Mr. Speaker, Canada has a proud tradition of honouring our war veterans. There is a fast dwindling group of veterans, however, who have been poorly treated by us. I speak of the merchant navy vets who were held prisoners of war for as long as five years. They had to contend with terrible conditions and treatment at the hands of their captors. Yet we currently compensate them for only 30 months of incarceration.
We have many programs that are less urgent than fair treatment for those few vets whose numbers are dwindling because of their age. This is not a request for the government to spend more money but to get its priorities straight.
Some distinguished members of this House defend the current cash for life MP pension plan. Instead, I call on those members to support fair treatment of these vets by paying the debt we owe them for up to the 50 months they suffered in defence of Canada.