Legion, Wounded Warriors push for support services awareness

The Royal Canadian Legion and Wounded Warriors Canada are pushing to better inform a new generation of soldiers about the services at their disposal to deal with disabilities.

Wounded Warriors is a non-profit founded in 2006 that helps Canadian Forces troops who fall through the cracks of mental and physical health treatment and benefits.

It's partnering with the legion for a national awareness campaign about the services offered by legion branches nationwide.

"It's emphasizing and recommunicating services that have always been there," said Wayne Johnston, who founded Wounded Warriors, at a news conference Thursday. "And for a lot of young veterans, they feel, 'Oh, the legion doesn't resonate.'I get that part. I was one of them.

"I'm an old fox, I've been soldiering 39 years, but I kind of think these 25-year-olds,some of them really need thisparticularly with mental health," Johnston said.

Legion officers "can assist and represent still serving CF members, veterans, RCMP members and their families regarding disability claims or related issues with Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) and the Veterans Review and Appeal Board (VRAB)," according to a media release on the new partnership.

Legion officers also "provide professional counseling and representation services at all stages of the disability adjudication process under the Pension Act or the Canadian Forces Members and Veterans Re-establishment and Compensation Act, commonly referred to as the New Veterans Charter. Professional Legion Service Officers provide these services free of charge, whether or not the individual is a member of the Legion," the release said.

"Will this be perfect in two years? No. But I'd like to think in four or five years it's going to be the way it used to be post World War II, World War I," Johnston said.

Gordon Moore, president of the legion, also attended Thursday's news conference.

In an interview with reporters after the announcement, he said he hopes the government will change its mind about danger pay for military personnel still serving in Afghanistan.

Earlier this week, the government announced that danger pay would be reduced because Afghanistan has been deemed less dangerous. The cut would have meant military personnel would take home about $500 less per month.

But government officials now say the policy is just being reviewed.

"I'm hoping that they're going to do the right thing. If they're not going to do the right thing, then you'll hear from me," Moore said.

"We were really upset about the fact that you're going to send our men and women over to Afghanistan until the end of March of next year, and you're going to cut their danger pay halfway through because it's considered that they're not in danger anymore? That is just totally, totally wrong, the sole reason being that they're still in danger over there," Moore said.