Retired Canadian Army Corporal Brock Blaszczyk confronts Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a town hall meeting in Edmonton, Alberta, February 2018. Photos: Canadian Press.
February 2018
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is an absolute disgrace. On 1 February at a town hall meeting in Edmonton, the classless Trudeau took a question regarding the continuing court battles between veterans groups and his government over his promise to restore full benefits to veterans as promised in the 2015 election.
Retired Corporal Brock Blaszczyk, a former soldier with the Edmonton-based Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry who lost a leg to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan and has severe damage to the other one, delivered a stinging condemnation of Trudeau’s misplaced priorities when it comes to Canadian Veterans.
Blaszczyk asked Trudeau about the $10.5 million payment to admitted terrorist Omar Khadr, one that Trudeau approved in secret without even putting up a fight, and questioned why Trudeau is forcing Veterans to fight in court for their benefits. He concluded with the scathing:
“I was prepared to be killed in action. What I wasn’t prepared for, Mr. Prime Minister, is Canada turning it’s back on me.”
Prime Minister Trudeau’s response was a complete disgrace:
“Why are we still fighting certain veterans groups in court? Because they’re asking for more than we are able to give right now.”
Are you kidding me Prime Minister?!
Trudeau seems to find billions for a whole plethora of things including: aid to foreign countries, The Clinton Foundation, the United Nations, paying bonuses to top government bureaucrats, raises for himself and other Members of Parliament, alcohol on government flights, traveling around the world on questionably necessary trips (ever heard of Skype?) including his winter vacation with the Aga Khan, the seemingly endless parade of economic migrants illegally entering Canada, for his photographers and for social media postings.
Shockingly enough, a day after making this unbelievable comment, Foreign Affairs Canada announced that it was donating $59.5 million to Burkina Faso in order to improve public education in the West African country.
Trudeau finds all these billions despite having massive budget deficits but when comes to Veterans, he says there’s no more money.
Don’t get me wrong; it’s great to help out those in need, especially in third-world countries, but how about helping Canadian citizens first?! Veterans and Indigenous people seem to be a the bottom of Trudeau’s priority list.
Speaking of third-world conditions, we have First Nations communities in Canada that look like they’re third-world countries!
One of the promises Trudeau made to Veterans in the 2015 election was the restoration of the life-time pensions for disabled Veterans, replacing the tax-free lump-sum payment of $310,378 (increased to $360,000 on 1 April 2017), introduced with the New Veterans Charter, an act passed unanimously by Parliament in 2005 under the Liberal government of Paul Martin and implemented under the Conservative government of Stephen Harper in 2006. This resulted in a lower over-all compensation for disabled veterans.
Under the previous Veterans agreement, disabled Veterans were provided a guaranteed, life-time income, but critics of the new Charter complained that the lump-sum was insufficient to provide for continuing treatment of injuries and that many young Veterans, with limited employment opportunities because of their disabilities, would outlive this money.
The Trudeau Liberals recently introduced a monthly payment option instead of the lump-sum, but the overall compensation remained the same. The lump-sum payment will simply be cut up into equal monthly amounts, making the monthly payments significantly less than under the old pension system.
The old lifetime pension system would provide Veterans with up to $2700 per month, but under the “restored pensions”, disabled Veterans would only receive up to $$1150 per month, depending on the severity of their injuries.
An additional $1500 monthly payment is proposed for sometime in the future for the most severely injured.
However, this new system won’t start until 1 April 2019.
Trudeau and his government promised Canadians “Sunny Ways,” but when it comes to Veterans, he really doesn’t care about them.
Sources: https://www.spencerfernando.com/2018/02/02/sickening-trudeau-says-veterans-asking-able-give-right-now, http://cig.news/59-5m-goes-to-burkina-faso-one-day-after-trudeau-tells-vets-they-ask-for-too-much, http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justin-trudeau-town-hall-edmonton-1.4515822, http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/liberals-bring-back-veterans-pensions-for-life-but-oregan-expects-not-everyone-will-like-it, Warrant Officer (Ret’d) Lawrence Tierney – https://www.spencerfernando.com/2018/02/02/sickening-trudeau-says-veterans-asking-able-give-right-now.
