Research into the health and well-being of military personnel and veterans will help in a 2019 national action plan on post-traumatic stress injuries among first responders and public-safety workers. There are linkages between mental-health issues that confront firefighters, police officers, para-medics, correctional officers, border personnel, emergency workers and serving military and veterans, said Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale in the opening speech at the 2018 Canadian Institute of Military and Veteran Health Research (CIMVHR) forum in Regina. Like military personnel, public-safety officers run into the teeth of a crisis, he said. “The gruesome realities they are called upon to witness take a heavy toll”—58 first responders committed suicide in 2017 alone. Yet research i...

As much as $265 million will be put in veterans’ pockets as the federal government rectifies an accounting error and settles a class-action lawsuit over benefits clawbacks. The accounting error between 2003 and 2010, uncovered by the veterans ombudsman, stinted veterans and RCMP retirees of indexation increases to their disability pensions. The adjustments did not take into account a change to provincial tax credits. About 270,000 veterans, RCMP retirees, survivors and estates are affected. “We will ensure those affected receive the compensation to which they are entitled,” said then Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O’Regan. The error has been fixed and affected veterans, or their estates, will receive retroactive compensation ranging from a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars...