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Thread: Veteran's Affairs Canada

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    Default Veteran's Affairs Canada

    The Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, and the Honourable Harjit Sajjan, Minister of National Defence, released the following statement to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Atlantic as well as Merchant Navy Veterans Day.“The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest military engagement of the Second World War. From September 1939 until May 1945, the Allies fought Nazi Germany for control of the vital North Atlantic shipping lanes which were crucial to the success of the Allied war effort. On September 4th, 1939, Merchant Navy sailor Hannah Baird became the first known Canadian casualty of the war. She lost her life when the British passenger liner SS Athenia was sunk by a German U-boat while enroute to Montreal.
    “Allied merchant vessels sailed from North America to Britain, laden with food, ammunition and other supplies the United Kingdom needed to continue the fight against the enemy. Throughout the nearly six-year conflict, German U-boats stalked Allied convoys, often hunting in groups known as wolf-packs..
    “These convoys were defended by Allied naval and air escorts, including those of the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force. In June 1944 Flight Lieutenant David Hornell earned the Victoria Cross posthumously for his great bravery in sinking a German U-boat north of the Shetland Islands.
    “By the end of the war more than 25,000 trans-Atlantic merchant ship voyages, transporting approximately 165 million tonnes of cargo, had been completed under the escort of Canadian forces.
    “Lest we forget.”

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    Default Re: Veteran's Affairs Canada

    Vernon ,may thanks for this posting and the previous one in the other thread.
    All we can hope is that the younger generations take note and continue to remember in the same manner as they do for the other services.
    Happy daze John in Oz.

    Life is too short to blend in.

    John Strange R737787
    World Traveller

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    Keith at Tregenna's Avatar
    Keith at Tregenna Guest

    Default Re: Veteran's Affairs Canada

    A great statement and
    certainly will be well received.

    Regards,

    Keith.

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    Default Re: Veteran's Affairs Canada

    Let us not forget, amidst all these fine words, that in 1945, the Canadian government flatly refused to acknowledge that Canadian Merchant Navy personnel were "Veterans" of the Second World War. Whilst members of the Canadian Armed Forces were given (richly-deserved) free university education, and grants of land on which to built a house, merchant seamen were told that their employment both during the war, and subsequent to it, was sailing merchant ships, and that therefore they were not entitled to the same benefits as those that had given up their jobs in order to "Sign up" with the Armed Forces. Three years after denying merchant seamen these benefits, the Liberal government of the day sold off every Canadian-built merchant ship to the Greeks at "fire-sale" prices, and brought in gangsters from the U.S. to smash the Canadian Seamen's Union.

    For the next fifty years, the Canadian government, the Royal Canadian Navy, and the Canadian Legion, fought every attempt to get veterans' benefits for merchant seafarers. The Royal Canadian Navy's Public Relations chief famously said in a television interview that "Merchant seamen of the Second World War were nothing more than mercenaries; they could serve or quit as they pleased". Which demonstrated that he was ignorant of the notorious "Canadian Merchant Seamen's Order," (known as the Sail-or-Jail" Order.) which said that a merchant seaman who failed to join his ship was to be jailed, and then delivered by Police to an Army Recruiting Office! In my then-role as National President of the Master Mariners of Canada, I HAND-DELIVERED a letter complaining about this outrageous slur on merchant seafarers, to the Admiral in Halifax. I did not even receive a Note of Acknowledgement, let alone an apology. The P.R. swab was quickly posted to another job.

    In the 1990's, the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney granted veteran's benefits to Canadian merchant seafarers. Whilst it was a welcome move, many of the men and women who had sailed Canada's merchant ships during the Battle of the Atlantic were long-dead, or in poor circumstances.

    My employer, Transport Canada, holds the Shipping Master's "Signing-on and "Signing-off" Books in its Library. We began to receive requests from M.N. veterans, (or more often, their daughter!) asking whether TC could find evidence to back their father's or mother's claim for veterans benefits. My then-boss "Geordie Bill" Scott was aware that this was time-critical, and authorized us to do research during office hours.

    It was always a delight to phone an elderly veteran and tell him or her that we had found their signature, signing-on during the Battle of the Atlantic, and that he/she could claim his long-overdue Veterans benefits!



    Quote Originally Posted by Keith at Tregenna View Post
    A great statement and
    certainly will be well received.

    Regards,

    Keith.

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