Facts about Veterans in Canada

"Although last week was an emotional week for veterans, the truth is that each day is an emotional day for disabled veterans. In war or peacetime, missing limbs, crushed vertebrae, damaged organs, broken spirits and overburdened minds are the same tragic legacies for Canadians who suffered them in the service of their nation. That Canada fights so hard not to properly care for the needs of veterans and their families only humiliates proud military veterans all the more."

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/some-facts-about-canadas-veterans-101362344.html

A Bigger Voice for Veterans...We Hope.

With a 10-1 injured to killed ratio in Afghanistan, it is my hope that this issue doesn't die with the inevitable wane of the newscycle. It is clear from the tone of the articles and the comments from readers that taking care of veterans is the responsibility of Canada and penny pinching at their expense is not acceptable. I hope that the government does the honourable thing and changes their ways and that the loyal opposition press them on this issue until it is resolved.

http://bit.ly/aJT9vu

Penny pinching insurance industry approach to veterans.

I am very concerned that what Col. Storgran says in his indictment of the government and Veterans Affairs is accurate:

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/08/17/veterans-ombudsman-stogran.html?ref=rss

Col. Storgran's words echo a Senate report from December 2008 that slammed the government for their poor treatment of wounded Reservists. I tried to find the link but it seems to have disappeared from the Canadian Press archives where I originally posted it from.

Unfortunately the care of wounded soldiers is placed in the hands of bureaucrats whose favourite interests include stonewalling and denying. It's no wonder that this is how it ends up.

What is Social Entrepreneurship pt 2

I really liked this article in the NYT about Social Entrepreneurship and its definition:

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/what-exactly-is-a-social-entrepreneur/?src=twt&twt=nytimesbusiness

One of the comments after the article that really struck me as a brilliant piece of insight was this:

"Social entrepreneur, to me, is just a way of saying this person has a motive other than profit. Since "greed is good" it has become implied that entrepreneurship is a field focused on profits, when in reality it is about returns. Using social as an adjective is there to break the association of one word with 'chasing a big pay day.'"

I have been working on civiside for more than two years without a cent of profit and a whole lot of personal and sweat equity invested. If it were purely about a profit motive I should have moved on long ago, yet I still persist. I believe that what I am working toward is an important social good that can benefit millions of transitioning military around the world, if I give up no one will do it and I cannot allow that to happen. I believe that with a little more concentrated effort civiside will develop into the service that I know it can be and will create the returns, monetary or not, that will have made the great sacrifices worth it.

Updated G.I. Program logo

Fresh from the designer's oven, our newly updated logo.

Colin Finkle of firebrandcreative.ca, an industrial designer by trade, got in touch with us after hearing on TWiST that we needed an updated design and offered to to do it for free. This is what he came up with. I'm pretty darn happy with the update. It is much more defined and has an interesting new design element in the silver/metallic lining of the emblem. My feeling is that it has a much greater strength of identity to it now. What do you think?