November 28, 2024, OTTAWA, ON –Today Veterans Ombud Colonel (Ret’d) Nishika Jardine presented nine 2024 Veterans Ombud Commendations to recipients at a virtual ceremony. The award recognizes and honours the dedication, hard work and selfless motivation of an individual or group's contribution to Canada's Veterans and their families.
The 2024 recipients are:
October 8, 2024, OTTAWA, ON – Veterans Ombud Colonel (Ret’d) Nishika Jardine will be in Kingston and Trenton, Ontario, the week of October 8h to meet with the Veteran community. The visit includes town halls on October 8th in Kingston and October 9th in Trenton.
August 21, 2024, Ottawa, ON – Today, the Office of the Veterans Ombud (OVO) released its publication Spotlight 2024: Progress Update on OVO Recommendations to VAC.
Do you know someone or an organization who is doing amazing work for our CAF and RCMP Veterans and their families? The Veterans Ombud is pleased to award Commendations every year in four categories to recognize and acknowledge the outstanding commitment and dedication of people all across Canada who go above and beyond to provide support to our Veterans community. Please consider nominating them for the Veterans Ombud Commendation by June 10, 2024.
Nomination categories:
Some Veterans and their families are falling through an eligibility gap for home care supports
April 10, 2024, OTTAWA, ON – Veterans Ombud Colonel (Ret’d) Nishika Jardine will be in Manitoba the week of April 15 to meet with the Veterans community. The visit includes town halls in Winnipeg on April 16, and Brandon on April 17. As well she will be meeting with a broad range of stakeholders.
March 22, 2024, Ottawa, ON – Veterans Ombud Colonel (Ret’d) Nishika Jardine released a report today on the unfairness inherent in Veterans Affairs Canada’s (VAC) Pain and Suffering Compensation (PSC) benefit. The PSC benefit compensates Veterans for disabilities related to their service. How VAC pays the PSC benefit directly affects what happens to Veterans’ compensation when they die.
FEBRUARY 15, 2024, OTTAWA, ON – Veterans Ombud Colonel (Ret’d) Nishika Jardine will be in the Northwest Territories the week of February 19 to meet with its Veterans community. The visit includes a town hall in Yellowknife on February 20, as well as meetings with a broad range of stakeholders.
February 6, 2024, OTTAWA, ON – Veterans Ombud Colonel (Ret’d) Nishika Jardine released an update about the actions Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) took to resolve unfairness in the way it was reducing disability pensions for some Merlo Davidson class action settlement claimants.
Following receipt of complaints about disability pension reductions, the Office of the Veterans Ombud (OVO) conducted a systemic review and found that disability pensions were being unfairly reduced for Merlo Davidson settlement compensation recipients.
December 7, 2023, Ottawa, ON – Today, the Office of the Veterans Ombud (OVO) released its publication Spotlight 2023: Progress Update on OVO Recommendations to VAC. As of March 31, 2023, Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) has fully or partially implemented 70 percent or 55 of the OVO’s 79 recommendations – a slight improvement over last year.
The recommendations made by the OVO address systemic gaps and barriers to fair access by Veterans and their families for VAC services and benefits.
