Veterans question government's sincerity

Page 8

As one of the last events scheduled by Veterans Affairs Canada in the Year of the Veteran, the Aboriginal Spiritual Journey looked to some like a bit of an afterthought.

Twenty Aboriginal veterans, each accompanied by at least one care-provider, and 14 youth delegates-as well as a number of cultural performers-were escorted around Normandy and Flanders by a small army of government bureaucrats from Oct. 26 to Nov. 4. About a dozen media representatives were also in tow.

Headquartered at the Hotel Mercure in the city of Lille in northwestern France (about a 40-minute drive from the Belgian border), the group spent several very long days travelling around in a convoy of buses. While the veterans, youth and media travelled to battlefield sites and war cemeteries, participating in remembrance ceremonies in many stops along the way, another group of spiritual leaders conducted a "calling home ceremony." The ceremony was held at a Belgian military base near Bemmel, the site of the World War One battle for Hill 62.

The four-day calling home ceremony was off limits to the media. Its purpose was to call home the spirits of Aboriginal soldiers buried in the many cemeteries throughout the region.

While there were many highlights for all the participants on the spiritual journey, one of the most prominent fighters for Aboriginal veterans, Howard Anderson of Saskatchewan's Gordon First Nation, couldn't help but wonder about the government's sincerity.

The trip cost Veterans Affairs Canada about $1.5 million. In return, the department received a lot of prime news coverage and positive press, especially when newly installed Governor General Michaelle Jean met up with the group at Juno Beach. Anderson, a 79-year-old veteran of the Second World War, recently retired after serving for years as the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations' grand chief responsible for veterans' issues. He said he accepted the invitation to go to join the spiritual journey because it was an opportunity to pay his respects to veterans and to those who fell in Europe.

But he was constantly aware that the gesture of respect for Aboriginal veterans was out of synch with the dealings he had with the government of Canada over the compensation issue.

Anderson said one question kept crossing his mind during the journey.

"Why the hell aren't you paying the First Nations veterans for what you didn't give them?" he shared with Windspeaker during a phone interview after he returned home to Saskatchewan.

While many of the veterans were willing to accept the opportunity to pay their respects to their fallen comrades, Anderson said many spoke privately of the resentment caused by the lack of compensation.

"To a certain extent, yes," he said when asked if the veterans were discussing the matter.

He said the minister and the government benefited politically from the trip and were willing to spend money for that, but not to make sure the veterans received a fair settlement.

"She did this for her, not for anybody else.

"I told [Veterans Affairs Minister Albina Guarnieri] that," Anderson said. "I told her that you're supposed to be honoring the veterans, but when you go to lay the wreaths you have all the big shots laying the wreaths first and the veterans at the last. I said that's not honoring us. That's honoring who you've got with you."

He also remarked that Prime Minister Paul Martin "should pay us what he offered us" when he was finance minister.

First Nation veterans were enfranchised or sent back to the reserve upon their return from the world wars. On reserve, they dealt with the Indian agent rather than Veterans Affairs and were denied-or not informed of-a variety of programs and benefits that non-Native veterans received. The resulting loss, when tabulated years later, was significant.

"I hired an economist to put it all together. He came up with $420,000 per veteran. The government came up with $125,000," Anderon said.

He said a finance official asked him if the veterans would settle for $75,000.

"I said, yes, I think they would because there was nothing yet offered. But justice was still fighting us," Howard Anderson said. Eventually, the number was whittled down even further. Anderson, like many other aging veterans, decided to take the $20,000 that was eventually offered rather than get into a prolonged battle with government officials, a battle of which he might not live to see the end.

But that $20,000 hardly compensates for a lost youth, he added.

"That's the thing. We never had a life. I spent nine years in residential school and five in the army. That's 14 years out of my 21 years when I got discharged from the army that I had the government controlling me," he said.

Despite the anger over the compensation battle, he said the government should be given some credit for making the gesture to Aboriginal veterans.

"The point is they tried to do something," he said.

Winston White, a prominent Inuit official in the Newfoundland government, asked Jason Shiwak of Labrador to go on the spiritual journey as the representative of Inuit veterans. There are no Inuit veterans alive that Shiwak knows of, but he was there to honor those who served and fell in Europe. He was also looking for his great-uncle's grave. His great uncle was killed in action but, like so many others, his remains have not been identified.

Shiwak said the trip was nothing but a positive experience.

"I didn't actually find my uncle's grave but there was a certain amount of closure for myself and my family out of it. We think that his spirit came home with me. It was an amazing experience for myself and for the family and it's continuing now because the War Graves Commission are going into the process now of looking for his grave. So there might be some actual proper closure come out of it," he said.

He understands the point made by Aboriginal veterans who wonder how the goverment can make such a gesture of respect after fighting so hard for so long to not give them their fair share of compensation.

"Their point is understandable," he said. "But the way I look at it is the government's paying for this, let them go up and do the big thing first. I knew what I was over there for. I did what I had to do and I came home."

The government made the gesture and should be able to take credit for that, he added.

"For me it was an amazing experience, one that I'll never get to do again, probably. So if the government wants to pat itself on the back for doing a good job, go right ahead. It's fine by me," he said.