Joseph Angelini made an emotional plea to Justin Trudeau at the London, Ont. town hall forum last Friday, telling the prime minister it is unacceptable to make veterans suffer months of undue financial and emotional stress.<\/p>\n
“It took everything I had to be there,” said Angelini, who suffers from PTSD. “I forced myself to be in a crowd at the town hall and I think it was worth it.” \u00a0<\/p>\n
On Monday, less than 72 hours after the forum,\u00a0Angelini\u00a0received a call from his case manager with news that an inquiry had been launched into the status of his file.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Had I not said anything, I don’t believe it would have moved this quickly.” \u00a0<\/p>\n
The 33-year old retired from service in August 2016 after serving two tours in Afghanistan. He survived a roadside bomb attack in March 2008 that killed follow Canadian soldier Michael Yuki Hayakaze. \u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Joseph](\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/d1d9f_joseph-angelini.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Joseph Angelini in the gunner hole the day before his tank hit a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2008. (Joseph Angelini)<\/p>\n
Angelini suffered neck and back injuries that required surgery and have left him in chronic pain.<\/p>\n
The night of the town hall meeting, Angelini\u00a0told\u00a0Trudeau\u00a0and an audience 1,500 strong that it took four months before any money arrived from Veterans Affairs following his July retirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"town](\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/d1d9f_town-hall-london-audience.JPG\")
<\/p>\n
1500 people packed Western University’s Alumni Hall. At least 1000 others lined up but did not get into the venue. (Amanda Margison\/CBC News)<\/p>\n
Angelini\u00a0started receiving pension\u00a0cheques\u00a0in early November but he said he is still owed money.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Visibly\u00a0shaking while holding the microphone, he also questioned why he was denied the Family Caregiver Relief Benefit.<\/p>\n
“My father is there for me\u00a0everyday\u00a0to help me with my medications and to do things a father should never have to do for a 30-year-old,” he told\u00a0Trudeau, explaining that his father retired early to take on\u00a0caregiving\u00a0duties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trudeau promised to look into Angelini’s situation the night of the town hall and he thanked the veteran for continuing to do his duty by pointing out how to make the country better.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Veterans Affairs needs to get fixed’\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Speaking from his home in London,\u00a0Angelini\u00a0said he is relieved but still concerned about other veterans he knows who are also experiencing major problems with pension payments and benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think it’s getting worse,” he said. “Veterans Affairs needs to get fixed with proper funding and proper training.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Veterans Affairs is unable to comment on specific cases but spokesperson Marc Lescoutre said the department is working to make the benefits process easier and faster for veterans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said while the department has hired more frontline staff, Veterans Affairs saw\u00a0a jump last year in the number of disability claims submitted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u200bAngelini\u00a0is hopeful a review of his file will address his\u00a0pension issues, as well as an earlier decision denying him the\u00a0Permanent Impairment Allowance, a benefit issued to soldiers no\u00a0longer able to work after an injury.<\/p>\n
\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recently retired Canadian veteran who had to rely on his parents to buy groceries while waiting for pension cheques to arrive\u00a0is seeing his file fast tracked after he stood up to the Prime Minister.\u00a0 Trudeau gets an earful from veteran, chiefs, disabled participant in London, Ont. Watch this Ontario mother’s powerful plea to Justin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-63605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}