2015-01-12 New Veterans Affairs minister cuts off veterans’ advocates from advisory role: Blais m.hilltimes/news/news/2015/01/12/new-veterans-affairs-minister-cuts-off-veterans-advocates-from-advisory-role-blais/40679 By TIM NAUMETZ | Jan. 12, 2015 Newly-appointed Veterans Affairs Minister Erin O’Toole has informed an advocacy group for wounded and psychologically injured veterans that it is no longer a stakeholder adviser to the Veterans Affairs department. Mike Blais, who helped launch Canadian Veterans Advocacy in 2011 to advocate for veterans and serving Canadian Forces members who did combat tours in Afghanistan and their families, told The Hill Times that Mr. O’Toole (Durham, Ont.) gave the bad news to the group in a voicemail he left on Mr. Blais’ phone service Jan. 7. The information came as a shock to Mr. Blais and his group, which had been one of the most vocal critics of the department’s treatment of injured veterans and Canadian Forces members in the months leading up to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) decision to shuffle former Veterans Affairs minister Julian Fantino (Vaughan, Ont.) out of the post last week, following scathing criticism from Auditor General Michael Ferguson for delays in treatment for veterans. Mr. Blais, a former peacekeeper who suffered lifelong damage to his back in a non-combat injury during a tour in Cypress, said the exclusion of Canadian Veterans Advocacy from a Veterans Affairs Canada Stakeholder Committee established in 2012 is a violation of Charter of Rights protection of freedom of expression and freedom of association. The former serviceman said it was not the first time Mr. O’Toole, a former Air Force navigator and lawyer who, prior to his appointment, was an active supporter of other causes for veterans, has singled the group out. Last June, Mr. O’Toole said in the House of Commons that Canadian Veterans Advocacy is run out of the Parliamentary office of NDP MP Peter Stoffer (Sackville-Eastern Shore, N.S.). “As a veteran myself, I have been quite offended by some of the work that group does. It is not sincere. It is not based on sound policy. I understand, at committee, that they have acknowledged that their funding has come from unions,” Mr. O’Toole said on June 2. Mr. O’Toole’s message said Mr. Blais should know how the minister feels about the CVA, Mr. Blais told The Hill Times. “He’s always tried to label us as a union plant,’’ Mr. Blais said in a telephone interview last Thursday. As of noon on Friday, Mr. O’Toole’s office had not responded to email and phone messages asking for a response to Mr. Blais’ description of Mr. O’Toole’s telephone call. “He lied about us in the House of Commons on June 4, he misled the House of Commons by saying that I was using Peter Stoffer’s office and his people and stuff to contact unions and solicit them for money, and that I had organized the Rock the Hill event, and none of that was true, we couldn’t even respond,” Mr. Blais said. “And now he leaves a message, ‘You know how I feel about the CVA,’” Mr. Blais said. Mr. Blais said the CVA has been listed as a stakeholder on the Veterans Affairs site for three years, and has attended stakeholder meetings and offered advice. He said the group is prepared to launch a human rights complaint on freedom of speech grounds. “We have been a leader at that table for the voice of the wounded and now Mr. O’Toole is cutting us out of the loop because he doesn’t like, or suspects or whatever, that we have union ties and that we do not speak for the wounded. That’s crap,” Mr. Blais said. The advocacy group lobbied against government budget plans in 2012 that would have resulted in job losses at Veterans Affairs Canada, he said, after which the union representing the employees provided Canadian Veterans Advocacy a donation of $2,000. “Every department at that time took a 10-per-cent hit except Veterans Affairs Canada,” Mr. Blais said. “We worked hard on that and the Union of Veterans Affairs Employees made a donation of $2,000, no strings attached, just a donation to the war chest. There is not tit for tat, no, nothing, right. As a consequence to that, even though it was three years ago and a meagre $2,000, they’ve been attempting to label us,” Mr. Blais said. He said Mr. O’Toole called his home after Mr. Blais responded by phone to a tweet Mr. O’Toole posted, soon after assuming his new post as Veterans Affairs minister, saying that he was “reaching out to stakeholders.” “So we sent one to him: ‘When are you going to phone us?’ and then he phoned when I was not home and left a brief message, that was kind of circumvented because he ran out of time, but nevertheless in essence he said, ‘Well, you know how I feel about the CVA, it’s the same as the last three years, I have not changed my position, if you want to change your organization, more like the Legion where we have members and we have votes and all this stuff.’ Well we’re not the Legion, we’re an advocacy group and we have conformed to every non-profit regulation that the Harper government put into effect since 2012.” A lawyer who is also a director of Canadian Veterans Advocacy emailed The Hill Times a letter condemning Mr. O’Toole’s decision to exclude the group from a posted list of 10 advocacy groups on the department’s stakeholders committee, which includes the Royal Canadian Legion. “Freedom of conscience, belief, expression, peaceful assembly and association belong to all Canadians including veterans,” CVA director Jerry Kovacs said in the email. “As a lawyer who worked on Bay Street, Erin O’Toole should understand the importance of these values to veterans,” he said. “Erin O’Toole must not exclude any veterans, whether they are formally associated with others or not, in the weeks and months ahead as he consults with them on issues, problems and solutions facing them and the department,” Mr. Kovacs said. Though Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) shuffled Mr. Fantino, 72, out of the Veterans portfolio, he kept the former Ontario Provincial Police chief, who was also once chief of the Toronto Police Service, in Cabinet as a junior associate minister of Defence, responsible for Arctic sovereignty and military and foreign intelligence. Critics told The Hill Times Mr. Harper maintained a Cabinet seat for Mr. Fantino because of his political and fundraising clout in the Toronto region. In an email sent at 7:38 p.m. on Friday after The Hill Times deadline, Mr. OTooles spokesperson, Ashlee Smith, sent this quotation from Mr. O’Toole to The Hill Times, in response to Mr. Blais: I invited him to share the recording with his contacts. I understand he intends to do that and I think that will allow everyone to understand what was said. Mr. Blais said on Monday Mr. O’Toole had not spoken to him personally, and instead tweeted the invitation to distribute his message to other veterans advocats. The Hill Times listened to Mr. O’Toole’s message by phone, and Mr. O’Toole states that Mr. Blais is aware of his long-held objections to the way Canadian Veterans Advocacy is structured and, just before the voice mail ends automatically, indicates he wants to know how Mr. Blais intends to conform with Mr. O’Toole’s wishes. tnaumetz@hilltimes The Hill Times
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 21:10:18 +0000
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