Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to have the opportunity today to speak to Bill C-61.
I rise in support of Bill C-61 on behalf of the federal New Democratic Party caucus.
While this bill does have some shortcomings, and a very serious one which I will get to a bit later, the legislation does represent a step forward.
This bill, as has been mentioned, is an omnibus bill which touches upon many aspects of veterans affairs. It touches upon benefits for prisoners of war and benefits for widows of pensioners. It touches upon the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, the Halifax Relief Commission and so forth.
One very important aspect of this bill is that it seeks to put merchant marine veterans on an equal footing with regular forces veterans.
I was quite interested in hearing the hon. member opposite referring to that aspect of the bill as being symbolic only. It is a very important aspect of this bill. Perhaps because of the omission concerning compensation for past grievances it does become symbolic within the framework of this legislation.
However, I want to commend the merchant marine veterans, their organizations, families, activists and supporters for bringing this bill into being. It is only through their efforts and hard work that we are able to discuss this bill today.
At the outset, let me make it very clear that my comments and this bill in itself do not in any way take away from regular forces veterans, but seek to bring the merchant marine veterans up to an equal footing.
The monster Adolph Hitler issued a directive in 1941 which included the following: “Attack shipping, especially when homeward bound, by all methods. The sinking of merchantmen is more important than attacking enemy warships”.
These brave Canadians who sailed the corridors of hell played a central role in our war effort, as central a role as the regular forces.
As the Halifax-Dartmouth branch of the Merchant Navy Veterans Association for my region put it in a submission to the provincial legislature in July 1998, “The ships carried explosives, fuel, food, oil, gasoline, tanks, airplanes, iron ore for the hungry British smelters, butter and flour, bacon and beans”. Yet they were fitted with often obsolete breech guns, castoffs, antiquities better suited for military museums than defending the lives of Canadians at sea. In short, these Canadians risked their lives and often gave their lives to support our war efforts.
The tragedy of the matter is that when I say they often gave their lives, the figures speak for themselves. It has been estimated that a full 13% of merchant mariners who played an active role in our war effort were killed.
Last fall I went on a pilgrimage of remembrance to honour our war dead in Belgium and France. I was struck deeply and irrevocably by what I saw and what I learned. To have had the opportunity to see the trenches and the remnants of artillery and war equipment, and having felt the cold and damp biting winds blowing across the fields of Flanders, eating into one's very bones, certainly gave me an appreciation in part of what our Canadian young men who fought and died experienced.
Having stood in cemeteries where there were tombstones, row upon row, as far as the eye could see and knowing that thousands of bodies lay in those graves and many more lay unaccounted for in the surrounding farms and fields left me with the haunting image of man's inhumanity to man. The question still rings in my mind as to how we can do this to one another. Even worse is the knowledge that we are still doing it today throughout various parts of our world. As human beings, all of us must do our part to bring an end to the senseless slaughter of war.
As a start we must remember those who fought and died for freedom, those who sacrificed themselves so that succeeding generations might live in peace and harmony, free from oppression and tyranny. While many of those who we remember and honour today are those who served in the regular military, we must not forget the many others who served their country in an unique yet important way as special construction battalions or merchant marines. That is why the Liberal government's apparent unwillingness to negotiate a fair compensation package for Canadian merchant marine veterans is so unacceptable.
The current treatment of merchant mariner veterans is one that I personally and as the federal NDP spokesperson for veterans affairs find deeply disheartening. When it came time to serve their country Canada's merchant marines did so with dedication and courage equal to their military comrades. Why then are the merchant marines not receiving equal treatment in terms of compensation?
While the bill seeks to establish current equality, which my caucus colleagues and I support, it does nothing to compensate for all the lost opportunities suffered as a result this discrimination. There is no reason to continue to deny merchant marines the full compensation due them. I urge the government to let the second reading of Bill C-61, which in words grants full equality, be a springboard to action, negotiation, compensation and hence real reparation.
The Liberal government has a choice. The government has the capacity to choose to set matters right and get negotiations for just compensation back on track. While the federal government was finally prodded into introducing the bill, others acted sooner, in some cases much sooner. Britain accorded full veteran status to merchant mariners in 1940. In the United States these veterans were realized as having the same status as regular forces veterans in 1988. Australia recognized full equality in 1995.
How many merchant mariners have passed away in Canada who would have appreciated this gesture from the government at an earlier stage?
In a letter I received from George Conway-Brown in January of this year he quotes Canada's Rear Admiral Leonard W. Murray, who served as commander in chief, northwest Atlantic, from 1943 to 1945: “The battle of the Atlantic was not won by any navy or air force. It was won by the courage, fortitude and determination of the British and allied merchant navy”.
These mariners often encountered the Nazi Donitz U-boats, the grey wolves that deprived so many Canadian families of their loved ones. Closer to Europe merchant mariners were attacked by Germany's FW-200 Condor air force.
But what happened to Canadian merchant mariners upon their return to Canada? In Britain they returned as full and equal veterans with equal access to post-war programs, services and benefits.
In Canada they returned to virtually no support. They were denied upgrading courses at technical, vocational and high schools offered to regular force veterans. There were denied health support and employment opportunities available to army, navy and air force personnel.
This discrimination weighed heavily on so many merchant marine veterans. I mentioned earlier that I am glad to see the bill being brought forward, even though it is too late for many deceased merchant marine veterans. That is what makes the actions of this government concerning compensation for these brave Canadians all the more odious.
The government saw fit to provide an ex gratia payment to Hong Kong veterans who were Japanese prisoners of war of $23,950 each. This payment was promised just this past December.
It is unconscionable and meanspirited that this government has betrayed Canada's merchant marines by refusing to compensate them for the discrimination they faced upon their return home from serving in Canada's war effort.
It has been estimated that merchant mariners are dying at the rate of about 12 per month. A St. Albert veteran said in an interview earlier this month in the Edmonton Sun : “The whole thing is a run around. We figure [the federal government] is waiting for us to die of old age”.
On November 24, 1998 in response to a question I put to him, the minister said concerning compensation negotiations for merchant mariners: “I am there to listen”.
Debating Bill C-61 before the House surely signals the time to act, not just listen.
Justice delayed is justice denied, particularly when the death rate among these veterans who served Canada so nobly is so high.
As merchant navy Captain Hill Wilson wrote in a letter in January of this year, other countries have made reparations for these veterans. He refers to a veteran living on Vancouver Island who sailed on Norwegian ships during World War II and receives a pension of over $2,000 a month from Norway for his merchant navy service. He also cites examples from the French government and the United States government for Vietnam war merchant navy veterans.
While on the issues implied in Bill C-61, it is essential to refer to another atrocious act of negligence and outright scandal perpetrated by this Liberal government on Canadian veterans who were sent to concentration camps by the Nazi government. These men, survivors of the horrors of Buchenwald, were recently sent cheques in the amount of $1,098 to supposedly compensate them for the horrors faced in Buchenwald.
My constituent, William Gibson, returned the cheque, a comment on this government's sad failure to successfully negotiate reparations from the German government.
The U.S.A. has recently negotiated an enviable settlement from the German government. This Liberal government has failed so miserably where others have succeeded and may be trying to hide its shame by offering these paltry sums to Canadian forces survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp.
I will conclude my comments on the second reading of Bill C-61 with an anonymous poem which pays homage to Canadian merchant navy veterans:
All hail to our soldiers, our airmen, our tars, Who in these dark days are the victims of War, All hail to these heroes who flash on the screen, But what of the men of the Merchant Marine?
No halo, no glimmer, just duty that's all, Day in and day out through the heat or a squall Grit, courage, endurance and bearing serene, These are the men of the Merchant Marine.
How much do we need them, these sons of the sea, Without their devotion, how could we be free? For one vital cog in the great machine Is filled by the men of the Merchant Marine.
And so if the cares of these days dark and clear, Weigh down your spirits and cause you to fear, Remember the hardships and dangers unseen, And pray for the men of the Merchant Marine.