Harper to Veterans: Scr@w You...

Cutting Veterans Affairs is NOT the way for a PM to "play Commander in Chief"... Ralph Goodale talks about Stephen Harper's double-talk regarding the military and veterans:

MR. HARPER BREAKS FAITH WITH VETERANS

This summer was filled with absurdities flowing from Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

It started with their outrageous G-8/G-20 spending boondoggle, which cost nearly $1.5 billion for three days of big-shot schmoozing in Toronto to achieve exactly nothing for the global economy.

Then came news of $26 billion for totally uncompetitive, untendered government contracts that failed to get decent value for taxpayers’ money.

That was followed by the inexplicable dumbing-down of the Canadian census, resulting in a more expensive process to collect less reliable data. Thousands of Canadians have voiced their opposition to this Conservative foolishness – the most recent being the Saskatchewan School Boards Association.

Then the Parliamentary Budget Officer exposed up to $13 billion in increased Conservative prison costs – “to combat unreported crime”. Say what?

And now, the Harper government has announced they’re cutting the department of Veterans’ Affairs and firing the Veterans’ Ombudsman, Colonel Pat Stogran.

Talk about absurd!

Stephen Harper is quick to wrap himself in the flag and claim to be a big supporter of the military. But he fails to put his money where his mouth is.

When governments make decisions to send the brave women and men of the Canadian Forces into harm’s way, they must also shoulder the solemn obligation of ensuring those soldiers are properly taken care of when, God willing, they get back home.

Ombudsman Stogran exposed the grim reality that this is not happening. Indeed, he described the federal government’s treatment of many veterans as “deliberately obstructive and deceptive”. He spoke truth to power.

And as always happens to those who speak the truth in Stephen Harper’s Canada, Colonel Stogran got sacked.

So he joins the ranks of other victimized public servants – Linda Keen, Peter Tinsley, Paul Kennedy, Kevin Page, Mark Mayrand, Richard Colvin, Munir Sheikh, etc. The list is absurdly long!

VICTORY FUND