Senate committee hears of vets' mistreatment

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Remembrance Day comes each Nov. 11 for Aboriginal veterans of the First and Second Wars and the Korean War, just like it comes for their comrades in arms. But for First Nations and Metis men who fought for Canada, the fighting didn't end with their tour of duty overseas. Today they are finally closing in on their goals: recompense for decades of second-class veteranship.

Last winter, the Senate moved to have its standing committees on Aboriginal peoples "examine and report upon treatment of Aboriginal veterans following the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War." Specifically, Indian and Metis servicemen vets denied benefits given to other returning soldiers.

Some reportedly were stripped of their Treaty status by Indian Affairs bureaucrats when they enlisted; when they returned home, they fell inconveniently between the two societies. Inconveniently, that is, for the societies, oftentimes tragically for the soldiers involved. Many of the inequities are only now, half a century after the Second World War ended, being addressed.

After hearing from Native and veterans' organizations last spring, the Senate committee sent out an appeal to Aboriginal veterans to come before a sub-committee and tell their stories. That sub-committee, chaired by first-year senator Raynell Andreychuk of Saskatchewan, has heard eastern and Manitoba witnesses in Ottawa. Last week, it heard from their western counterparts in one-day sessions in Vancouver, Edmonton and Saskatoon.

Speaker after speaker told of how they returned home only to be left uninformed by Indian agents and Metis area supervisors about how to get loans to re-establish them-selves, veterans allowances, vocational training, educational support and low-cost insurance.

The handful of old men left alive are only now able to find an audience that will listen to their tales of denial and exclusion. The Senate committee is also investigating the purchase by the then-government of reserve lands for returning non-Aboriginal vets, something also denied the Native soldiers.

Stephen Mistaken Chief, from the Blood reserve in southern Alberta, repeatedly said in Edmonton that he didn't want "some hand-out. I want my land," he said, gesturing at the senators. "I fought for that land."

He explained what he was willing to do to get it: "give me a loan over seven years, then I'll pay taxes and support the state. I don't want people to say 'there's another handout to a lazy Indian.' I want to be able to own something, to have title, to be able to leave it to my heirs."

He echoed the thoughts and feeling of many other speakers. "Indian veteran had no say in any aspects of life; how were we supposed to succeed? But now we want a say in whatever life is left to us. I'm tired of being run by Indian Affairs: I'm tired of being run by councils. Why should these people be running you?"

Almost to a man, veterans asked that their affairs be centralized and localized through Veterans' Affairs, Edward Bellrose of Calahoo, Alta., pleaded to be treated like other veterans. "We want to be able to go into an office around here and get our concerns looked after. Now we have to apply through an office in Winnipeg," he said. "It hasn't much changed from earlier days, except that the service isn't as good."

He remembered: "Even if the Indian agent was a good one, because of the Indian Act there was nothing the Indian could gain." Treaty Indians couldn't hold title to land off the reserves; nobody could hold title to land on them. Pensions were withheld. Returning members couldn't even join the Royal Canadian Legion because of the liquor laws (Natives were only allowed to buy liquor in Alberta liquor stores when the law was changed in the mid-60s.)

Sitting on the committee, senator Len Marchand of B.C., who described himself as a "pretty qualified Indian", was denied employment in the Department of Indian Affairs in the 1950s. He used the question period following the submissions to make point of his own: "The whole system was an apartheid and racist system, it was nothing more than that."

Richard Joseph Poitras of Paddle Prairie, Alta., was one of the founders of the Metis organizations in Alberta. Ken Noskey, president of the Metis Settlements General Council, said: "This man pulled the eight settlements together in one voice." He was the first president of the organization and is as responsible for the status of Metis people in Alberta as anybody. He is also a veteran. He expressed many of the same concerns.

"We were a lost people. If anything, the system was even worse for us. But, in terms of our concerns about veterans' rights, we want them handled through Veterans' Affairs." He also expressed concern about the levels of service.

Poitras explained what happened to him after the war: "They gave me $2,300 to buy livestock, farm equipment, a tractor," he laughed.

"I couldn't even buy a good tractor, so I went in to buy some home equipment from the settlement supervisor. He said: 'You can't have those. They're better than mine.' I said: 'So, who are you? It's my money. I want them.' He smiled. 'And I got them, but only because I insisted."

Poitras and William Erasmus of Kikino, Alta., explained that the real problem of the system was the inherent paternalism or colonialism embodied in the Indian agents and the Metis area supervisors.

"They controlled everything, and some of them were good and some of them weren't."

Senator Andreychuk asked each witness to tell the sub-committees what, specifically, they thought could be done, after all this time, as some kind of compensation.

"If the Canadian Japanese victims of the war can be compensated," said Steve Mistaken-Chief, "then surely we can be, too."

Edward Bellrose insisted: "We don't want special status. We want what we deserve and have always deserved. We want equal status."

The really galling thing for many of the veterans is that they didn't have to fight; instead, they went out and sgned up. Edward (Ted) Brave Rock of Standoff, Alberta, said: "I signed up to fight for my country in 1940. They didn't say 'You're only going to get a little compensation, so you don't have to go where the fighting is toughest. Stay back here where you'll be safer.' When I got back home, I discovered that I'd lost what I had left here and couldn't get it back."

Bellrose agreed and added: "But I'm proud to be a veteran, proud to be a Canadian."

The sub-committee will report back to the whole Senate committee in Ottawa and then they will put together all their facts and recommendations to be tabled in the Upper House by Dec. 15. Forty-nine years after the Second World War's end, the last remaining Aboriginal veterans may finally be given their just desserts.