Veterans

William (Bill Stevens) shakes the hand of a community member who came to honour him on Remembrance Day. For some this was their first time meeting Stevens who they wanted to thank for his service. (Rebecca Dyok photo)

Oldest living veteran in Quesnel recognized on Remembrance Day

At-home gathering was held for William (Bill) Stevens on Nov. 11

 

Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence Minister Lawrence MacAulay responds to a question during a news conference in Ottawa on November 10, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Government will hire more staff to address veterans’ backlog, caseloads: minister

Announcement made in the wake of 5-part Canadian Press series on veteran’s issues

 

The Last Post Fund’s Unmarked Grave Program have identified 7,000 unmarked Commonwealth veterans’ graves and given them a permanent headstone or marker. (Ben Lypka/Abbotsford News)

Unmarked Grave Program looking for Canada’s lost veterans

Last Post Fund’s gravesite program giving veterans final respects

 

Veteran Matthew Kane poses for a photograph in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday, November 4, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The Money: Today’s veterans fighting Ottawa for equality with previous generations

Campaign continues in fight for equity and fairness for all veterans

Veteran Matthew Kane poses for a photograph in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday, November 4, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Minister of Veterans Affairs Lawrence MacAulay uses his phone as he arrives for a cabinet meeting in Ottawa, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. Tens of thousands of Canadian veterans who sustained long-term injuries from their military service are waiting to find out whether Veterans Affairs Canada will approve their disability claims. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

The Backlog: Thousands of veterans with disabilities are waiting years for support

Tens of thousands of veterans are waiting to see if their injuries qualify them for support

Minister of Veterans Affairs Lawrence MacAulay uses his phone as he arrives for a cabinet meeting in Ottawa, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. Tens of thousands of Canadian veterans who sustained long-term injuries from their military service are waiting to find out whether Veterans Affairs Canada will approve their disability claims. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Canadian soldiers Benjamin Van Eck, left, and Dan Campbell are shown in Kandahar, Afghanistan in this 2007 handout image. While Campbell would eventually settle down to start a family, Van Eck struggled with drug addiction and homelessness after hanging up his uniform before his lifeless body was found on the streets of London, Ont., this past June. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Dan Campbell, *MANDATORY CREDIT*

The Streets: Ottawa faces calls to step up on veteran homelessness

Grassroots organizations have stepped in to feel in the gaps left by government services

Canadian soldiers Benjamin Van Eck, left, and Dan Campbell are shown in Kandahar, Afghanistan in this 2007 handout image. While Campbell would eventually settle down to start a family, Van Eck struggled with drug addiction and homelessness after hanging up his uniform before his lifeless body was found on the streets of London, Ont., this past June. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Dan Campbell, *MANDATORY CREDIT*
FILE – The Canadian flag flies at half-mast at the funeral for Lionel Desmond and his mother Brenda Desmond at St. Peter’s Church in Tracadie, N.S. on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017. Desmond killed his mother, wife and young daughter before taking his own life earlier in the month. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

The Caseload: Veterans Affairs staff overwhelmed by number of vets assigned to them

An internal review released in 2019 found case managers spent more time filling out paperwork than helping veterans directly

FILE – The Canadian flag flies at half-mast at the funeral for Lionel Desmond and his mother Brenda Desmond at St. Peter’s Church in Tracadie, N.S. on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017. Desmond killed his mother, wife and young daughter before taking his own life earlier in the month. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
Grade 11 Brookswood Secondary student Charlie Farquharson, 16, wrote and recorded a rap song for Remembrance Day last year as part of a Grade 10 class assignment. He did the entirety of the project from his home computer using software he was already familiar with, calling writing and recording music a hobby. (Special to Langley Advance Times)

B.C. teen writes, records rap to bring Remembrance Day to forefront for youth

16-year-old Charlie Farquharson says youth should be engaged in different ways

Grade 11 Brookswood Secondary student Charlie Farquharson, 16, wrote and recorded a rap song for Remembrance Day last year as part of a Grade 10 class assignment. He did the entirety of the project from his home computer using software he was already familiar with, calling writing and recording music a hobby. (Special to Langley Advance Times)
A previous edition of Operation Raise a Flag is seen. Canadians across the country are once again invited to buy a flag to be planted outside the Sunnybrook Veterans Centre in Toronto this Remembrance Day. (Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre)

British Columbians invited to help plant 30,000 flags at Canada’s largest veteran facility

Toronto’s Sunnybrook Veterans Centre seeking nation-wide support to plant flags for Remembrance Day

A previous edition of Operation Raise a Flag is seen. Canadians across the country are once again invited to buy a flag to be planted outside the Sunnybrook Veterans Centre in Toronto this Remembrance Day. (Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre)
British Columbia Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin, Royal Canadian Legion BC and Yukon commander Angus Stanfield and Austin’s temporary aide-de-camp Glen Greenhill at Government House gather for the first poppy presentation, Oct. 26. (Kiernan Green/News Staff)

VIDEO: Lt. Gov. Janet Austin given first poppy of BC/Yukon Legion’s 100th remembrance campaign

Poppies will be available by donation through various organizations across Canada as of Oct. 29

British Columbia Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin, Royal Canadian Legion BC and Yukon commander Angus Stanfield and Austin’s temporary aide-de-camp Glen Greenhill at Government House gather for the first poppy presentation, Oct. 26. (Kiernan Green/News Staff)
Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin, Royal Canadian Legion BC and Yukon commander Angus Stanfield and temporary aide-de-camp to the Lt.-Gov. Glen Greenhill at Rockland Avenue’s Government House, Oct. 26. (Kiernan Green/News Staff)

VIDEO: First pin presented as Legion kicks off 100th poppy campaign

Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin presented the first poppy of BC and Yukon Legion’s remembrance fundraiser

Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin, Royal Canadian Legion BC and Yukon commander Angus Stanfield and temporary aide-de-camp to the Lt.-Gov. Glen Greenhill at Rockland Avenue’s Government House, Oct. 26. (Kiernan Green/News Staff)
A Canadian soldier keeps a close watch as one of his men investigates a suspicious device near a road between two of Canada’s bases in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, June 2, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Perkel

Taliban victories prompt fresh questions, soul searching for Canadian veterans

Veterans, some still in uniform, have taken to social media in recent days to express their pain and sadness

A Canadian soldier keeps a close watch as one of his men investigates a suspicious device near a road between two of Canada’s bases in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, June 2, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Perkel
Volunteers work on a past year’s poppy fund activities at the Trafalgar/Pro Patria Legion on Gorge Road in Victoria. The provincial government announced $1.5 million in one-time funding for B.C. and Yukon legions on June 2 to help them stay open through the remainder of the pandemic. (Black Press Media file photo)

B.C. government announces $1.5 million in pandemic relief for struggling Legion branches

Property tax exemption is what Legions really need, Victoria branch president says

Volunteers work on a past year’s poppy fund activities at the Trafalgar/Pro Patria Legion on Gorge Road in Victoria. The provincial government announced $1.5 million in one-time funding for B.C. and Yukon legions on June 2 to help them stay open through the remainder of the pandemic. (Black Press Media file photo)
Victor Osborne, 102, of Nanaimo, who was born during the Spanish flu pandemic and took part in an influenza A vaccine trial while in the Royal Navy in 1934, will get his first COVID-19 vaccine dose on Monday, March 15. (News Bulletin file photo)

102-year-old B.C. veteran born during our last pandemic books his COVID-19 shot

Victor Osborne is no stranger to new vaccines

Victor Osborne, 102, of Nanaimo, who was born during the Spanish flu pandemic and took part in an influenza A vaccine trial while in the Royal Navy in 1934, will get his first COVID-19 vaccine dose on Monday, March 15. (News Bulletin file photo)
Heather Maling and crash researcher Radovan Zivanovic searching for small pieces from the crash site where Officer Henry Carruthers, of Trail, was killed in the Second World War. Photo: Submitted

Remembering a young man from Trail who went to war and never came home

Henry Carruthers is buried in the Belgrade War Cemetery in Serbia.

Heather Maling and crash researcher Radovan Zivanovic searching for small pieces from the crash site where Officer Henry Carruthers, of Trail, was killed in the Second World War. Photo: Submitted
A poppy is projected on the side of the Peace Tower in Ottawa, Monday, Nov. 9, 2020. On the eve of Remembrance Day, the federal Liberal government is moving ahead with plans to provide emergency assistance to veterans organizations that have been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

VIDEO: Legion, other veterans groups to get $20M to weather COVID-19

Legion dominion president Tom Irvine welcomed the new funding as a long time coming

A poppy is projected on the side of the Peace Tower in Ottawa, Monday, Nov. 9, 2020. On the eve of Remembrance Day, the federal Liberal government is moving ahead with plans to provide emergency assistance to veterans organizations that have been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Korean War veterans Andy Barber, left, and Ron Kirk, raise the Canadian flag at the Halton Naval Veterans Association Burlington, Ont. on Friday November 6, 2020. Barber and Kirk served as in the navy as part of a peacekeeping force immediately following the armistice in July 1953. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch

70 years on, Canadian veterans keep memories of ‘forgotten’ Korean War alive

It took till May 1982 before the National War Memorial was rededicated to include the dates of the Korean War

Korean War veterans Andy Barber, left, and Ron Kirk, raise the Canadian flag at the Halton Naval Veterans Association Burlington, Ont. on Friday November 6, 2020. Barber and Kirk served as in the navy as part of a peacekeeping force immediately following the armistice in July 1953. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch
FILE – A Canadian flag sits on a members of Canadian forces that are leaving from CFB Trenton, in Trenton, Ont., on October 16, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg

Feds gave 1,600 veterans priority hiring, but could have been higher: report

Act was launched on July 1, 2015 and was to intended to help veterans find post-military work

FILE – A Canadian flag sits on a members of Canadian forces that are leaving from CFB Trenton, in Trenton, Ont., on October 16, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg
John Hillman completed his 101st lap for charity to the sound of applause and bagpipes outside the Carlton House retirement home. (Devon Bidal/News Staff)

PHOTOS: 101-year-old B.C. veteran completes 101 laps, raises nearly $150,000 for charity

‘I knew I could do it and I’ve done it,’ centenarian says

John Hillman completed his 101st lap for charity to the sound of applause and bagpipes outside the Carlton House retirement home. (Devon Bidal/News Staff)
Dave Mitchell tweeted this photo to remember his grandfather, Douglas Mitchell, who was part of the Canadian Forces that liberated the Netherlands during the Second World War. Photos of tulips are appearing online in celebration of Liberation Day in the Netherlands on May 5. (Twitter/Dave Mitchell)

Canadians mark 75th anniversary of Netherlands liberation with online tulips

Internet inundated with photos of tulips posted with #Netherlands75 and #TulipsAtHome

Dave Mitchell tweeted this photo to remember his grandfather, Douglas Mitchell, who was part of the Canadian Forces that liberated the Netherlands during the Second World War. Photos of tulips are appearing online in celebration of Liberation Day in the Netherlands on May 5. (Twitter/Dave Mitchell)