Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I would like to present a petition from several people in Alberta as well as B.C. and several places across the country. It talks about the wartime merchant marine navy.
It states that it was the fourth arm of the armed services; that veterans of the wartime merchant navy are under the civilian war related benefits act; that one in ten Canadian merchant seamen lost their lives, the highest proportional rate of all services; that merchant navy prisoners of war spent 50 months on average in imprisonment but only 30 months are recognized; and that these people were excluded from the War Veterans Allowance Act from pensionable benefits, from veterans' post-World War II free university education, housing and land grant benefits, small business financial aid and veterans' health care benefits.
They call on Parliament to consider the advisability of extending benefits or compensation to veterans of the wartime merchant navy equal to that enjoyed by veterans of Canada's World War II armed services. I am sure they would all say that fair is fair and let us get on with it.