Times & Transcript (Moncton) - August 11, 2009
North Umberland Today - August 11, 2009
Calgary Herald - August 8, 2009
Miramichi Leader - August 5, 2009
Quebec Chronicle Telegraph - August 5, 2009
The Daily Observer - August 5, 2009
Pictou Advocate - August 4, 2009
The Western Star - August 4, 2009
The Bugle Observer - August 4, 2009
The Calgary Sun - August 2, 2009
The Chronicle-Herald - July 29, 2009
The Edmonton Journal - July 25, 2009
National Post - July 23, 2009
The Hill Times - July 13, 2009
The Windsor Star - July 11, 2009
New Brunswick Telegraph Journal - July 07, 2009
Winnipeg Free Press - July 3, 2009
Montreal Gazette - July 2, 2009
The Guardian (Charlottetown) - July 2, 2009
By Colin Kenny
You see Canadians gathered on Highway 401 overpasses, there to pay tribute to the souls of fallen soldiers coming home from Afghanistan. It makes you sad, but it makes you proud too. These people don’t have to be there. But they know why they are.
Nor do Canadians have to donate to the Military Families Fund. But increasingly, I have learned, they are. These donations are a tribute not to soldiers killed in action, but the families of soldiers who live tough lives and sometimes need a hand.
I discovered the fund by accident, shortly after visiting three wounded soldiers in an Ottawa hospital in the company of Senators Joe Day and Pamela Wallin, two fellow members of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence.
One of the soldiers had some pretty devastating wounds to the face; the other two were beat up too, but not nearly as badly off. When the three of us had finished our visit –all of us feeling pretty distraught about the pain in these kids’ eyes – I told the soldiers if there was any way I could help down the road, to let me know.
Nothing usually happens when you say something like that, but a couple of weeks later I got a phone call. One of the soldiers had family in town, from Newfoundland – fish plant workers from one of the few fish plants still in operation there. They has mistakenly thought they were eligible for employment insurance while visiting their son for two weeks after his evacuation from Afghanistan but it turned out they were wrong. These people were living very close to the edge. Could I do anything?
That’s when my staff did some research and told me about the Military Families Fund, administered by the Canadian Forces Personnel and Family Support Services (www.cfpsa.com). We contacted the fund, and it quickly came through with $360 for each of the young man’s parents – what they thought they would get from employment insurance. That’s not a lot of money to most Canadians, but it was to them.
This fund operates entirely on the donations of ordinary Canadians. So far their contributions run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, from several thousand people like you and me. The fund is designed to help in little, thoughtful ways. In its own words: “The Military Families Fund provides assistance for a range of support services and allows for flexibility in unique circumstances to help military families when they need it most.”
Often the fund helps out when military families – who usually live some distance from the amenities available in big Canadian cities – need support when a bad situation crops up unexpectedly. A child suffers severe burns and his mother needs help getting to her when she’s sent off to a big city hospital. Dad’s in Afghanistan, the family car breaks down, and there is just no money to fix it. That kind of thing.
The fund takes pride in moving quickly to help in these kinds of situations. Since General Rick Hillier set it up in 2007 it has come through for more than 250 families. As its website says:
“The military life places significant demands on our loved ones. They did not volunteer for service – but serve they do, and with great distinction. It is our turn to be there for our families.”
Amen.
[Colin Kenny is Chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence]