In the face of growing calls for him to resign or be fired, Fantino had tried to offer an olive branch Wednesday to the former soldiers left angry and insulted after the veterans affairs minister abruptly cancelled his meeting with the veterans, only to then “barge in” at the last minute and apparently insult the group. The minister blamed a Tory cabinet meeting that ran late for the “regrettable delay. “
“It’s human nature that people make mistakes,” said Bruce Moncur, a 30-year-old veteran who served in Afghanistan. “But if you keep making the same mistake over and over, sorry’s not good enough.”
The Conservatives were in full damage-control mode as both opposition parties joined veterans in demanding Fantino be fired over his brusque handling of the meeting late Tuesday.
“I absolutely regret yesterday’s events and, as I did last evening, I apologized directly to the veterans and again I apologize now,” Fantino said as he read from a prepared statement in the House of Commons. “I wanted to meet with them to hear their case and their stories, and explain to them the changes that we are making that will, in fact, look after their interests and their families in the long term.”
But the veterans, stung by the encounter, refused to accept Fantino’s apology.
“We’re not interested,” Paul Davis said. “He doesn’t mean it from the heart.”
Second World War Veteran Roy Lamore called Fantino’s apology a performance that was “ridiculous, stupid and the worst thing” he has ever heard.
“It’s too late,” Ron Clarke said. The Vietnam veteran had called for Mr. Fantino’s resignation, or firing Tuesday night after the “unbelievable, unacceptable and shameful meeting.”
“Mr. Harper and his Conservatives had best be prepared for the next election. There are two [other] parties who said they’d open our offices, and [soldiers] might want to think about voting for them, but not the Conservatives.”
At the centre of the controversy is the imminent closure of eight regional Veterans Affairs offices, which provide support and benefit services to veterans across Canada, as the government moves towards providing services online.
It remains an open question just how far Fantino’s regrets will go towards mitigating a corrosive political debate about the government’s push toward more online and remote services for Canada’s ex-service members.
“What the Minister did yesterday was disgraceful. The only thing we want is a commitment to keep open the eight offices and reopen the Prince George office. Veterans have earned that respect,” Clarke, Moncur and Davis said in a joint statement.
Reports Wednesday evening suggested the minister was calling each veteran’s home to personally apologize, but Clarke said his wife received a call from Fantino’s chief of staff instead.
Davis, who reiterated his call for Fantino’s resignation Wednesday evening, said the minister is not really interested in veterans’ affairs and hasn’t done a good job.
He called Fantino confrontational and a bully on CTV’s power play, but said he isn’t ready to give up the fight to keep Veterans Affairs Offices open.
“This battle is not near over,” the 66-year-old veteran said. “We’re going to regroup.”
Conservatives portray the closures as increased efficiency; the opposition, public service unions, and an increasing number of veterans groups call it cost-cutting to the detriment of those who put their lives on the line for their country.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood by Fantino, dismissing the growing public outcry as having been manufactured by the union that represents veteran affairs staff, which helped facilitate the meeting with the minister.
“The minister has apologized for the events of yesterday but the fact of the matter is that this government and this minister have increased services for our veterans without precedent.”
This is in the best interest of veterans
“We have a small number — a small number — of duplicate veterans offices that have a very small caseload,” Harper told the House of Commons.
“I know the unions don’t like it, [but] it makes a lot more sense to have 600 points of service for veterans,” he said, a reference to the government’s plan to move services from Veterans Affairs to less specialized — but more plentiful — Service Canada outlets.
“I know why the unions and the NDP oppose that. This is in the best interest of veterans. They can play politics. We’re going to keep delivering for veterans.”
Fantino accused federal unions of deliberately misrepresenting what the government is doing with veterans’ services.
And one of Harper’s MPs, veteran Alberta Conservative Laurie Hawn, went a step further and accused the Public Service Alliance of Canada of not only sandbagging Fantino at the meeting, but cynically playing on public sympathy and mistrust.
“They came to be mad, and they were mad,” Hawn said Wednesday about the veterans.
They came to be mad, and they were mad
“The fact is we’re caught in a bit of a love-hate relationship. People love to love veterans and soldiers, as they should. A lot of people love to hate government, and that’s the reality, the former air force colonel said.”
“When you put those two emotions together, it’s a perfect setup for manipulation by the opposition, by the media and by [federal union] PSAC [Public Service Alliance of Canada],” Hawn told reporters.
The union has run a high-profile campaign against the closures, including the organizing of public rallies.
The centres — in Kelowna, B.C., Saskatoon, Brandon, Man., Thunder Bay, Ont., Windsor, Ont., Sydney, N.S., Charlottetown and Corner Brook, N.L. — are slated to shut down Friday. A ninth office has already closed in Prince George, B.C.
A veteran’s advocate says Conservatives are mistaken if they believe the groundswell of opposition is nothing more than another front in their undeclared war to ramp back benefits, entitlements and the power of public sector unions.
“It is disingenuous for the government to dismiss these veterans’ concerns as a union matter,” said Mike Blais, president of Canadian Veterans Advocacy. “It is the services that are being denied that must be the focus.”
Clarke, who describes himself as “not a union person,” said the veterans started the movement, but they wouldn’t have been able to afford to fly in to Ottawa from across the country without the union’s help.
Gordon Moore, head of the Royal Canadian Legion, said he believes the Conservatives are being hurt by the weight of this and other recent veterans controversies. Moore said he can’t understand why the government seems to be picking a fight with vets.
There are still 118,000 Second World War and Korean veterans in Canada, many of them of an advanced age and lacking computer skills.
Moore asked: What would be the harm of delaying for a few years the transition towards greater online access?
Much of the fallout from Tuesday’s angry meeting focused on Fantino’s personal style, which has occasionally rubbed ex-soldiers the wrong way. He caused an Internet furor last fall for remarks that likened his time with the Ontario Provincial Police with that of soldiers who’ve seen combat.
Fantino has showed a lack of understanding, a lack of heart
The abrasiveness was not lost on NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, who led the charge for the minister’s resignation.
“Mr. Fantino has showed a lack of understanding, a lack of heart, a lack of feeling, a lack of respect,” Mulcair said. “He shows nothing but scorn for people who come to him for help and he must be removed from his position.”
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau also demanded Fantino’s ouster.
Veteran’s advocate Jerry Kovacs said the people he talks with are pining for the days of dealing with former veterans minister Steven Blaney.
One former soldier, Daniel Drapeau, said Wednesday he’s so disgusted that he cut up his Conservative membership card and plans to park his vote elsewhere.
“They keep hurting us,” he said, “and they won’t stop.”
Original Article
Source: nationalpost.com/
Author: Canadian Press and Aileen Donnelly
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