OTTAWA - Canada's outspoken veterans ombudsman won't be re-appointed by the Conservative government.
Sources have told The Canadian Press that retired colonel Pat Stogran, who commanded the country's first battle group in Kandahar in 2002, was notified earlier this week that his term won't be renewed.
He apparently ran afoul of the federal government in his increasingly vocal criticism of the bureaucracy, which he accused of being more interested in saving money that helping veterans.
News of his impending dismissal went off like a bombshell in the veterans' community on Friday because in Stogran, many former soldiers found a kindred spirit, someone who understood their concerns.
He was the country's first-ever veterans ombudsman and his term comes to an end in November.
A spokeswoman for Veteran Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn's office refused to comment.
Central to Stogran's complaints is the replacement of pensions with lump sum payments for wounded soldiers under the new Veterans Charter.
An increasing number of veterans see the new system as a way to limit Ottawa's long-term financial liability to soldiers.
In an interview with The Canadian Press earlier this year, Stogran said the system was weighted towards treating wounded soldiers like industrial accident victims.
More recently, he accused the department's bureaucracy of blocking initiatives that would help veterans because it would it would cost the federal treasury more money.
