Canadian veterans were in Ottawa on Thursday for the launch of a national campaign to protest the shuttering of nine Veterans Affairs offices.
The campaign – a three-and-a-half minute YouTube video – features a number of Canadian veterans and front-line support workers. They say they are all disappointed by the federal government’s decision to close the district offices, located across Canada, and that Ottawa is betraying Canada’s veterans.
"I served for 22 years, proudly, as a Canadian solder," Terry Collins, a veteran who served in Bosnia and suffers from post-traumatic-stress disorders, says in the video.
"Now I feel that my government has betrayed me and let me down."
District offices slated to close, according to the Union of Veterans Affairs Employees (UVAE) include those in: Sydney, Charlottetown, Corner Brook, Thunder Bay, Windsor, Brandon, Saskatoon, Prince George and Kelowna.
A spokesperson for Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino said the department is “adjusting the footprint” of its offices to reflect the changing demographics of Canadian veterans.
"Our government is dedicated to ensuring veterans and their families have the support they need, when they need it," Janice Summerby said in a statement on Thursday.
She said Ottawa will continue to "meet or exceed" their service standard of one case manager for every 40 case-managed veterans.
"Service standards will not change and we remain dedicated to providing veterans with the same high-quality service to which they are accustomed regardless of their geographic location," Summerby said.
In addition, Veterans Affairs said it will continue to support veterans at Service Canada locations, adding that many services currently offered at district offices are available online.
Critics said workers at Service Canada are not adequately trained to help veterans, and are already over-worked.
“Why would you download to Service Canada when presently they’re not capable of dealing with the caseload?” said NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar.
Many veterans call online service a poor substitute, saying that those who suffer from PTSD need one-on-one help.
"I get lost, I don’t know what to do, who to see," explained Collins, who was in Ottawa for the launch of the campaign.
He said with the closure of the district offices, veterans will be forced to drive long-distances to consult with front-line case workers.
Collins currently accesses services at the Sydney, N.S., district office. He said the day he found out the office was closing, he was "devastated."
"I could not believe it -- I was floored," the father of two teenage boys told reporters.
Michael Barnewall, who lost a leg fighting in Afghanistan, said “there’s not an app” that can help veterans get the diverse array of services they need.
“I dare somebody to tell me how a website or a phone call can help somebody with PTSD,” he told CTV’s Power Play Thursday.
Ron Clark, a 73-year-old retired sergeant who served nearly 36 years in the Canadian military, also uses the Sydney office to obtain his benefits.
“It’s just going to kill us. It’s going to kill us. Take note of that word. They’re going to kill us. They couldn’t do it in the battlefield so they’re going to do it right here in Ottawa? Not good,” Clark told CTV News.
“They’re definitely doing this wrong.”
Clark said he will have to drive five hours to the Veterans Affairs office in Halifax, a journey made more difficult by the fact that he suffers from PTSD.
“Their concentration is affected,” Yvan Thauvette, national president of the Union of Veterans Affairs Employees, told CTV of veterans with PTSD. “They are unable to travel for long periods. And they need, especially if it’s for medical information, a face-to-face (meeting) with either a case manager or a client services agent.”
World War II veteran Roy Lamore said when the Thunder Bay office closes, he will have to endure a more than seven-hour trip to either Winnipeg or Sudbury. Lamore summed up what he thought of the federal government’s treatment of veterans with one word: “Awful.”
The Cape Breton chapter president of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping says he plans on talking about the issue with Justice Minister Peter MacKay, who is the MP for the riding of Central Nova.
The government announced in the March 2012 budget that it would close some of the offices as part of overall cost-cutting.
Along with the campaign, the Public Service Alliance of Canada -- UVAE's umbrella union -- says it will also approach a number of Conservative MPs between now and Remembrance Day to talk with them about their concerns.
The launch of the campaign comes days after the veterans' ombudsman, Guy Parent, said the new veterans' charter denies some injured vets sufficient compensation for their pain and suffering.
With a report from CTV’s Omar Sachedina
