Sister Sage's Musings

Posts Tagged ‘Colonel Pat Stogran’

And what bigger war is there these days than the war here, at home, against our beloved government? While  Col. Stogran says that he is not criticizing the Harpercons solely, it is they who have the pattern of firing or demoting or just sending away their people who dare to  have the audacity to criticize and disagree with them.  Stogran’s darkest, yet brutally honest words that needed to be said:

“I was told by a senior Treasury Board analyst, who shall remain nameless, that it is in the government’s best interest to have soldiers killed overseas rather than wounded because the liability is shorter term,” he told a marathon Ottawa news conference.

Now, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, especially when it comes to Stevie Spiteful and his minions. After all, this is the  megalomaniac who wants to cut universal health care to Canadians among other such evil deeds.

However, I what I am surprised at, although, by now, I really shouldn’t be, is at some of those die hard Harpercon cheerleaders at the comment boards at some of these news pages, basically treating Stogran as simply another public servant with a sense of self-entitlement who over stepped his boundaries. No doubt those same buffoons, who in Pale’s words,  have a support the troops sticker on their honking SUV. That very same clown car brigade who wagged their fat fingers at us for not supporting them,  when Richard Colvin, another one who has gone into obscurity, brought torturegate to light.  Such hypocrisy.

Those same cheerleaders who preach the sanctity of the dead soldiers and how we must respect their memory.   How they all ooh and awe at Stevie Spiteful when being photographed with muscle bound troops in cammies, armed and ready for action or at Remembrance Day Festivities and how they all blindly follow Steve, right or wrong to treat these vets who survived, many of whom psychologically and/or physically damaged from the carnage of war. No, no one wants to see that. It’s just not pretty. Like anything else, no one wants to see anything that puts the Harpercons or the “war effort” in a bad light, now do they?

It is unacceptable that vets have to grovel and beg for what little is entitled to them; benefits, pensions, health care, which seems to be the case for many these days. Those are the vets Colonel Stogran stands up for; those are the vets all Canadians should stand up for.

“If you’re not willing to stand behind the troops, then feel free to stand in front of them,” said Brian Dyck, a veteran who suffers from ALS and is fighting the government over denied health claims.

Brian Dyck is one of many, sadly. This is how badly veterans are treated. After being wounded in whatever war they’re fighting overseas;  physically and psychologically, it sometimes seems to pale in comparison to the war they’re fighing at home to ensure their own survival, the future of their families, their own dignity.

Never one to mince words, Stogran has harshly criticized the federal bureaucracy’s treatment of injured soldiers and policies, such as the replacement of pensions with lump-sum payments and disability stipends.

He has said Veterans Affairs has adopted a “penny-pinching, insurance-company mentality” toward its clients

Insurance company mentality. Nice. Classy. Our governments and our military put out the ads to join the military for that “rewarding career”. Perhaps there should be a disclaimer.

Essentially, Col Pat Stogran is being let go, for doing his job properly.  Except, as others before him like Paul Kennedy at the RCMP complaints commission, Peter Tinsley at the Military Police Complaints Commission, Linda Keen at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Richard Colvin, Munir Sheikh (he resigned on his own, but he probably would have ended up canned anyway),  in the land of Harpercon, “doing their job” means being a ‘yes’ man to Stevie Spiteful and not ever thinking outside the box or thinking for themselves.

Jean-Pierre Blackburn offers this feeble excuse:

Mr. Stogran is being replaced because it is time for a new ombudsman to offer new perspectives, the minister said. “It will be good for our veterans and good for our department.”

What Blackburn really meant to say that they can’t have this uppety Col anymore and as such, the new ombudsmen must be a “yes” man just like he is.  “Good for the Veterans” in Blackburn’s view, which is really Stevie Spiteful’s view is keeping them unseen and unheard; thus easier to pretend they and their troubles don’t exist.   Making people and issues easy to ignore is the Harpercon modus operendi to get things done their way.

Col. Stogran isn’t going away quietly though. Nor should he. He plans to continue to fight the  war at home for those vets for as long as he can. He wants Canadians to know how badly so many of the vets are being treated.  In fact,  I hope, that even after he’s no longer the ombudsmen, he will become an activist of some kind for the vets. Lord knows they need a voice  and as I’ve pointed out above, the new ombudsman won’t do them justice.  As I’ve mentioned above, they’re (this also goes for the widows of fallen soldiers; they too have to fight that dreadful fight for benefits)  fighting probably what is the most challenging war of their lives; the war at home.

I wonder if blogging SupposiTory Rightchik Tammeee and Clucking Christie Blathering Blatchford would have to say about all this? The former, a support the troops and government, right or wrong kinda gal. The latter,  who is such a sucker for the uniform, she’ll spew any kind of garbage for her sob sister column.  I dare them to put to their money where their mouths are, but since both tend to shit from their mouths, don’t bet on it.

Keep up the fight Colonel Stogran and those who join his fight because, apparently, Blackburn plans to further downsize Veterans’ Affairs Canada.