Remembrance Forgotten: Seventy Years of Neglect and Our Obligation to Canadian Forces Veterans

Abstract

Military service places demands upon serving members unparalleled in civilian life. Serving in the Canadian Forces (CF) is no different. The sacrifice required to wear a CF uniform extends far beyond the commonly understood injuries and fatalities of military combat, peacekeeping and routine training accidents. Like all militaries, the CF employs complex cultural, psychological and socialization processes that molds and reconditions civilians into highly disciplined and moralized individuals willing to enter harm’s way and kill or be killed. Although these complex processes may be beneficial to military objectives, they can be highly detrimental to successful reintegration into civilian society. Yet Canada has never articulated a tangible universal obligation to assist CF veterans in overcoming or compensating for the consequences of military service. Do we have a universal obligation to our CF veterans? Why? What would be the nature of a universal obligation to our CF veterans? This thesis seeks to answer these questions. Contrary to popular perception, military life is a moral life. Such morality is the bitter enemy of duplicitous rhetoric and government inaction. These deeply indoctrinated moral values are also the measuring stick for the highly unequal sacrifice that CF members have endured on behalf of Canada and Canadians and the complete absence of any obligation we have reciprocated for their service. For these reasons and more, as a nation and as individuals, we have a substantive universal obligation to all our CF veterans to comprehensively assist them in making their life out of uniform at least as successful and rewarding as it was in military service.