Nearly $30 million earmarked for Metis veterans of the Second World War has gone unclaimed, says Blacklock’s Reporter..In fact, the Veterans Affairs department said only 29 old soldiers or their widows successfully applied for grants..“A key priority is to ensure indigenous veterans are aware of Veterans Affairs programs and services and ensuring they are getting the services they need,” said a department memo. Cabinet in 2019 budgeted $30 million for payments. Less than 2%, $580,000, had been paid in claims..The Métis Veterans Association in 2004 counted some 400 members with military service. Department checks two years ago identified 174 names..Staff said the unpaid balance of the $30 million commemoration fund will finance a Métis Veterans Legacy Commemoration Program. Local memorials and tributes endorsed by the Métis National Council would be eligible for $200,000 grants, said the memo..An earlier 2002 bonus for First Nations veterans paid 1,402 old soldiers and widows a $20,000 grant, a total $28 million. Returning First Nations veterans were excluded from bonus programs approved by Parliament from 1945..Parliament in postwar years paid more than $1.4 billion to soldiers, sailors and air crew including a $100 clothing allowance, free transportation to their hometown, a Veterans Land Act that paid low-interest farm loans to $140,000, the War Service Grants Act that paid $7.50 for every thirty days’ service, the 1945 Veterans Rehabilitation Act that offered free post secondary schooling, and 1946 Veterans Business And Professional Loans Act that paid $27.5 million by the time it wound up in 1954..“Although Indigenous veterans were in principle eligible for the benefits and services provided to other veterans under postwar legislation collectively known as the Veterans Charter, their applications were not handled fairly,” the Commons veterans affairs committee wrote in a 2019 report..More than a million Canadians served in the armed forces in 20th-century wars. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimated 12,000 were Indigenous..“We know that proportionately more Indigenous people enlisted voluntarily than other Canadians,” said the MPs’ report. Researchers estimated 35% of military-age members of First Nations reserves volunteered in World War One..Legion Magazine in a 2019 essaydocumented enlistment rates as high as 100% of military-age men at BC’s Okanagan Indian Band, and half of Mi’kmaq men in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia who were eligible for service..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
Nearly $30 million earmarked for Metis veterans of the Second World War has gone unclaimed, says Blacklock’s Reporter..In fact, the Veterans Affairs department said only 29 old soldiers or their widows successfully applied for grants..“A key priority is to ensure indigenous veterans are aware of Veterans Affairs programs and services and ensuring they are getting the services they need,” said a department memo. Cabinet in 2019 budgeted $30 million for payments. Less than 2%, $580,000, had been paid in claims..The Métis Veterans Association in 2004 counted some 400 members with military service. Department checks two years ago identified 174 names..Staff said the unpaid balance of the $30 million commemoration fund will finance a Métis Veterans Legacy Commemoration Program. Local memorials and tributes endorsed by the Métis National Council would be eligible for $200,000 grants, said the memo..An earlier 2002 bonus for First Nations veterans paid 1,402 old soldiers and widows a $20,000 grant, a total $28 million. Returning First Nations veterans were excluded from bonus programs approved by Parliament from 1945..Parliament in postwar years paid more than $1.4 billion to soldiers, sailors and air crew including a $100 clothing allowance, free transportation to their hometown, a Veterans Land Act that paid low-interest farm loans to $140,000, the War Service Grants Act that paid $7.50 for every thirty days’ service, the 1945 Veterans Rehabilitation Act that offered free post secondary schooling, and 1946 Veterans Business And Professional Loans Act that paid $27.5 million by the time it wound up in 1954..“Although Indigenous veterans were in principle eligible for the benefits and services provided to other veterans under postwar legislation collectively known as the Veterans Charter, their applications were not handled fairly,” the Commons veterans affairs committee wrote in a 2019 report..More than a million Canadians served in the armed forces in 20th-century wars. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimated 12,000 were Indigenous..“We know that proportionately more Indigenous people enlisted voluntarily than other Canadians,” said the MPs’ report. Researchers estimated 35% of military-age members of First Nations reserves volunteered in World War One..Legion Magazine in a 2019 essaydocumented enlistment rates as high as 100% of military-age men at BC’s Okanagan Indian Band, and half of Mi’kmaq men in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia who were eligible for service..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
