By Shirley Collingridge
At least 4,000 Aboriginal Canadians volunteered to join the First World War efforts. During the Second World War, more than 3,000 Aboriginal Canadians served their country, either by conscription or by choice. Several hundred fought in the Korean War. Others served or continue to serve in peacetime special duty areas.
Métis veterans (front row) Ernest Aubichon, Maurice Blondeau, Martin Aubichon, Roy Fosseneau and John Pederson. (Back row) John Morrisseau, Earl Cooke, and Lloyd Bishop.
The lack of recognition and compensation continues to disgruntle many Aboriginal war veterans – treaty, non-status and Métis. In 2005, then Prime Minister Paul Martin announced more than $5 billion over five years to close the gap between Aboriginal peoples and other Canadians in education, health, housing and economic opportunities (the Kelowna Accord); with the shift in government, that promise was not kept.
Native Journal spoke with four Saskatchewan Métis veterans who, despite the ongoing battle for recognition and compensation, are in fact quite gruntled – not disgruntled – with their military experience. More than half a century has passed since Jon Pederson, Maurice Blondeau, and brothers Martin and Ernest Aubichon participated in the Korean War. Here is what they had to say.
Martin Aubichon
“If it weren’t for the army life, I would have been kind of lost,” said Martin Aubichon. “You see, I was born in Green Lake. That is a little Métis town where the only thing you know is to go to school. When summer holidays come, you go to work. They were hard times at that time.
“There were 13 of us kids in our family,” said Aubichon. “When we got old enough, we helped. Then when I was 17, I joined the army.”
That decision changed his life. During the six years Aubichon spent as a private with the Rifles, he took full advantage of the opportunities offered. “I was stationed in Hanover, Germany. I used to go to England from there, even on a long weekend, I went all over. It helped me an awful lot to [understand] people. If it wasn’t for the army life, I would have still been stuck up north, because I didn’t have much education,” he said. “While I was in the army, I took everything I could as an education. I went to school, finished my 12 in Hanover on my own time.”
Six months in the Korean War also put him on the defensive. “I am watching for danger all the time,” he said. “Before, I couldn’t care less what happened.”
Like so many, Aubichon received no military compensation. “Nobody has asked me if I had some kind of a veteran’s package coming to me or anything and I didn’t ask anybody. I didn’t know there was one,” said the Saskatoon resident. “I was offered nothing. I didn’t get anything.
“For Aboriginal war veterans that spent a little time in the army in the war, I’d like to see something offered to them at least,” he said. “When the Second World War was over, quite a few of the veterans got something offered.”
Today Aubichon is a member of the Métis Veteran’s National Accord. “They’ve been working on it, they said, but it’s been years,” he said.
Ernest Aubichon
At 75, Ernest Aubichon lives in Regina with his wife of 54 years. More than 50 years ago, he signed on with the Regina Rifles. He and his brother Martin were at times in the same unit; both were stationed in Hanover.
“I was in the army from 1950. I got out in ’54,” said the former rifleman, who spent much of his time in active combat in Korea. “It is very hard training. You sure learn your lessons when you are in the army,” he said, “If you don’t listen, you pay for it – push-ups, potato peeling, everything. I think I carried multimortar outside in the parade square at six o’clock in the morning.
“I learned a lot of things, like the way to obey. I forget all the things I did; I’m 79 now. When I joined the army, I was a 20-year-old,” he said.
Like his brother, Aubichon become a truck driver when he was discharged. Unlike his brother, the military did compensate him. “I get a veteran’s pension,” he confirmed.
Aubichon has no regrets about his military life. “I belong to the Legion. Canada Day, they call me to go to carry the flag,” he said. “I am happy with it.”
Maurice Blondeau
Today 75-year-old Maurice Blondeau lives in Lestock with his wife of 47 years.
“I am Métis – all the way,” says Blondeau. Yet, when he enlisted in the artillery division, the military did not list his heritage. “Mind you, there were quite a few of us in the same outfit that were Métis,” he said.
“They weren’t conscripting like they did in the Second World War. I felt that it was my duty to join,” he said. “I volunteered for Korea and went over in 1951. I was in the artillery – 22 days on a boat to Korea. I was all right until I [saw] somebody bending over the handrails and letting loose,” he recalled, chuckling. From Korea, “I got transferred to Japan. I was a year and a half in Korea and then I came back and stayed in for seven years.”
“I didn’t like it,” Blondeau said firmly. “You never knew when you were going to get shot or what. But that’s life. You were there to protect your part of the deal. In that respect, it didn’t bother me.”
He enjoyed the discipline though. “I believe it [taught] me some different things,” he said. “They were strict; that never bothered me because my father was very strict. I am the oldest of 10 kids.”
Blondeau saw no evidence of discrimination during his stint with the force. “All the soldiers were treated equally as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
Blondeau used his newfound discipline to take advantage of the military’s educational opportunity. “All you needed was a grade eight to join the army,” he said. “The army let you upgrade to grade nine.”
“After I got back, I stayed in for two or three years. I felt I had enough because, between Korean and Canada, that’s two different things,” he said. “In Korea, you are in action – real action. In Canada, you were just laying around your hut and doing work that the army wanted you to do.”
Upon discharge, Blondeau returned to his trade as an ironworker in Regina. He received no compensation package for his years in service and feels it is up to the individual to resolve that problem. “The veterans ought to go out and fight for their own,” he said. “There are counsellors that are in DVA. If a guy has a problem, that’s who you talk to.”
“Let’s not forget, when you joined the army, you joined as a person,” he added.
Blondeau says he has no regrets about enlisting, “I had about eight uncles that were in the Second World War. I know what they went through. I volunteered for Korea – they didn’t send me there.”
Blondeau keeps his military ties through a membership at the Lebret Legion which he calls “a small Legion but . . . a going concern.”
John Pederson
When Moose Jaw’s John Pederson enlisted, “I was just 23, 24,” he said. “I decided on a whim in a minute, I am going join the forces, go to Korea.”
“When I joined up, I told them I was a half breed,” he said. “They said there is no such thing as a half breed. You are a French Canadian.”
The military typically changed Métis’ heritage on intake forms. Some misfortunates were classified as Scottish and uniformed in kilts. Fortunately for Pederson, he was issued a regular uniform and placed in an English-speaking regiment.
“I was an orderly – a medical assistant [with the Medical Corps],” he said. “They trained me in Camp Borden.”
For a year and a half, “I was patching up the wounded in the Korean War,” he added, then, “I worked for the military in Winnipeg as an orderly when the polio epidemic was on. That was 1953.”
“I learned how to trust people and to be obedient. [That training] helped me in city streets to accept things. If I hadn’t got that training in the army,” said Pederson, “I probably would have been fighting in the street.”
“I learnt pretty easy in the medical corps. I never studied. I ended up with 95. And right today I still know my procedures on the medical things,” he said. “I am 78.”
When Private John Pederson was discharged, he says, “I came to Moose Jaw and worked in the hospital as an orderly, as a private citizen.”
He then returned to his previous occupation, working for the provincial government. “After I quit working in the hospital, I worked for the City of Moose Jaw for 40 years,” he said. “I was an equipment operator and a foreman the last five years.
Now retired, Pederson stays as busy as ever. “I’m with the Army & Navy vets. I am on the board of directors for the Métis Society here in Moose Jaw. I am an Elder. Now I am on the board of directors for Cosmo Centre, Senior Citizens. No time to rest,” he chuckled.
Military life, said Pederson, changed his life as well. “It made me more aware of my surroundings, after what I saw over there. Now it is getting back to normal.”
As to a veteran’s package, he added, “I got a goose egg. Still no pension. I didn’t get nothing. I couldn’t apply because I didn’t know what to do about it.”
Now Pederson has the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) investigating. “The guy in Winnipeg has been fighting for my case. I got my hearing aid through the DVA, my dental, and glasses and whatnot, but that’s about it. No pension still,” he said.
“Everything is in limbo. I’ve got an appointment with the hearing committee. I cut my hand when I was in the service in Winnipeg,” he said.
It was not until sixteen years after his application that, “they finally found my records and now I go for a hearing,” he said. “They tried to say this didn’t happen when I was working in the hospital in Winnipeg. I’ve been fighting for that since 1992.”
“What bugs me, a couple of years ago that Kelowna Accord when Paul Martin was going to pay the Métis veterans so much money. We have never seen that. And yet First Nations and some other group got it. Merchant Marines got paid but not the Métis veterans. That still bugs me,” said Pederson.
So Jon Pederson, Maurice Blondeau, and Martin and Ernest Aubichon, although somewhat disgruntled, remain mostly gruntled about their military experience.