Canadian veterans have often found themselves facing significant challenges upon returning from service abroad. Vancouver South Liberal candidate Harjit Sajjan has experienced this first-hand. He is himself a decorated combat veteran who served 3 deployments to Afghanistan and one to Bosnia-Herzegovina. “Arriving home from tours in Afghanistan I was disappointed to see the soldiers still having to fight to get the financial and medical support from their own government,” says Sajjan. “The Harper Government has closed down nine Veterans Affairs service offices, cut benefits and forced veterans groups to launch lawsuits, just to access the support they were promised.” Sajjan joined other veterans and Liberal Leader, Justin Trudeau, in Belleville, Ontario last week to introduce significant policy initiatives. The Liberal commitments include re-establishing lifelong pensions for injured veterans, re-opening the nine Veterans Affairs service offices closed by the Harper Conservatives and fully implementing all of the Auditor General’s recommendations on enhancing mental health service delivery to veterans, among other initiatives.
