Aboriginal Veterans
On June 21, 2002, National Aboriginal Day, Cliff Chadderton, in his role as Chairman of the National Council of Veteran Associations (NCVA), was asked to lay a wreath at the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument in Ottawa's Confederation Park. The following day the National Aboriginal Veterans Association (NAVA), together with Mr. Chadderton, held a news conference announcing its submission to the Government of Canada for an ex gratia payment. The compensation would be in lieu of benefits denied to aboriginal veterans, including the Métis, Inuit and "non-status" Indians, by reason of the inapplicability of legislation under the Veterans Charter.
The NCVA submission to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations in Geneva, on behalf of NAVA, is based on a denial of the UN's code of human rights and contains research documents dating from the Ewing Commission, beginning in 1933, chaired by Mr. Justice Albert Ewing of the Supreme Court of Alberta. The claim calls for special grants of $7,500 per year for periods of service in Canada only and $15,000 per year for periods of service in a theatre of actual war.
The issue has received tremendous national coverage and will soon be given international attention, bringing to light the discrimination of our own Government against Canada's aboriginal veterans.
Backgrounder
News Releases
2006
2003
2002
Submission