tax. When you pay your taxes, that money is no longer yours, it is Canada's. Just as when you pay your phone bill, that money is no longer yours, it is the phone company's.
 
pgs

pgs

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Nov 29, 2008
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Cobalt_Kid said:
A couple of points for this diarrhea mouth.

1. It's not Harper's money to give away, it's our money and needs to be spent on things important to us, not the political and personal needs of the PM or the conservative party which is what's been going on for the past 8 years. And the men and women who have been sent into combat in our name need to be supported when they return home, there are conditions like Traumatic Brain Injury due to the widespread use of powerful IEDs that mean that our Afghanistan veterans are probably going to need more intensive support in the coming years not less as the conservatives obviously seem to think.

Traumatic Brain Injury Among Veterans Returning From Afghanistan and Iraq | Psychiatric Times



2. There are no bigger freeloaders in Canadian society than politicians who have forgotten what it means to be public servants and instead see all of us as being there to serve them, and Harper is the worst PM we've had for this.

Conservative MPs weren't going into combat in vehicles that were often unsafe for the conditions, they didn't have to put up with the constant danger and the frequent loss of comrades and severe injury. At the very least the Harper government could have honoured the long standing though not perfect social contract that when we send our young men and women to war we support them when they get back. But instead the Harper government has stated in court that no such contract even exists.

Veterans don't have social contract, Ottawa says in lawsuit response - Politics - CBC News



So if the Harper government feels no responsibility to any of us, then why should we feel any towards it?
Click to expand...
Yup thanks to our previous Liberal government our soldiers went to Afganistan .
And your Liberals that gave their buddies in Quebec bags full of our cash in brown paper bags .


I will still take Harper over your young Liberals any day . Thanks
 
C

Cobalt_Kid

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Feb 3, 2007
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Tecumsehsbones said:
I take no position on Canadian politics, it's none of my business. But Canada is a legal person with the authority to tax. When you pay your taxes, that money is no longer yours, it is Canada's. Just as when you pay your phone bill, that money is no longer yours, it is the phone company's.
Click to expand...

Yes, but Canada isn't a wholly owned subsidiary of conservative Inc. which is how the current government has been treating the nation. Our governments are intended to be stewards of the national trust, not con men out to skin us alive.
 
Tecumsehsbones

Tecumsehsbones

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Cobalt_Kid said:
Yes, but Canada isn't a wholly owned subsidiary of conservative Inc. which is how the current government has been treating the nation. Our governments are intended to be stewards of the national trust, not con men out to skin us alive.
Click to expand...
Maybe you should elect better governments.
 
Tecumsehsbones

Tecumsehsbones

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Cliffy said:
Canadians are getting as polarized as Americans. They wouldn't know good government from bad. They've all been jinglized. Ra, ra, ra, shish boom bah! Hooray for our team. Have another beer eh!
Click to expand...
"Democracy doesn't guarantee good government, it guarantees representative government."
--Robert Heinlein
 
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