D-Day honors offer cold comfort to Aboriginal veterans

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June 6 marks the 50th anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Normandy by the Allied Forces during the Second World War. But while Canadian veterans of this historic landing are honored at commemoration ceremonies across the country, the homage may be too little, too late for the Aboriginal defenders of Canada's freedom.

The Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples is set to examine the treatment of Aboriginal veterans following the first and second world wars and the Korean War, said Committee Clerk Paul Benoit. Senate witnesses have testified Aboriginal veterans were not given the same honors and benefits as their non-Aboriginal comrades-in-arms upon returning from the war. The committee is urging individuals who believe they've experienced an injustice as a veteran of these wars, to tell their stories to the senate.

Some Aboriginals lost status rights as a result of their enlistment in the armed forces to fight for Canada, Benoit said. Others weren't fully informed of veterans allowances, vocational training, education support, business and professional loans and low-cost insurance which were made available to non-Aboriginal veterans post-war. In many cases, Indian war veterans were not issued the medals non-Native soldiers were awarded.

Reserve lands, some 85,000 acres primarily in Alberta and Saskatchewan, were surrendered to the federal government and given to non-Aboriginal veterans. Under the Soldiers Settlement Act of 1919, returning veterans were given a parcel of land to start a farming operation, said Benoit. Many Aboriginal veterans were not informed of their entitlement to the land.

Sam Sinclair, president of the National Aboriginal Veterans Association, would like to see those Aboriginal veterans who were entitled to land benefits be allowed to access land now.

"Most would like a house and home to call their own," he said. The organization needs individuals to come forward and give statements on how Aboriginals were treated, Sinclair said.

Norman Quinney, president of the Alberta Indian War Veterans Society, along with Richard Long, the society's secretary-treasurer went before the committee May 12 with a list of 11 recommendations, for the senate's consideration, designed to rectify the injustices suffered by Aboriginal veterans.

While non-Natives were given the choice to buy war bonds in order to support the war effort, for each of the six years Canada was involved in the Second World War, the government deducted $1 out of each $5 payment made annually to 126,000 Aboriginal Canadians. The Alberta Indian War Veterans Society believes the government had no legal right to tamper with the amount of money provided in treaty agreements.

The society would like to see an Indian War Veterans Trust Fund set up with the restored funds that would support national Indian veterans issues. Individuals or groups wishing to make representation to the committee should contact Benoit no later than June 27. The case does not have to be ready by then, said Benoit, but contact has to be made.

The committee will decide in what form the hearings will be held. Veterans, or their families, can contact Benoit through their band office or tribal council, or by writing to Victoria Building, Room 710, 140 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ont. K1A 0A4 or call (613) 990-0088.