New Veterans Ombudsperson Named

[The Bread Guy]

From the VAC info-machine:

The Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, today welcomed the appointment of Nishika Jardine as the new Veterans Ombudsperson.

The core responsibility of the Veterans Ombudsperson is to review complaints and issues related to programs and services delivered by Veterans Affairs Canada and to uphold the Veterans Bill of Rights.

Colonel (Ret’d) Nishika Jardine served almost 37 years as an officer in the Corps of Royal Canadian Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (RCEME). She has served and lead in Maintenance organizations with the Army at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Gagetown, the Navy at CFB Esquimalt, and the Air Force at 19 Wing Comox. She commanded the RCEME School from 2008 to 2010, deployed to Afghanistan on Operation ATHENA, and was promoted to Colonel in 2014. She then served one year as Director of Armament Sustainment Program Management before her final posting as Deputy Commandant of the Canadian Forces College, completing her service in May 2019.

Since leaving the Canadian Armed Forces, she has worked as a consultant and served on various boards of directors in a volunteer capacity ...

A bit more of her background in the attached RCEME bio.

 

[TCM621]

I'm sure she will try to do good but that office isn't capable of solving any of the major problems. They have very little funding and can only offer recommendations to the minister. The last 2 Ombudsmen (as well as the CAF ombudsman) have all argued the ombudsman should report directly to Parliament but the government has refused to change their mandate.