The former ombudsman for Veterans Affairs Canada earned himself a reputation as a champion for those who served overseas, the crusty advocate for wounded troops trying to navigate the system upon their return home.
Last November, retired colonel Pat Stogran joined the line of government-appointed watchdogs silenced for being too outspoken, yet, he continues to lobby on behalf of veterans, though in an informal role.
Stogran, who landed in Afghanistan in 2002 as the first commander of Canadian troops in that country, was a faithful soldier, loyal to military brass and his government. He says he now regrets that unswerving faith because he made promises to soldiers — Canada would take care of them if they were wounded, take care of their families if they were killed — that may have not been kept.
Leading up to the first Remembrance Day since Canada ended its combat role in Afghanistan, Stogran spoke to The Chronicle Herald about that mission and why he believes Ottawa continues to disappoint the veterans who came home from that war.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This interview has been edited and condensed.
CH: How do you think the $226-million cuts to Veterans Affairs will affect the transition for those coming back from Afghanistan and, now, Libya?
CH: How do you think the $226-million cuts to Veterans Affairs will affect the transition for those coming back from Afghanistan and, now, Libya?
PS: I can’t help but be pessimistic. However, I’d qualify that. I know there’s an awful lot of fat that can be trimmed from the bureaucracy without ever affecting the money that’s being put into programs. I’m sure if I were put in charge I could slash all sorts of millions of dollars from the inefficient side of Veteran Affairs.
The biggest problem is the culture, the systemic cheating of the veterans who probably need the most help. It’s the problem cases that the department just does not have the empathy for. So it’s difficult to say the impact that these couple hundred million dollars in cuts will have on a system that is already grossly ineffective and not serving the purpose it was intended for — and that’s serving the veterans most in need.
CH: Veterans Affairs is saying these cuts are due to changing demographics. We’re losing our vets . . .
PS: That’s all bullshit.
CH: What makes you say that?
PS: Changing demographics? Well, the world has changed. We have not had another World War Two-style industrial war. Now, we’re in an information age and all these so-called peacekeeping operations were the indicators of what 21st-century conflict is all about.
When you send soldiers overseas, whether it was Cyprus in 1974 or Bosnia in 1993, sure the conflict has changed but it is, in fact, a war.
The mandarins wanted to desensitize Canadians to the level of risk and used so-called peacekeeping as a justification for dismantling the Canadian Forces and taking away benefits from veterans.
We can wrap ourselves in the warm, fuzzy, light-blue blanket of peacekeeping and lament the good old days but the fact was we were sending people off to war, somebody else’s war.
All of the psychological and physical traumas are still there and all of the torture that families go through is still there. It’s just that mandarins have been trying to sidetrack us, have been trying to downplay those kinds of roles in the world today.
CH: Why do you think that’s happened?
PS: Money, self-serving, the callousness, the kind of people that are attracted to public office. The public service looks after itself before it looks after Canadians. (Stogran refers to a media report that said a bureaucrat would be better looked after than a soldier if a helicopter carrying the two of them went down in Afghanistan.)
Clearly, this government was never committed to really helping Afghan people. It was all about a (prime minster) standing up on a hillside talking tough. I was in Afghanistan in April and we have accomplished nothing. We haven’t even put a coat of paint on the air terminal that I was at 10 years ago. The toilets still don’t work and they just got their first X-ray machine.
So, yeah, we killed a lot of Taliban but what has that done for us?
CH: In this interview and in the past, you’ve been seen as a straight shooter. When did you adopt this role as a defender of the veterans?
PS: I didn’t really adopt it. You know, I spent 30 years believing in the people and the Government of Canada. As an aspiring officer and wanting to command troops in combat operations, I was not only a believer that the country would stand by me and my comrades-in-arms if I was injured, wounded or killed in the line of duty but I actually promoted it. I told the young soldiers to jump out of airplanes and train with live ammunition and sleep in trenches and carry huge loads that were wearing down our bodies.
I was promoting it and saying, "We’ll look after you, the government will look after us if we do a great job for them," and all that. So, yeah, I’m almost remorseful for the last 30 years. You ask, "How did I come into being a champion for the veterans?" Well, this was a long metamorphosis. It started out by just being a loyal soldier to try to make myself and my comrades-in-arms ready for anything and then being let down terribly.
CH: Going down a different track, some of the younger soldiers, particular those coming back from Afghanistan in their 20s and 30s, seem to be somewhat uncomfortable wearing the mantle of veteran. Why do you think that is?
PS: I think it’s because we’ve been conditioned by the mandarins to believe that veterans are those World War Two and World War One and Korean War icons that we dust off and polish off their medals and put up on show on Parliament Hill.
The veterans are their own worst enemy because in many cases they’re loyal and faithful to a fault. They don’t want to speak out against the system and it’s even better if they never think of themselves as worthy of fair compensation from the government for giving up a limb or a life. It’s with heavy heart that any of them ever start challenging the system, but they become desperate.
CH: Having served as the first commander in Afghanistan, will this Remembrance Day be any different for you now that we’ve pulled out of the conflict?
PS: No. Oh, no, not at all. I’m not celebrating the end of operations in Afghanistan, I’m actually feeling sorry for the Afghan people that we let down. I was over there visiting them. And I’m sorry for the sacrifice of the troops on the front lines. In typical Canadian fashion they did an amazing job. It was, once again, the lack of leadership in Canada that let those people down. So that’s kind of what I’ll be thinking about when it comes to Remembrance Day.
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