Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I rise today to inform veterans that the Bloc Québécois will be supporting Bill S-246, along with every other party represented in this House. Bill S-246, an act respecting the recognition of wartime service, is sponsored in the House by my dear colleague, the member for Ottawa West—Nepean
The bill would establish a transparent national framework for modernizing the criteria used to recognize military service, taking into account both risk level and intensity. It draws on the study from the 44th Parliament entitled “The Persian Gulf War was a war”, an initiative that the Bloc Québécois proudly championed.
The reality is that Canada has not officially recognized a conflict as a war since the Korean War, which took place from 1950 to 1953. Even then, however, Canada was not formally at war with North Korea or China. Our participation was carried out under a United Nations resolution, during what was considered a time of peace. This distinction matters because Veterans Affairs Canada generally divides military service into two categories: peacetime, or special duty service, and wartime service.
The purpose of the bill is to remove soldiers who have fought in modern wars from the administrative category of “peacetime” and officially grant them the title of “wartime” veterans.
Today, veterans of Afghanistan or the Gulf are classified under “special duty service”. On paper, they are entitled to the same amounts. In reality, they face a bureaucratic wall. Under the status of special duty service, it is up to the injured soldier to prove that their trauma or illness is directly due to service. Unfortunately for veterans, that is no recognition of their loyal service to their country. For a long time, they have rightly called for symbolic parity with their predecessors from the two world wars and the Korean War.
It is time for us to fully honour our veterans by giving them the honours that they deserve. Special duty veterans form a huge category in which Veterans Affairs Canada technically includes soldiers sent to Afghanistan, Bosnia and the Gulf, for example.
This would help cut the red tape and ensure proper support for veterans who have served in more than one conflict, veterans like the legendary Léo Major, for whom managing injuries sustained both in wartime and peacetime would have been a bureaucratic nightmare.
With the signing of the Briand-Kellogg pact in 1928, the signatory states, including Canada, agreed that they would no longer use war as an instrument of national policy. The pact laid the legal foundations for declaring acts of aggression between two countries to be illegal. In 1945, the UN charter added a blanket prohibition on the use of force. Only two legal exceptions exist today, namely self-defence and authorization from the UN Security Council for the purpose of maintaining or restoring international peace. The Korean War therefore falls the second exception.
The world has changed. Nations no longer formally declare war on one another. It is illegal to do so. However, our troops are still being sent to the front lines. Think of the Gulf War or Afghanistan, the deadliest conflict for Canada since Korea. Some claim that the bill is merely symbolic, especially since it is explicit about not granting any new financial benefits that do not already exist in federal legislation. The reality on the ground is quite different.
We have seen appalling cases where Persian Gulf veterans who inhaled toxic and carcinogenic substances had to fight with Veterans Affairs Canada to have their cancer recognized. It was not until 2025 that the government began to right these wrongs and address them.
The passage of Bill S-246 will finally make it possible to apply the insurance principle to these modern conflicts. The burden of proof is reversed, which puts an end to the government's administrative harassment of those who served the country. This legislation frees veterans from the administrative burdens imposed by the government.
By refusing to modernize its definitions, Canada has gotten itself into absurd situations. Are my colleagues aware that the Canadian Victoria Cross, our highest military honour, established in 1993, has never been awarded? Canada is the only major allied country that participated in the war in Afghanistan that has never awarded its highest military decoration to one of its soldiers.
Many elected officials and veterans' groups are currently lobbying the government to establish a military honours review board. Take, for example, the case of Jess Larochelle, who volunteered to man an observation post in Pashmul, west of Kandahar City on October 14, 2006. His company was targeted in an initial assault by Taliban forces armed with rocket-propelled grenades. Two of his fellow soldiers were killed, while three others were seriously injured. Despite briefly losing consciousness and sustaining severe injuries to his back and one eye, Jess Larochelle managed to hold back the enemy's advance with his machine gun. When he ran out of ammunition, he fired the post's M-72 rocket launchers repelling a force of 20 to 40 Taliban insurgents. After suffering from poor health due to his injuries in Afghanistan, he died on August 31, 2023.
While he was alive, Private Larochelle was awarded the Star of Military Valour, Canada's second-highest honour for bravery in combat. Former chief of defence staff Rick Hillier later acknowledged that he had made a mistake and requested that the honour be upgraded to a Victoria Cross, but that has still not been done.
Meanwhile, our allies do not hesitate to honour the exceptional bravery of their soldiers, as they have adapted their practices to the realities of the 21st century.
Bill S‑246 would require the government to create an evaluation framework based on modern, measurable criteria: combat intensity, level of actual risk, and exposure to life-threatening conditions. These new benchmarks would allow the new military honours review board to determine whether a military feat finally qualifies for the Victoria Cross.
This bill is simple, fair and necessary. It deserves to be voted on in a non-partisan manner and sent to committee quickly so that we can study it and refine it as needed.
Let us finally give our veterans back the dignity and protection they fought so hard to earn.