Mission Statement
- To inform and educate Canadians about the issues facing Canadian veterans.
- To engage Canadians in advocating on behalf of veterans.
- To ensure that our governments acknowledge, accept and fulfill the social covenant Canadians have with all our veterans.
Who Are We
Margot Doey-Vick, Committee Chair
Margot Doey-Vick served various Members of Parliament and Cabinet Ministers as Executive/Legislative Assistant and Press Secretary. She has long been interested in the issues affecting the veterans of Canada. margot@canadiansforveterans.com
Captain (N) retired George Zimmerman, Committee Member
Captain Zimmerman served as a Naval Officer and Chaplain to the Canadian Armed Forces, both Regular and Reserve, retiring in 2010 after 38 years. He was part of the mental health team that developed and implemented the CAF Occupational Traumatic Stress and Support Centers in the 1990's. Captain Zimmerman maintains a keen interest in the just treatment necessary to support strongly the well-being of military members, veterans, and their families. He is currently the Minister at St. David and St. Martin Presbyterian Church, Ottawa, Ontario.
2Lt (ResF) retired Jerry Kovacs, Committee Member
Jerry Kovacs was a junior officer in the Armed Forces Reserves serving as the Assistant Adjutant in his unit. He is educated in political science and economics, the common law, civil law, aboriginal law and peacekeeping. He earned a Master of Arts Degree in Canadian Government and Politics and a Master of Laws Degree in Civil Liberties and Human Rights. He is a graduate of the Intensive Program in Lands, Resources and First Nations Government at Osgoode Hall Law School and took numerous courses at the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre. Jerry worked in Ottawa for several Members of Parliament, practised law and taught courses at universities and colleges in Scotland, France, Kosovo, Montenegro and Canada. He has been a veteran’s advocate since January 2012 and is committed to advancing the interests and fair treatment of veterans and their families. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Legion and the NATO Veterans Association of Canada.
Duff Crerar, Committee Member
Duff Crerar was born near Ottawa in 1955, and completed his Ph.D. in History at Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario, in 1989. Since then, he has published Padres in No Man’s Land: Canadian Chaplains and the Great War (McGill Queen’s 1995, 2nd Edition, 2014), contributed a chapter on Alberta in World War I to that Province’s Centennial History in 2005, as well as articles in Gordon Heath, Canadian Churches and the First World War (2014) and the British Army Doctrine and Training Bulletin, 2014. He has contributed other articles on Canadian military chaplaincy, Scottish Presbyterian migration to Canada in the 19th Century, and, with Jerry Petryshyn, co-edited Treaty 8 Re-visited, a centennial history of the Canadian Government’s settlement with the First Nations and Métis of Northern Alberta. He is the Subject Matter Expert (History) for the Canadian Armed Forces Chaplain General’s Branch, and has taught incoming candidates and those preparing to deploy for the past sixteen years at the Royal Canadian Chaplain Service School and Centre at Camp Borden, Ontario.
