Song For First Responders and PTSD Nominated for Nashville Award

Kevin Davison’s song lives on: Canaan man performs for paramedics, nominated for Nashville award
Kings County Advertiser Register
Wendy Eilliott
May 27, 2016

CANAAN - During a Halifax ceremony May 24, country music singer and paramedic Kevin Davidson performed his song When Those Sirens Are Gone. It could soon be an award winner.

Kevin Davison performs May 24 at the Emergency Health Services long term service award ceremony in Halifax.

The Canaan resident was one of 10 Emergency Health Services staff members from the Valley region who were recognized for their service.

"When Nova Scotians need urgent medical care, paramedics, nurses and medical communications officers with Emergency Health Services are there to help," said Health and Wellness Minister Leo Glavine.

"They have the training and experience to respond in emergencies and save lives. More and more, they are also working in collaborative health-care teams to improve the care we offer in communities. We are all grateful for their expertise."

The list of long service award recipients is long. The 20-year recipients from Kings County included Davison, Bruce Cruickshank of Canning, Christopher Renaud of Kingston; Rob Merchant of Hantsport; Scott Veinot of Middleton and Karen Cress and Richard Foster of Annapolis Royal.

Jay Marshall of Bridgetown and Paul Dawson of Port Williams were 25-year recipients, while Brian Bunch of Wolfville was a 30-year recipient.
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"We ain't super heroes. We're ordinary men trying to make a difference."

Published on Nov 19, 2014
A song I wrote along with Doug Folkins honouring all First Responders and the painful reality of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Let's get this out to everyone who may be affected or has a loved one at risk of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Let this be our Anthem!'

If you like the song please go to www.ellentube.com and watch it again on that site. We are trying to get Ellen to notice so we can bring even more attention to this serious issue! Just search "When Those Sirens Are Gone" once you get to the site.

Thank you so much to everyone that has viewed the video.

Strange Story of Joseph Benjamin Noil Canadian with US Medal of Honor

UPDATE
Headstone fixes error for MOH recipient more than 140 years after rescue

District of Columbia Executive Director of the Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs Tammi Lambert, left, and Director of the Department of Behavioral Health Tanya A. Royster, right, unveil the headstone of Medal of Honor recipient Joseph B. Noil during a ceremony Friday, April 29, 2016, at St. Elizabeths Hospital Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Noil received the Medal of Honor while serving on USS Powhatan, but his headstone did not recognize his award because of a misprint on his death certificate.
ERIC LOCKWOOD/U.S. NAVY

Nearly forgotten, a sailor’s heroics are now forever etched in stone
Washington Post
By John Kelly Columnist
April 26, 2016

When Joseph Benjamin Noil started to lose his mind, it was agreed that the best place for him was the Government Hospital for the Insane in Washington, D.C. That’s where the Navy sailor went on June 3, 1881.

“Paralysis” was the vague diagnosis. Today we might call it post-traumatic stress disorder. Noil did little more than stare into the distance.

Living in New York City and working to support their two daughters, Noil’s wife, Sarah Jane, was too poor to visit him, but she wrote the hospital regularly to check on his condition.

Joseph Noil was a hero. He joined the Navy in 1864, possibly earlier. On the day after Christmas in 1872, he was aboard the USS Powhatan, a side-wheel steam frigate, off Norfolk. A boatswain named Walton fell from the forecastle into the ice-cold water and was swept under the bow.

Upon hearing the cry, “Man overboard!” Noil bolted from below deck, took the end of a rope and leapt into the sea. He caught Walton and held him until a boat came to their rescue.

For this gallant conduct, Noil was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Noil was unusual for many reasons. He was Canadian. And he was black.
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Canada: Disabled Veterans Comp Based on Rank Not Wound?

Edmonton military veteran frustrated he has to annually fill out form to say his legs are still missing
Edmonton Journal
Dave Lazzarino
Published on: April 13, 2016

For example, if you have a disability that is deemed to decrease your income by 25 per cent, you get 25 per cent of the income you made in the Armed Forces. As such, people with higher rank end up getting more for their injuries.

Retired Master Cpl. Paul Franklin lost both of his legs from just above knee when a bomb hit the vehicle he was driving during a Canadian Forces tour in Afghanistan in January 2006.

Ten years later, he is getting ready to fill out yet another set of forms to tell the Canadian government that, in fact, his legs are still missing.

“It’s insane,” Franklin said. “My problem with all this is if you have someone who has post-traumatic stress disorder or some sort of brain injury, or you have a combination of the two and they’re on street drugs or alcohol or whatever, the chance of them filling out the forms correctly is minimal at best.”

When a veteran wants to fill out disability and pension forms, it can sometimes involve multiple applications to several bodies, including insurance companies, even for permanent injuries like Franklin’s.
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Calgary Police Mourn Loss of Female Officer To Suicide

‘One life lost to suicide is too many’: Calgary police mourn officer’s death
Global News
By Erika Tucker
Online Supervisor
April4, 2016

Police said the “crisis” started at around 9 p.m. Friday night, when the woman was off duty.

“Commanders quickly responded to invoke all available resources, however, in the end the officer took her own life,” police said in a release.

The Calgary Police Service is offering mental health support to its members after an officer took her own life early Saturday morning. The suicide was one of four within the ranks of CPS in the last 25 years, police said.

“Police officers are human beings and we come with all the frailties that human beings come with. We suffer stress in our family life and in our work life the same as every other citizen does,” Superintendent Nina Vaughan said Monday, who added CPS members are processing the tragedy in different ways.
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Canadian Veteran Gets Ovation Returning To Game He Loves

War veteran brought to tears by massive ovation at Jets game
BarDown Staff
Mar. 31, 2016

Len Kropioski has been a fixture at most Winnipeg Jets home games ever since the team moved back to Manitoba. The 97-year-old war veteran has a seat right along the glass and is shown on the video board during the Canadian national anthem with regularity. He is even featured on a pin that is sold at the True North Shop.

Unfortunately, after being hospitalized in February, he hasn’t been able to make it out to any games for quite some time. On Wednesday night however, he made his return, and it was glorious.

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Canadian Armed Forces Acknowledges Suicide Tied To Military Service

Hamilton corporal who died by suicide to receive military honours
Hamilton Spectator
By Teviah Moro
March 18, 2016

The military is honouring the legacy of an Argyll reservist who died by suicide in the Hamilton armouries nearly five years ago.

That's vindication for those who pressed Ottawa to recognize that Corp. Justin Stark's death in October 2011 was related to his service in Afghanistan.

"I'm overjoyed. This has been a long battle," Keven Ellis, who has advocated on behalf of Stark's family, said Thursday.

A Canadian Armed Forces spokesperson said Veterans Affairs has determined Stark's death was "related to military services."

The 22-year-old Hamilton man's name will be recorded in the Book of Remembrance, noted Major Holly-Anne Brown.

His family will receive the Memorial Cross while Stark earns the Sacrifice Medal posthumously. It has not yet been determined when Stark's parents will receive the honours.

The reservist with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders killed himself in the James Street North barracks 10 months after completing his seven-month tour of duty in Afghanistan.

His family believes he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but a government board concluded his service wasn't behind his condition.
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Canadian Soldiers Stabbed at Recruitment Center

Police allege soldier stabbing suspect said 'Allah told me to come and kill people'
NATIONAL
THE CANADIAN PRESS
by COLIN PERKEL AND DIANA MEHTA
Posted Mar 15, 2016

Ali was charged with a total of nine counts, according to court documents: three attempted murder, two aggravated assault, three assault with a weapon and possession of a dangerous weapon.

Ayanle Hassan Ali arrives in a police car at a Toronto court house on Tuesday, March 15, 2016. A man who allegedly said Allah instructed him to kill was charged Tuesday with stabbing and wounding two uniformed soldiers at a north Toronto military recruitment centre a day earlier. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO – A man who allegedly said Allah instructed him to kill was charged Tuesday with stabbing and wounding two uniformed soldiers at a north Toronto military recruitment centre a day earlier.

While investigators were probing possible terror links, the city’s police chief said there didn’t appear to be any connection to terrorist groups, although it seemed the man had deliberately targeted military personnel.

“To date, there is nothing to indicate the accused is working with anyone or in concert with any organization,” Chief Mark Saunders said. “It will take some time to have a complete picture.”

The incident occurred mid-afternoon Monday, when a man walked into the government building that houses a Canadian Armed Forces recruitment centre on the ground floor.
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Canada Charity Gives First Responders PTSD Service Dogs

PTSD service dog meets family of firefighter who took his own life
CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Monday, February 29, 2016

"What they're doing here is just beyond words, it's incredible," he said. "Finally, somebody has recognized mental health problems in first responders, and they're actually doing something about it."

A service dog named in memory of an Edmonton firefighter and former draft pick for the Edmonton Oilers was given a hero's welcome on Sunday.

Bolt is a post-traumatic stress disorder service dog. Dogs like Bolt are trained to help first responders overcome trauma. The volunteer organization United By Trauma provides the dogs to emergency workers affected by PTSD.

Bolt is still in training, but will soon be ready for work, the organization's co-founder, Nicole Taylor, told CTV Edmonton.
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Researchers Discover Link Between Concussions and Suicide

The terrifying link between concussions and suicide is the headline on the Washington Post and after reading it, it seems as if there is a lot that is contributing to suicides in our veterans. As someone with over 50 years walking around following a concussion and a fractured skull, it makes a lot of sense but it also causes concern that researchers are still learning how to crawl through researching what is happening instead of being able to run marathons on how to help healing.

The terrifying link between concussions and suicide
Washington Post
Erin Blakemore
Feburary 22, 2016

“The magnitude of the increased risk surprised me,” says Donald Redelmeier, a practicing physician and professor of medicine who led the study. “I always had my doubts about whether individuals fully recover from concussions, but I never thought I’d find a three-fold increase in risk.”

Suicide and brain injury have long been linked by scientists, but just how many people who have had a brain injury end up committing suicide? A new study has a grim answer: It found that the longterm risk of suicide increases three-fold among adults who have had concussions.

That’s the conclusion of a team of Canadian researchers who studied a health insurance database of more than 235,000 people. Their work was recently published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Rather than focus on athletes or people who were hospitalized for days or weeks after head injuries, they looked at ordinary people who had concussions but did not sustain severe brain injury.
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Seven Ontario First Responders Committed Suicide This Year

UPDATE
8 deaths so far in 2016: Canada’s first responder PTSD crisis
Global News
By Tania Kohut National Online Journalist
February 4, 2016

Toronto Police Const. Darius Garda’s body was pulled from Lake Ontario Thursday, the third death of an Ontario first responder over five days.

Toronto cop Darius Garda remembered as ‘genuine’, ‘empathetic’
Const. Garda was pulled from Lake Ontario on Thursday. He was 29.
Toronto Star
By: Alex Ballingall News
Published on Fri Feb 05 2016
One day after the body of Const. Darius Garda was pulled from the cold lake near Polson Pier, the young cop’s family was cloistered in grief in their Scarborough home.

“Me and my wife are just not able to handle this,” Garda’s father, Keras, said Friday when contacted by the Star. “It’s something we are not able to handle.”

The 29-year-old Toronto police officer was believed to have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Friends and colleagues at 51 Division described him as a capable and good-natured crime analyst who was caring, sensitive and always quick to flash a smile.

“He’s the kind of person who, throughout his life — even though he was actually kind of a small person — he always stood up for people who were being treated unfairly,” one friend told the Star.
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Following Toronto officer's death, attention turns to better PTSD assessment 
City News
BY NEWS STAFF
POSTED FEB 5, 2016

Seven first responders in Ontario have committed suicide this year, according to a PTSD advocacy group, and there have been four more deaths across the country.

Tema Conter Memorial Trust is working to have post-traumatic stress disorder recognized as a work-related illness, while also providing support those suffering from PTSD and their families.

“It feels like almost every day we’re hearing about another first responder, another military member, another communications officer or corrections officer dying by suicide,” Erin Alvarez, the wife of a paramedic, says in a video released by Tema.

“PTSD has become a household name.”
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This one is from me. I created it years ago for National Guardsmen but it turned out the IFOC was using it for police officers and firefighters. While it is about what is going on here in the US, please, watch it and I hope that it helps you! You have PTSD for a reason and that reason IS YOUR JOB!

The folks you help everyday can end up with PTSD but you put your lives on the line everyday, so please understand YOU ARE NOT WEAK anymore than you are stuck suffering. Get help and heal so you can keep taking care of others. Canadians need you as much as we need our heroes!

Firefighters in Canada Respond to Fatal Crash, One of Their Own

Firefighters respond to fatal accident involving colleague 
CBC News
 Posted: Jan 19, 2016

"You really don't know what you're going to face when you get there. It could be innocent … or it could be the exact opposite, which unfortunately in this case it was," Fisher told CBC News.

Northern Arm Fire Chief Robert Fisher has been a firefighter for more than 30 years. (Chris Ensing/CBC)

Firefighters in Bay of Exploits are grieving the loss of one of their colleagues after responding to a fatal highway crash near Botwood, in central Newfoundland, Saturday.

Northern Arm Fire Chief Rob Fisher said the deceased was a volunteer fire fighter at the nearby Philips Head fire department — a man that his fire brigade trained with. Fisher said it was one of the toughest calls they've had to deal with, and the next few weeks could be more difficult for the brigade. read more here

The Government's Secret War Against Canada's Veterans

Canada's 1st veterans ombudsman shocked it took 5 years to track homeless vets
The Canadian Press
By Murray Brewster
Posted: Jan 10, 2016

Pat Stogran says he tried for years to get the former Conservative government to recognize the issue

Pat Stogran, who was Canada's first veterans ombudsman, says he is 'gob-smacked' that it took until 2014 for the federal government to begin tracking the issue of homelessness among veterans through a national database. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Pat Stogran, Canada's first veterans ombudsman, vividly recalls being hauled into the minister's office one day in late 2008, where an angry, red-faced Greg Thompson — the veterans minister of the day — upbraided him for making public the issue of homelessness among ex-soldiers.

It was not an issue, Thompson allegedly told the extra infantry colonel, who had been selected for the watchdog post by a Conservative government eager to demonstrate that it was the best friend of the troops.

The encounter, chronicled in Stogran's book Rude Awakening: The Government's Secret War Against Canada's Veterans, was the beginning of the end of the rapport they'd enjoyed. And it eventually led to the Harper government not renewing Stogran's position in 2010.

Stogran says he tried unsuccessfully throughout his mandate to get the former Conservative government to recognize that homelessness among ex-soldiers was not only an issue, but a growing concern.

"They weren't going to do anything unless they got hit in the head with a hammer," said Stogran, who indicated the reluctance to acknowledge the problem extended to the veterans department as well.
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Conman who posed as wounded veteran held on $1M bail

Conman who posed as wounded veteran held on $1M bail after giving 'full, video-recorded confession'
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
BY SHAYNA JACOBS
January 6, 2016

More than 200 forged checks, military uniforms, fake passports from Canada and the U.K., and other false official documents were recovered from the 10 Hanover Square apartment he rented.

JEFFERSON SIEGEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Jeremy Wilson went before judge Heidi Cesare wearing a grey Harvard Law School hoodie, dark blue jeans and a grim expression.

It's the end of a long con.

A seasoned grifter who posed as a wounded veteran and used stolen loot for a Manhattan pad gave a “full, video-recorded confession” to his latest antics — less than two months after leaving prison for similar crimes, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Jeremy Wilson, 42 — whose true name is unknown because of his rampant use of fake identities in a “Catch Me If You Can”-like career of scamming — was ordered held on $1 million bail at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Wilson got up to his old tricks again at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

He “created an alias and posed as a U.S. Army veteran,” Diaz said.

At the prestigious college, Wilson hung around campus and “stole computers and an MIT corporate credit card.”
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Canada Workers Compensation Added PTSD!

Manitoba listing PTSD as occupational disease
The Reminder
Flin Flon Reminder
December 31, 2015

Changes to the Workers Compensation Act recognizing post-traumatic stress disorder as a work-related occupational disease in Manitoba come into effect Jan. 1.

Effective that date, the Workers Compensation Board will presume that someone’s job caused PTSD if a worker experiences a traumatic event on the job and is then diagnosed with the disorder.

This will make “it much easier to access supports, treatment and compensation,” Premier Greg Selinger said in a news release.
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Canada's Joint Personnel Support Unit Not Equipped to Help Soldiers

Military support unit not properly equipped to help soldiers: review
The Globe and Mail
RENATA D’ALIESIO AND STEVEN CHASE
Published Monday, Dec. 28, 2015

Created in 2008, the JPSU was designed to assist wounded soldiers at a time when casualties from the Afghanistan war were mounting. The unit’s 24 personnel-support centres and eight satellite offices, located at bases and wings across the country, offer programs and administrative support to those deemed unable to fulfill their regular duties for at least six months.

Sergeant Paul Martin, who was diagnosed with PTSD after returning from Afghanistan, was transferred to the JPSU. He was facing a medical discharge from the military when he took his own life in 2011.

A military review has identified serious flaws with a support unit intended to aid ill and wounded troops, concluding that it has too few staff and resources to properly help vulnerable soldiers return to work or adapt to civilian life.

The review of the nearly eight-year-old Joint Personnel Support Unit (JPSU) was ordered by General Jonathan Vance two weeks after he assumed the role of Chief of the Defence Staff in mid-July. The Globe and Mail obtained a draft copy of the review team’s findings and the more than 50 recommendations made for overhauling the JPSU.

The internal probe underscores long-standing problems with the support unit, many of which have been raised in previous investigations. Yet, little significant action has been taken over the years to address the JPSU’s shortcomings, even after several soldiers in the support unit took their own lives.

Gen. Vance is pledging to fix the JPSU. He has ordered a deep examination of the review team’s recommendations and a renewal of the unit’s mandate, design, resources and policies.

“The JPSU needs an absolutely thorough review from top to bottom,” Gen. Vance told The Globe and Mail after considering the recommendations. “I have to make sure the JPSU concept accounts for the requirements of the individual and more closely customizes their care.”

Sgt. Martin is one of at least 59 soldiers and veterans who have killed themselves after serving in the Afghanistan war – a number that came to light as result of The Globe’s investigation. The inquiry into Sgt. Martin’s suicide led to four recommendations aimed at improving the JPSU, boosting mental-health services and improving how the military deals with traumatic incidents. All were rejected by military brass, The Globe investigation revealed.
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Canada Military Suicides "In a sense, these are our forgotten casualties"

National Defence Minister Orders Suicide Prevention As A Priority For Soldiers And Veterans
“In a sense, these are our forgotten casualties.”
The Argus Lakehead University Canada
By Olivia Levesque , Staff Writer
November 26, 2015

“The military will spend a fortune to train a soldier to go to war. They need to spend that same amount of money to repair that soldier when they come back.” says military veteran Darrell McMullin to the Globe and Mail in an interview after the investigation was released.

On the day before Remembrance Day, Globe and Mail released an investigation that had been in the works for months with the Canadian Armed Forces. The investigation known as “The Unremembered” released disturbing statistics of the number of soldiers and veterans who had taken their own lives after serving in Afghanistan.

The numbers show that Canada isn’t just losing troops overseas, but losing them here at home too. Since the beginning of the 13-year NATO-led Afghan mission, 54 military personnel and veterans have committed suicide, according to the statistics released by the Globe and Mail. The number suicides since the beginning of our mission in Afghanistan number more than one third of the number of Canadian troops who killed in action during the conflict itself. It’s a sad reality but it seems those returning from deployment face a war on Canadian soil almost as deadly as the one they faced overseas.

National Defence Minister, Harjit Singh Sajjan, has responded to the investigation by issuing an order to Canada’s top military leader to make suicide prevention a major priority within the Armed Forces. The investigation has also shown that the number of suicides have increased over the past year amongst returning veterans as well. Fourteen suicides were recorded since the beginning of 2014 according to the investigation.
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“In Flanders Fields”

Reading of iconic WWI poem on its 100th anniversary a tribute to Veterans Day
Stars and Stripes
By Carlos Bongioanni
November 11, 2015

CARLISLE, Pa. – One stanza in French, and two in English.

That’s how John Prato, the consul general of Canada, read “In Flanders Fields” during a Veterans Day commemoration that centered on the 100-year anniversary of the iconic World War I poem.

Several dozen attendees, including U.S. and Canadian dignitaries, listened to the reading Tuesday at the Army Heritage and Education Center, adjacent to Carlisle Barracks where the U.S. Army War College is located. The reading followed several brief historical sketches of the poem’s author and of the horrific events he witnessed during WWI.

Lt. Col. John McCrae, a Canadian Army surgeon, wrote the poem in 1915 after allied forces suffered devastating losses from chlorine-gas attacks and after a friend, Lt. Alexis Helmer, was killed on May 2 by an artillery shell.
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A poetic Veterans Day remembrance of the fallen 'In Flanders Fields'

Military memorial commemorates Canada’s ‘soldiers of suicide’

Military memorial commemorates Canada’s ‘soldiers of suicide’
The Globe and Mail
RENATA D’ALIESIO
Published Friday, Nov. 06, 2015

At the National Military Cemetery in Ottawa, amid a sea of tombstones honouring those who served in peacetime and in war, a single red oak tree and a simple bronze plaque commemorate the nation’s hidden casualties.

This humble memorial is, as inscribed, “dedicated to the memory of soldiers of suicide.” A small grassroots group erected it two years ago, as Canada was nearing the end of its involvement in the 13-year NATO-led Afghanistan war.

The group, named Soldiers of Suicide and founded by Quebec resident Lise Charron, was born out of the anguish of an Ontario mother whose young son took his life after serving in Afghanistan.

“The mother told me she was afraid we will forget her son,” recalls Ms. Charron, who had been posting photos online of Canadian soldiers killed in theatre as a way to recognize their sacrifices. Soon, she and a small band of others turned their attention to remembering the unremembered.

“It’s a mentality of our society to not talk about suicide,” Ms. Charron says. “But they served our country with passion. They served our country as any other soldiers, so why do we keep that a secret?
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The Unremembered
The Globe and Mail
RENATA D’ALIESIO
OROMOCTO, N.B.
Nov. 03, 2015

“I knew that the military was part of our life till the end. The end was a lot sooner than we expected.”
Leah Smith

158 Canadian soldiers died in the Afghanistan mission. But the losses did not end there. A Globe and Mail investigation reveals a disturbing number the military has kept secret: that at least 54 soldiers and vets killed themselves after they returned from war

The Canadian army desperately needed men like Scott Smith.

A hard-nosed counsellor who worked with troubled teens in the Vancouver Island wilderness, he looked the part of a soldier. He was tall and muscular, with a gruff appearance that concealed his fun-loving side.

When he enlisted in 2009, Canada was ensnared in an arduous combat mission in the southern Afghanistan province of Kandahar. Confronted with a defiant Taliban armed with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and homemade bombs, Canadian soldiers were dying at a rate not seen since the Korean War.

Corporal Smith went to the battle-scarred country wanting to make a difference, supporting the training and fighting of Afghan security forces during a nine-month tour.

He came back a frayed man, his mind ravaged by the eternal replay of war. He started drinking more and spending less time with his wife and two young boys. Large crowds spooked him. Even an outing to a pumpkin patch he found unnerving.

Last December, two years after returning from Afghanistan, Cpl. Smith, who had counselled others against suicide, ended his own life after a military Christmas party. He was 31 years old.
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Firefighters Fight PTSD For Each Other

Firefighters battle to change narrative around PTSD
CBC News
By The Early Edition
Posted: Oct 18, 2015

This year alone 30 first responders committed suicide in Canada, two of those were firefighters from Surrey. Both Kevin Hegarty and Ernie Dombrowski were struggling with PTSD.

A number of firefighters attended the memorial service for Kevin Hegarty held in Surrey, B.C. (CBC)

"It hit us hard," said Mike McNamara, president of the Surrey Fire Fighters Association.

City of Nanaimo firefighter captain Mike Rispin responds to a call that changed his mental health. The photo was taken moments after the he knocked down the fire and the person inside the motor home was removed safely. (Mike Rispin)

Post traumatic stress disorder is a dangerous aspect of the job for firefighters. But until recently, it was rarely talked about.

"You always thought you had to be macho and not accept any responsibility for what is going on in your mind," said City of Nanaimo firefighter Captain Mike Rispin.

Rispin responded to a call a few years ago that changed his life.

"I had trouble concentrating, I had difficulty maintaining interest in anything," he said.

The team was short staffed, only he and two other firefighters were available to respond to a call of a major accident involving a car and a motor home.

"One of the bystanders ran up to me at the very start of the call and said you have to help my buddy. He is trapped in the motor home and he is burning alive," he said.

Rispin was able to save the man inside the motor home but the driver of the car died.

He had to take four weeks off after responding to that call.

"I think for all first responders, we always think that any call that we go to we could always do a little better [...] but this one continued to bother me," he said.
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Canada: Amputee Afghanistan Veteran Has To Prove He Still Has No Legs

Veterans Affairs has hired only 25 injured soldiers in last decade
OTTAWA CITIZEN
DAVID PUGLIESE
October 14, 2015

Those who disagree point to incidents such as that of Afghan veteran Paul Franklin, who lost both legs in a roadside bomb explosion. In February, Franklin said that every year he has to prove to Veterans Affairs that he still has no legs and continues to require a wheelchair

.
Despite a federal government push to hire former soldiers who were released due to medical issues, Veterans Affairs Canada has only hired 25 of them in the past 10 years.

According to statistics from the Public Service Commission, Veterans Affairs only hired 25 former soldiers who had been medically released in the past decade, and just one in the last two years, as the government was emphasizing the need for such hirings.

Over this 10-year period, the Department of National Defence has hired 838, or almost 71 per cent, of the total of 1,184 injured soldiers now working in the public service, according to the statistics.

Correctional Service Canada is the second-largest employer with 63 such employees, followed by Employment and Social Development Canada with 52. Public Works has hired 28, Fisheries and Oceans 27 and the RCMP 25.

The Conservative government announced in November 2013 that they were pushing for priority hiring in the public service of soldiers who had been medically released from the military. Since they began that initiative, 130 such individuals were hired across the federal government.
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