Each year, the number of veterans present at Remembrance Day ceremonies dwindles just a little more.
With the end of the Second World War already 70 years past, and Korea now more than 60 years behind us, fewer and fewer of the men and women who served our country during those terrible years are still here to join the annual tribute to the fallen.
On Remembrance Day, all eyes fall on those remaining from their generation – and rightly so. Their sacrifices were many and their service was vital to our country.
But it’s important for us as Canadians to remember that we have not left war behind.
There’s a new, younger generation of veterans in our midst – and, far too often, their needs are going unseen and unmet.
Canadians have not been sitting silently by since the Korean War ended in 1953.
We have sent soldiers on peacekeeping missions and into conflict zones multiple times in the decades since. Our men and women have fought – and fallen – in the Balkans, in the Persian Gulf, in Afghanistan.
And, in many cases, they have returned home in need of help that wasn’t there for them.
A recent Globe and Mail investigation found that at least 54 soldiers and veterans had killed themselves after serving in the Afghanistan war; that number was later raised to 59. The investigation, as reported by the Globe, found a shortage of mental health staff and support programs for returning soldiers.
The new federal government has vowed to do better.
New Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr has promised to find a way to commemorate the lives of those 59 soldiers. And, even more fundamentally, the government has promised to reopen nine veterans’ affairs offices that were closed under the previous Conservative government (though those offices may not be in the same locations).
The hiring of some 400 new staffers for those offices has already begun, Hehr said.
Let us hope that these steps are signs of a renewed government commitment to serve those who have served us.
