OTTAWA - Opposition MPs plan to force another House of Commons committee to return early from summer break to review the impending departure of the first-ever veterans ombudsman.
Liberal critic Rob Oliphant submitted a letter to the clerk of the all-party Veterans Affairs committee Friday and demanded it be recalled to study the Conservative government's refusal to appoint retired colonel Pat Stogran to another term.
He says public criticism of the system by the former ground commander in Afghanistan is serious enough to warrant special hearings.
The committee requires the signatures of four MPs to be recalled and Oliphant got the backing of other Liberals on the committee as well as the NDP. Its return would mark the third Commons committee brought back this summer.
Parliament is set to resume Sept. 20.
No date has been set for committee hearings, but the recall turns up the heat on a Harper government that has put great political capital into its claim of standing behind the troops.
No one at Veteran Affairs was immediately available for comment.
Stogran unleashed a barrage of criticism on the Veterans Affairs Department earlier this week, claiming bureaucrats were more interested in "penny-pinching" than helping those who fought for the country. He promised to carry on a public campaign for veterans during his last three months in office.
The Conservative government notified him two weeks ago that his three-year appointment -- due to expire on Nov. 11 -- would not be renewed.
Stogran, flanked by vets at an Ottawa news conference, claimed to have been told by a senior federal Treasury Board official that it was in the country's best long-term financial interest that soldiers die in Afghanistan, rather than come home wounded because pay-outs were less. Stogran also accused the department of "cheating" war widows and said that a program to help them was shelved.
For his part, Oliphant accused Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn of misleading both former soldiers and the public. Oliphant disputes Blackburn's statements regarding a federal move to replace guaranteed life-time pensions with lump-sun payments and earning loss stipends.
"I think it's time the minister answer some questions because I don't think he's being up-front with Canadians," said the Toronto-area MP.
Blackburn is on the record in media interviews and public statements saying 69 per cent of veterans surveyed by the department are happy with the new system.
But documents released this week by Stogran's office show that the survey question was not whether veterans preferred one system or the other, but rather how they would like to see their $276,000 lump sum payment apportioned -- all at once or over time.
New Democrat veterans critic Peter Stoffer said he supported Oliphant's recall of the committee "100 per cent."
He said the concerns and issues of former soldiers have bubbled below the surface for years, but the committee has never taken a serious look at the delays and problems within the department.
"I think what colonel Stogran has done is opened a Pandora's box and allowed us to say enough is enough, let's look at the problems here," said Stoffer.
