Veterans Affairs Committee on March 6th, 2008

[Roger Valley, Liberal, Kenora, ON]

We need to make sure they're filled out.

You mentioned post-traumatic stress disorder and the value of the wife's input. What about the rest of the family? Someone who served in Korea would have grown children--maybe retired children at this point. So it might be of some value for the entire family to talk about post-traumatic stress disorder. Have you carried that line further?

[Les Peate]

I would say that by extension when I say “the spouse”, I mean the family members--and friends; it doesn't have to be.... I've seen the way two or three of our Korean veterans have been acting and more or less urged them to apply for PTSD.

I say “the wife” because she is probably the person who can see these things more than anybody else, but certainly it could be family and friends--anybody, in fact, who sees these signs.

These signs are published, by the way. We get them in the Legion Magazine, and I put them in my magazine, telling people what to look for. It's no secret.

[Roger Valley, Liberal, Kenora, ON]

Thank you very much.

[Les Peate]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Now we are over to the Conservative Party of Canada. Go ahead, Mr. Sweet, for five minutes.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. Peate.

I never tire of saying “thank you” for your service to this country, and I think that goes for all parliamentarians. We're very conscious of the fact that there have been many people who, like you, have paved the way to have the kind of vibrant democracy we have today, so I thank you for that.

You introduced right at the beginning of your remarks the three studies from Australia and the dates they were completed. Two of them were in 2003, and then the last one, the health study, was completed in 2005.

How long did it take Veterans Affairs Canada to recognize those studies?

[Les Peate]

To be fair, these were conducted in 2003; I didn't get them until possibly 2004 or 2005.

When we took them to Veterans Affairs, they worked on them, and we got the first results about a year after we'd given them to Veterans Affairs. They had studied them and come up with the first recommendations.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Is it fair to say that it's been in the last two years that they've fully accepted them and were prepared to act on them?

[Les Peate]

Actually, we got the results of the second one in September of last year and we had the results of the first one probably a year or more earlier.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Okay. Have you seen a substantial difference now in the delivery of service around those issues since Veterans Affairs has complied with the fact that the results of the study are true and there should be benefits for it?

[Les Peate]

Yes, we have, because for one thing, as I said, service in Korea was a prima facie cause; really all the veteran had to do was prove that he'd served in Korea. He didn't have to get witnesses to a particular incident and he didn't have to get medical reports. From what I gather--and I haven't been asking people to keep track of time--I would say that the service is probably faster than in a normal case.

Certainly with the cancer ones I had people call me within a couple of months of getting the announcement, to the effect that they had been advised they would receive a pension.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

You're very knowledgeable about all the dimensions of the war. Was there a Korean War service medal?

[Les Peate]

Was there a Korea War service medal? There are actually three, or four, if you like.

First of all, there's the Commonwealth service medal. This is the one that all members of the Commonwealth got. Canada's is slightly different. Mine is a British one. It's made of copper and nickel. Canadians are, obviously, much more wealthy, as we found out on parade in Korea, and theirs are made of silver. This is a medal with a yellow and blue-striped ribbon.

Then the United Nations gave you a United Nations Service Medal, which was awarded to people who served in Korea and afterwards and also to people who served in Japan. To get the Korea War medal, you had to have served in Korea during the actual war; to get the United Nations medal you had to have served in the theatre up until I think 1954, or a year after the ceasefire.

Apparently that wasn't enough for some people. They decided that we didn't have a distinct Canadian medal. So I think about 15 years ago.... Do you remember when your assistant actually received a medal, because I think I got one of the first ones?

[A voice]

Wow.

[Les Peate]

Anyway, this was a Canadian Volunteer Service Medal for Korea.

So in fact there are three medals.

There was also a medal that was awarded by the president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee. Unfortunately, Syngman Rhee and Winston Churchill, who was Prime Minister of Britain at the time, were not the greatest of friends. Churchill refused to accept it, and he persuaded the other Commonwealth nations not to accept it either.

We found that we were entitled to it. For about, oh, maybe 10 or 15 years, we tried to persuade the government house chancellery to allow us to wear that as an approved foreign decoration, because it was legitimately awarded by a foreign government, but they kept saying no. And finally we decided, well, three medals is enough for one war anyway, so we gave up.

So there were, in fact, medals for the Korean War. Then, of course, there'd be the gallantry medals people get.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

This is my last question, Mr. Peate.

You mentioned that it was Veterans Affairs that came to you and said they felt there was an inordinately low application rate for post-traumatic stress disorder among Korean War veterans. From your testimony, you've done everything you can, including writing articles, to try to make veterans aware of that.

What other measures would you like to see from Veterans Affairs Canada to try to encourage the remaining Korean veterans--those, of course, who are suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder--to take the initiative and get to Veterans Affairs?

[Les Peate]

I think, really, we have done all we can.

Veterans Affairs, as you know, puts out a bulletin from time to time, Salute!, I think it's called, which goes to all veterans who are receiving pensions. It's in there. As I said, I keep bugging people in my magazine. The Legion puts it in their magazine to Legion members.

The trouble is that out of the 12,000 or so Korean veterans, about 2,500 belong to our association. Maybe half of them belong to the Legion. There are still probably about 5,000 or 6,000 Korean veterans out there who don't even know we exist, who don't even know what we've got, who don't even know about the medal that came out last year, who don't even know about PTSD, and who don't know about the benefits as a result of this study.

There's not a lot we can do. They put out a press release, one of which I'm giving you. So Veterans Affairs puts out a press release. Are they going to pick it up? I don't know. Maybe some Hollywood starlet's going to have twins or something and everything will be bumped off anyway. One never knows.

I think they're doing all they can, really. They're using every avenue they can think of. I think it's just a matter of people not reading it. We still have 6,000 veterans, at least, out there. We would love to have them in our association, but they don't even know we exist. They don't even know there is a Korea Veterans Association.

So it's hard to get at people. A lot of people get away from the forces and they want to forget about it. They don't even read articles in the paper about it.

The only thing I can suggest is that they keep up the publicity campaign and put out the announcements. Whether the media will accept them, I don't know, but certainly Veterans Affairs lets them know.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Thank you, Mr. Sweet.

Mr. Sweet, consider yourself treated. You got eight minutes, sir, because he took three minutes to answer the last question. That's quite impressive.

Now we'll go to Mr. Stoffer, from the NDP, for five minutes.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Peate, where would a person get your book, The War That Wasn't? Where would one go to buy it?

[Les Peate]

What you can do is give me your address and I'll send you one. That's sheer bribery.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

No, I want to buy it, as long as you sign it for me.

[Les Peate]

I get a certain number of promotional copies, so it's not going to cost me anything. If I mail it to you, it's not going to cost any postage.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

God love you, buddy. Thank you.

[Les Peate]

If you could give me your card before we go....