OTTAWA—The Conservative government will face sinking morale in the military if it doesn’t act fast on the grievances of injured Canadian soldiers, one of the country’s most recognized veterans warns.

As the Toronto Star wraps up a week-long probe into the plight of wounded soldiers from the Afghan war, Liberal Sen. Romeo Dallaire said there is a moral obligation on the Harper government to boost support for soldiers.

But there is also a practical consideration, particularly with new plans to extend the mission in Afghanistan to 2014, he said.

“What we have is a very honest and concerned perspective by the (injured) veterans that can have a significant effect on those who are still serving,” he said in an interview with the Star Wednesday.

“If veterans are not happy at how they’re being treated when they get out of the forces, that can affect (soldiers’) morale as they serve, so there’s an operational side to sorting this out.”

Opposition MPs are echoing Dallaire’s call for action, saying the Star series has cast a stark light on the frustrations and worries that confront wounded soldiers as they struggle to rebuild lives and careers left shattered by grievous injuries.

“Wounded soldiers are being cheated. They are not receiving their due and feel the government is alienating those who stood for the country,” said Liberal MP Dan McTeague, whose nephew Mike McTeague was seriously wounded in a 2006 suicide attack near Kandahar. Mike McTeague’s story is told on page A7.

“The Canadian public is unanimous in its view that there should be adequate compensation and lifetime help for those who will need it.”

The articles showed in often glaring detail how soldiers like Cpl. Billy Kerr, a reservist from Sudbury, Maj. Mark Campbell, a long-serving soldier from Edmonton, and Master Cpl. Mike Trauner, a decorated war hero who lives in Petawawa, have fought to recover from their wounds, a hostile bureaucracy and an uncertain future since losing limbs while at war in Afghanistan.

Tracy Kerr, the wife of Canada’s only triple amputee from the Afghan war, said Wednesday that friends and acquaintances who read about his story were appalled at the treatment he has received since he stepped on a buried bomb in October 2008.

It is that way across the country: Canadians care about the plight of the wounded soldiers but are often unaware of their constant physical, psychological and bureaucratic challenges.

Dallaire, who famously commanded a United Nations peacekeeping force that was overwhelmed during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, is now the chair of the Senate committee on Veterans’ Affairs. From that perch, he sought to assure the ranks of worried, wounded soldiers that “they’ve been heard.”

He is personally overseeing a review of the so-called New Veterans Charter — the 2006 document that outlines services, compensation and benefits for the injured — and he said various other committees and government advisory panels are examining the necessary fixes.

“My big concern is that, because of the way the charter has been written, it requires so much legislative change, and that’s slow,” he said.

A speedy response from the government, which he said has been lacking so far, is of the essence. Of the 1,500 soldiers already injured, an estimated 100 have suffered serious wounds and about two dozen soldiers have had limbs amputated, most after encountering a roadside bomb blast.

“We’re talking about guys that are already hurting,” Dallaire said. “We’re just not getting that speed of response.”

Topping the list of changes demanded to the veterans’ charter is that Ottawa replace the lump sum payment now awarded to injured soldiers with the monthly pension that had been in place to those injured before April 2006. Wounded soldiers have complained the switch to a lump sum leaves them shortchanged financially.

NDP MP Peter Stoffer said the system must become “more efficient and more generous” if injured veterans are to get the help they truly deserve. It also needs to be faster to respond to soldiers in need.

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“It needs to get to the point where a guy coming back from Afghanistan says ‘I need help’ the only question should be ‘how can we help you’,” he said.

“We need the system to fight for the veteran, not the veteran to have to fight the system. We have to turn it on its head,” Stoffer said.

So far, the government has allowed bureaucrats to make the vital decisions when veterans seek help.

“Unfortunately the bureaucracy is set up to say ‘no’,” Stoffer said.

One battle that injured soldiers may not win is the one to continue on with their military careers, even though Dallaire said it is relatively easy to resolve.

Trauner, who lost both legs on a foot patrol in December 2008, is able to complete 7 kilometres of the 13 kilometre rucksack march that all soldiers must complete to remain in the force.

But if he and others like him can’t meet the army’s physical tests, they are merely biding their time until the Canadian Forces ushers them out under a medical release process.

It’s a policy known as universality of service — that soldiers behind a desk must be able to get behind a gun in battle if called upon — and the head of the Canadian Forces casualty support management team, Col. Gerry Blais, told the Star that it is “sacrosanct.”

Dallaire said he personally oversaw deliberations about relaxing the policy in the late 1990s. Nothing came of it, and even now it’s “up in the air, to be quite honest.”

The military would be satisfying its obligations under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms if it kept wounded soldiers in uniform, but it could also face legal challenges from other groups who want to see the military recruiting disabled people into its ranks.

“It is a complex situation that can only be resolved, I think, politically because these are part of the legal processes under the National Defence Act and the human rights charter,” he said, accusing federal politicians of being “scared” to challenge the status quo.

“Those things are things that should be raised at the political level, and political solutions — and legislation — should be brought in.”

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