Mr. Speaker, veterans of the merchant navy who served during wartime provided a vital function in situations where the death rate was as high or higher than in the armed services and where like other veterans they were captured and imprisoned as prisoners of war. Yet for many decades they were treated as second class veterans deprived of many benefits.
Even with the belated passage of the Merchant Navy Veterans Act in 1992, merchant navy veterans were not granted fully equal status with other veterans. The act contains definitions of service in the merchant navy that are more restrictive than for veterans in the other services and therefore denies benefits to some veterans who are clearly entitled to them.
As we approach November 11, the NDP calls on the government to treat veterans of the merchant navy in exactly the same way as it treats other veterans by including them in the War Veterans Allowances Act.