This is a cautionary tale for all my American veteran friends.
I have a hard time understanding the lack of seriousness from our governments about war. I can’t think of anything more serious a government can do other than send its sons and daughters to kill and be killed. Yet, these decisions are often made with no vote or referendum and with no skin in the game.
When was the last time a politician who championed invading a country put on their fighting order and was on the first airdrop?
Unlike our kings from a bygone era that required them to hop on their war horses and ride into battle out of sheer honour and pride, our elected officials get to send us off to die or come home with life-altering wounds, without any risk to themselves or their family members.
I feel like this is the reason why politicians in the United States and Canada can casually pass laws that would strip veterans of the monetary compensation that is owed to them because it feels like it’s unearned or simply a “benefit”. They don’t know the horrors of war nor the ungodly amount of sacrifice it takes to fight one. If they did, they’d realize the compensation is far from sufficient and maybe not send us so readily to fight.
I sat down with Tim Jensen of the Gruntstyle Foundation to discuss the recent TCAVA legislation that is being proposed in the U.S. and how Canada has already done something eerily similar.
Tim and I met years ago through sheer serendipity…or was it?
I was made aware of the fight for the passing of the PACT Act by the Gruntstyle Foundation by my friend, Mike. I wasn’t really in the veteran advocacy space at that point; I was just trying to keep my small online coaching company afloat. What I learned was that burn pits were a serious health concern and GWOT veterans are suffering mightily. I naively assumed that our Veterans Affairs Canada must be tracking this.
Alas, I was horribly mistaken. Not only were they not tracking it, but they were also actively denying that it existed and two soldiers had to sue them, with the evidence found in the PACT Act, to receive their benefits after being diagnosed with cancer.
This got me fired up. I realized that my mission had to shift from simply coaching to actively advocating for veterans’ health at a higher level. I started digging.
Did you know Canada is the only G7 NATO country that doesn’t have a dedicated medical stream or medical program for veterans?
Did you know that a quarter of all Canadian veterans don’t have a doctor to consult? That’s over 100k veterans by my estimate.
Did you know that Canada has already passed their latest budget into law that strips $4B over the next 4 years from VAC? For reference, that’s half of the current $8B budget for the department.
Did you know that the discussion about what programs are about to be cut is done behind closed doors without consultation?
Did you know there isn’t a single veteran advocacy organization in Canada?
I love the passion America has to protect veteran obligations. The name calling, threats of political violence and articles citing case law about this is fascinating to me. Maybe it’s because my ancestors from way back migrated from New England to Quebec (sure, they were kicked out for supporting the King but so what).
I hope to stir up that kind of passion here in Canada. Our veteran population is beaten down and demoralized. The comments on my posts and conversations I have are evidence that decades of neglect and powerlessness have destroyed our morale.
Exactly what the government has always wanted.
But there’s a mustard seed of hope.
Thanks to leaders like Tim, I’m becoming more emboldened to do more and say more, if only to inspire the next set of Canadian veteran leaders to build upon our work.
Our devastating cuts to veteran obligations are already here, and veterans will die because of it.
Don’t let that happen in the U.S.
HONOR THE CONTRACT
I’m not going to wait for the government to fix this and neither should you.
Fixing your physiology and getting healthy is the only way to turn this around. A healthy veteran can continue to fight. The modalities are plenty but you have to be open to them.
If you’re curious, join us in the Veterans Getting Fit AF Community - it’s free and we set you up with a 7 day Baseline Body Audit on day 1.
You’re Not Broken, You’re Under-Recovered
Dave
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