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“They suffered with us and should be compensated”: Entitling Caregivers of Canada's Veterans*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2010

James Struthers
James Struthers*
Affiliation:
Trent University
*
Requests for offprints should be sent to:/Les demandes de tirés-à-part doivent être adressées à : James Struthers, Ph.D., Canadian Studies Program, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8. (jstruthers@trentu.ca)
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Abstract

This article examines the struggle to win lifetime eligibility for selected home care benefits provided through the Veterans Independence Program (VIP) for veterans' widows in recognition of their years of unpaid caregiving – a policy change eventually implemented between 2003 and 2004. It explores how arguments on their behalf shifted from discourses of dependency, cost-saving, and compassion to ones of entitlement and commemoration between 1981 and 2004 as the large cohort of Second World War veterans and their wives moved towards the end of their lives. This policy victory for veterans' widows marked a historic shift in mandate for Veterans Affairs Canada and an important recognition by the state of unpaid caregiving as a form of national service. If Canadians are to learn from this example, however, it must be through seeing all caregiving labour – not just that of veterans' wives – as equally heroic and worthy of compensation.

Résumé

l'article aborde la lutte de veuves d'anciens combattants pour obtenir l'admissibilité à vie à certaines prestations de soins à domicile du Programme pour l'autonomie des anciens combattants (PAAC) en reconnaissance des années de dispensation de soins non rémunérées, qui a aboutit au changement de programme mis en œuvre de 2003 à 2004. Il illustre l'évolution de leur argumentation, de l'exposé sur la dépendance, les économies de coûts et la compassion à un discours sur l'admissibilité par droit et la commémoration dans la période de 1981 à 2004, alors que la majorité des anciens combattants de la Seconde Guerre mondiale et leur femme s'acheminaient vers la fin de leur vie. Cette victoire politique des veuves des anciens combattants marque un tournant historique dans le mandat du ministère des Anciens combattants et la reconnaissance par l'État de la prestation de soins familiaux non rétribués comme une forme de service pour le pays. Pour que cette victoire ait un rayonnement dans tout le pays cependant, les Canadiens devront considérer le labeur de la prestation des soins familiaux en général, pas seulement les soins dispensés par les veuves des anciens combattants, comme étant tout aussi héroïque et méritoire d'une rétribution.

Keywords

agingcaregivinghome careveteranswidowsentitlementvieillissementprestation de soins familiauxsoins à domicileanciens combattantsveuvesadmissibilité
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 26 , Issue S1: Hidden Costs/Invisible Contributions of Caregiving / Coûts cachés et contributions invisibles des soins , Winter/Hiver 2007 , pp. 117 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 2007

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Footnotes

*

I wish to thank Veterans Affairs Canada as well as the SSHRC Major Collaborative Research Initiative “Hidden Costs/Invisible Contributions: Marginalization of ‘Dependent’ Adults” for generous cooperation and support of this research project, as well as Norah Keating, Peter Neary, and the anonymous reviewers of the Canadian Journal on Aging for their insightful comments.

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