{"id":22972,"date":"2022-09-07T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T16:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=22972"},"modified":"2022-09-12T09:32:56","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T16:32:56","slug":"camosun-alumnus-takes-on-veterans-affairs-canada-in-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2022\/09\/07\/camosun-alumnus-takes-on-veterans-affairs-canada-in-courts\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun alumnus takes on Veterans Affairs Canada in courts"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Camosun College student is taking on Veterans Affairs Canada in the federal courts. Kyle Bienvenu, a retired navy reservist who served from 2002 to 2014, and who was at Camosun College from 2005 to 2007 in the University Transfer program, appeared over Zoom in federal court in Vancouver on Thursday, August 4 after being denied an education benefit offered to veterans by the government.<\/p>\n

The Education and Training Benefit, which offers up to $80,000 to go toward education costs, is awarded to veterans with at least 12 years of service. However, Bienvenu was denied this benefit despite serving from 2002 to 2014 as, according to Bienvenu, Veterans Affairs said that he didn\u2019t have 12 years of service, due to \u201cservice\u201d being defined as days for which pay is authorized.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun College alumnus Kyle Bienvenu during his time as a navy reservist; Bienvenu just took on Veterans Affairs Canada in federal court (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI joined the navy reserve back in April 2002 and had a great time,\u201d says Bienvenu, who was also the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) external executive while he was a student at the college. \u201cEventually, in October 2014, it was time for me to leave and find a full-time career. While I was in the reserves, most of that time was part-time. I was training four times a week. Most of my summers were taken up. I had about a two-year stint of full-time service\u2026 and a few sort of longer training courses, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, that sort of thing throughout that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2016, the federal government announced that it would provide more support and benefits for veterans. It provided a $40,000 education benefit to veterans who served at least six years and $80,000 for veterans who served at least 12 years. However, Bienvenu feels that Veterans Affairs Canada quickly changed its definition of service when reservists started to apply. (A spokesperson for Veterans Affairs Canada declined to comment on the case as it is still in progress.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they did the calculation of my service, they didn\u2019t look at what everyone… saw was 12 years of service, having been from April 2002 to October 2014, and having a medal for service,\u201d says Bienvenu. \u201cThey came up with a plan, or program, that was less than that. I think it was 1,500 days.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Bienvenu sees as disregard and disrespect for veterans\u2019 and reservists\u2019 service inspired him to take action in federal court. As a lawyer himself now, he had the knowledge and means to fight against what he felt were unjust actions by Veterans Affairs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cReally, what affected me most was that the Ministry of Veterans Affairs could diminish my service, and talking with other veterans and other reservists, the same things bothered me about this, which was that reservists are somehow not serving when they\u2019re not part of the military all of a sudden when they\u2019re not getting paid,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Although he didn\u2019t get the benefit, Bienvenue was awarded several medals from the Navy and congratulated for his 12 years of service.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust before I retired, I was awarded a medal called the Canadian Forces\u2019 decoration, and that\u2019s awarded to someone who has worked 12 years,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s technically more than that, it\u2019s transferred to the supplementary reserve. I was given a couple of awards or certificates of appreciation\u2026 And they all said \u2018Congratulations on 12 years of service.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

CCSS executive director Michel Turcotte says that he remembers Bienvenu fondly, even almost two decades later.<\/p>\n

\u201cKyle was elected in September and took office in October of 2006,\u201d says Turcotte. \u201cThat term ran until April 30, 2007. During that time he left quite an impression [on] all the staff that were around then. We all remember him with great fondness\u2026 He was very active in campaigns, and he was very pro-student.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the judge will possibly not come to a final decision until early September or later, Bienvenu feels confident in his argument. Not only does he hope to win this court battle for his fellow veterans but also to show people that they can take action when they feel the government is unfair.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not even something people think they can do, so it\u2019s good to have that connection with the veterans to know that… it is possible to do this and take on the Ministry when something is unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former Camosun College student is taking on Veterans Affairs Canada in the federal courts. Kyle Bienvenu, a retired navy reservist who served from 2002 to 2014, and who was at Camosun College from 2005 to 2007 in the University Transfer program, appeared over Zoom in federal court in Vancouver on Thursday, August 4 after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,272],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-september-6-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22974,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22972\/revisions\/22974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}