NOTICE OF
ANNUAL
GENERAL
MEETING
Am I a Veteran?
An AFP member recently asked if
she was considered a veteran because, in
the 20 years that she had served in the
CanadianArmed Forces (CAF), she had
never been on an international deploy-
ment. She was uncertain of her status
or whether she would be entitled to the
same benefits as those who had served
abroad.
The answer is “yes”, and “no”: yes,
she is a veteran; but no, she isn’t entitled
to all the same benefits as those who
served overseas.
The Government of Canada, in the
convoluted legal-speak of the “Cana-
dian Forces Members and Veterans Re-
establishment and Compensation Act”,
better known as the “New Veterans
Charter,” (NVC) defines a veteran sim-
ply as ‘“veteran” meaning a former
member’. It defines a ‘member’ as ‘an
officer or a non-commissioned member
of the Canadian Forces, as those terms
are defined in subsection 2(1) of the Na-
tional Defence Act’.
Thus anyone who served in the
CAF, regardless of when or where, is a
‘veteran’ and is entitled, amongst other
things, to obtain a veteran license for
his/her private automobile (in those
provinces which provide such a plate).
There is a problem however, because
VeteransAffairs Canada (VAC) does not
treat all veterans the same: it has a dif-
ferent set of rules and benefits for mod-
ern-day veterans than for those who
served in WWII and Korea.
Disability benefits are available
from VAC to all veterans for qualified
medical conditions however ‘modern-
day veterans’ (i.e., Cold War and subse-
quent actions) are ineligible for certain
benefits which are available to WWII
and Korean War veterans. Further, the
NVC has replaced lifetime disability
pensions with a one-time, lump-sum
payment.
There is no question that anyone
who served in the CAF, regardless of
when or where, is a veteran. AFP/AAC
believes that all veterans should be
treated equally by VAC with regard to
disability benefits and long term care.
We invite your thoughts on this
issue.
The AFP/AAC Annual General
Meeting will be held on Saturday 20
September 2014 at 2:00 PM EDT by
teleconference call. For those mem-
bers wishing to participate, please
contact us by calling 1-613-432-9491
or email us at executivedirector@af-
paac.ca to receive the call-in infor-
mation. There will be no costs
incurred for members to call-in.
A motion to approve the 2013
audit will be made at the AGM. The
audit was conducted by Nephin Win-
ter Bingley and subsequent draft fi-
nancial statements were provided to
the board. The auditor reported that,
“In our opinion, these financial state-
ments present fairly, in all material
respects, the balance sheet of Armed
Forces pensioner’/Annuitants’Asso-
ciation of Canada as at December 31,
2013 and its results of operations and
its cash flows for the year then ended
in accordance with Canadian gener-
ally accepted accounting principles
for not-for-profit organizations.” The
financial statements are available to
members upon request.
AFP/AAC
P.O. Box 370, 3-247 Barr Street
Renfrew, Ontario K7V 4A6
Phone: 613-432-9491
Email:
Website:
2
ARMED FORCES PENSIONERS
’
/ANNUITANTS
’
ASSOCIATION OF CANADA
