Angry in the Great White North

From the Ottawa Sun:

MANY OF THE 300 veterans who travelled by train from Halifax to attend Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa laid their weary heads down in abandoned housing on a desolate military base last night.

The veterans, who are all over 80, were shocked to find out that the cash they shelled out for the trip down memory lane would not cover hotel rooms. Instead, they were taken to drafty, abandoned military housing at Connaught Ranges, a training centre soldiers only visit during the day for target practice.

Cliff Chadderton, head of the National Council of Veterans Associations, said he began receiving calls from friends on the train tour after they were bused to the sprawling training centre in Ottawa's west end near Shirley's Bay and told they would have to pay as much as $10 a night for the accommodations.

Something's not right here. Not that the veterans were staying in barracks. That was understood as early as September, as per this issue of Legion Magazine:

Most veterans of World War II have memories of travelling to departure points by train. Via Rail hopes to bring home those memories in the Year of the Veteran by creating a Remembrance Day Train which will make a return trip from Halifax to Ottawa for the national Remembrance Day ceremony.

Ron Jackson, a ticket agent in Halifax, said the idea was developed in February when a group of Via employees met to discuss what they could do for the community in 2005. "We spoke to a number of veterans and Legionnaires. They all have fond memories of the trains," said Jackson. He says the group takes pride in that the event is organized by unionized employees not the Montreal head office.

In Ottawa, veterans will be able to stay at the Connaught Range Barracks for $3.00 a night or in a downtown Ottawa hotel for $99. A tour of the new Canadian War Museum is being arranged.

Costs for a senior range from $285.20 including tax for a coach seat to $671.60 for a bedroom.

So it was known that they would be staying in barracks. I don't know why some veterans were "shocked". Were they misled in some way, or was it not made clear what the plan was? It does seem, however, that both organizers and veterans were surprised at the condition of the barracks.

And yet to call the barracks abandoned seems misleading too:

Austere quarters for 250 personnel are available year round, and a comfortable campground can accommodate up to 1,000 personnel under canvas during summer months. RV sites also are available.

The words "austere" and "abandoned" both start with the letter "a", but that's about all the two words have in common.

Now Connaught Range may be desolate, but that might be because it is a crown game sanctuary and has been since 1929. And it is certainly active, and has not been abandoned:

Connaught is home to the Area Training Centre Detachment Ottawa, a detachment of Central Region Army Cadets and Sea Cadet #2 Sailing Centre. It is also the home of the national headquarters for the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association (DCRA) as well as the National Capital Region Rifle Association (NCRRA) and several wildlife agencies. It is the venue annually for the Canadian Forces Small Arms Competition (CFSAC) and the Canadian Full-bore Rifle Championships.

I wonder if the organizers did enough groundwork here. Did they check out the barracks? Who told them that the accommodations would be appropriate for 80-year-old veterans? And when did the price go up from $3 to $10 a night?

Normally, I'd be giving the government a thorough dressing down over something like this, but this trip was privately organized by VIA Rail. I'd like to know what level of communication the organizers had with the Department of National Defence (which runs the Connaught Range) and with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

I think the organizers were surprised by what they found, and instead of being up-front about not being as well organized as they should have been, are letting the media run with a much more media-friendly story of Canadian veterans being shabbily treated by an ungrateful government.

Though at first glance this does not seem to have been the government's fault, I think we owe it to these men to address the shortfalls and do something to mitigate their disappointment and the inconvenience the suffered. It would be nice for Minister Albina Guarnieri to take the lead as the minister tasked to look after the interests of our veterans.