OTTAWA – Pat Stogran, who was Canada’s first veterans ombudsman, says he tried unsuccessfully for years to get the former Conservative government to recognize that homelessness among ex-soldiers was an issue.
And he says he is “gob-smacked” that it took until 2014 for the federal government to begin tracking the issue through a national data base, especially since he began urging individual shelters in 2009 to start collecting data and asking people whether they’ve had any military service.
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Stogran, who had an ongoing stormy relationship with the Harper government, says the issue of homelessness and the intractable attitude of both politicians and the veterans bureaucracy was — more than anything else — the cause of his falling out with the Tories.
Last week, Employment and Social Development Canada released a report that estimates 2,250 former soldiers — about 2.7 per cent of the total homeless population — use shelters on a regular basis.
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The Royal Canadian Legion, among other groups, says the estimate is too low, noting the Legion’s outreach program has dealt with 425 homeless ex-soldiers in Ontario alone since 2009.
The current veterans ombudsman, who worked for Stogran, says he also recalls the former government balking at the notion veterans were — for one reason or another — ending up on the streets.
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