Remembering Veterans

November 11th is a time to reflect on those who served or are currently serving for their country. Each year, it seems the people, stories and issues we reflect on expands.

A number years ago while in journalism school I covered an issue that in a very real way could still be affecting veterans of Canada’s world wars. I’ve since stopped following the issue, but for those who died before it was resolved, their families would still feel its effects.

This is a bit of a leap from my regular Made You Look fare, but this is where my head is at right now. Everyone has their own war hero, and I’m thinking of mine and grateful he didn’t live without feeling the honour that he earned.

Election Threatens Movement on ‘Never to Have Served’ Issue

by Devon Burke

23/11/05

It took almost 60 years before the Department of National Defence acknowledged its unjust treatment of 6,000 Second World War soldiers, but veteran Clifford Chadderton says an election could kill movement on the issue forever. 

A 1946 order-in-council deemed those veterans “never to have served.”

Conservative defence critic Gordon O’Connor says an election could push the “injustice” out of parliament for several months.

“If we were to take government,” he says, “we’d have to take look at it.” 

Chadderton says he is concerned that the soldiers will remain forgotten if the opposition is not re-elected.

He was the secretary for a committee that dealt with 8,000 conscripts and 6,000 dishonourable discharges after the war. He says there was a mix-up with legislation, wiping out all 14,000 service records, rather than just those 8,000 who went absent without leave.

Now the military is accepting blame for the 6,000 veterans who Chadderton says deserve to have their discharges reconsidered. 

Frank Yascheshyn was one of them.

He served for five years but never got any veterans’ benefits, such as his $1,200 re-establishment credit.

His wife said he never felt the honour the other veterans did. He took that to his grave last October.

“I’ve shed so many tears over this,” Lorraine Yascheshyn says.

She could not get assistance with his funeral costs.

“In my opinion what would have happened to him,” Chadderton says, “is his (file) would be reviewed and if they found that it was a minor offence they would have given him a minor discharge.”

A minor offence could mean being absent without leave when the unit is not in a combat situation.

Yascheshyn took the issue to her MP, New Democrat Pat Martin.

Martin asked Defence Minister Bill Graham what his department is doing for the soldiers like Yascheshyn who the government effectively forgot.

 ”Is the honourable member really suggesting that we should take 14,000 names, determine who should have been prosecuted and who should not?” Graham responded during question period Friday.

 ”I suggest that would be an unjust way to approach this. We are approaching it by allowing those who feel unjustly treated to come forward. We will rectify the records and work with them to solve it. That is the just and Canadian way to deal with this issue,” he said.

Chadderton says Graham was right to be concerned with only the 6,000 who actually served. 

“But he’s being badly advised if he thinks veterans will come out of the woodwork,” he says.

He wants a review of the 6,000 cases, and $2,400 in ex gratia payments for soldiers or their widows. 

“I’d rather have the honour than the money part,” Lorraine Yascheshyn says.

She and her husband would have been married 57 years this October.