‘The Damage Done’: A Documentary that Listens to Veterans

Remembrance Day always comes with talk of sacrifice: what members of the Canadian Armed Forces sacrificed abroad so that we could enjoy security, stability, and democracy at home. But amidst the flag-waving celebrations, the pride in what armed conflicts have given us, we’re also faced with the darker implications of sending Canadians off to war — and welcoming them back when it’s all over.

It’s easier to sidestep these questions than to deal with them head on, to consider the true costs of war and the long-tail effects of returning home or to confront the elephant in the room: post-traumatic stress disorder.

Barry Stevens sat down with veterans to examine this in his new documentary The Damage Done, airing on the History Channel on Remembrance Day as part of the ongoing series War Story.

Stevens works from a fairly simple premise. He sits down with three generations of Canadian soldiers, veterans of four wars, and asks them about the hardships of life after service. He gives them room to discuss the traumas of war, with him and amongst each other.

“People think, ‘Oh, veterans don't really want to talk about it.’ You hear that. That’s bullshit. What it is is that we don’t want to listen. That’s what it is,” Stevens told me from Toronto during a phone interview.

More than anything, The Damage Done certainly listens, and the men it listens to have plenty to say.

Wars that bind

The film is powerful and relies largely on these firsthand accounts. It’s remarkable to see the level of intimacy with which the men discuss such personal trauma. They met and recorded these conversations over just two days.

The five men sit close together for most of the hour-long film, and the bond that forms between them is instantly visible as they compare notes and tell their own war stories.

We hear from Fred LeReverend, who went off to fight in the Second World War at the age of 16; Gordon Owen, who was a prisoner of war in Korea; Greg Alkerton, who was a reconnaissance platoon sniper on the UN peacekeeping mission to Sarajevo; Master Warrant Officer Brett Perry, who went on two combat tours to Afghanistan; and Sayed Shah, an Afghan interpreter who came to Canada after working with the Canadian Forces.

Stevens summed up the incredible range of experience: “You know, a soldier in Afghanistan can Skype home to his family. A soldier in 1944 can’t have any communication for two years except the occasional letter.”

And yet the soldiers all describe something similar. They speak to what seems, from the outside, like a universal experience. I wondered if this was a silly or naïve way to look at it, something I was projecting onto these men, but Stevens saw it too.

“There are all those differences, yes. But the underlying universality is definitely there too: the feeling that you’re invincible, the thrill of being there, addicted to the adrenaline, the importance of what you’re doing,” he said. “And then follow that by the fear, the fatigue, the horror, and yeah, the sorrow.”

The Damage Done doesn’t offer any clear ways forward, maybe because there aren’t any. But Stevens hopes that people will listen to what the men have to say. Their stories are a source of great insight into the mind of a soldier and into the process of coming home from war.

“It isn’t just that these are incapacitated people. They have a lot to offer, and a lot to teach us. And teach each other,” he said.

The war at home

The treatment of veterans has been part of the national conversation for the last few years. Near the end of the film, Greg Alkerton describes his own troubles accessing services from Veterans Affairs. Despite his years of service and his struggles with mental health, it wasn’t until he mentioned his suicidal thoughts that anyone really responded, he says.

It’s hard to imagine a more last-minute intervention.

On the other hand, the men sitting with him report overall positive experiences. Stevens offered a potential explanation for this, pointing to changes in Veterans Affairs policies.

“For the older generation, they’re really good. They get good support,” Stevens said. “They changed the rules a few years ago, I think it was 2006, and they stopped giving ongoing support to wounded veterans, and they gave sort of lump-sum payments, and so that is a real bone of contention.”

Stevens was referring to a policy change in 2006 under the former Conservative government and the creation of the New Veterans Charter. Under the charter, lifetime monthly pain and suffering payments — measures that had been in place since the First World War — were replaced by one-time payments.

The change was not well received by many veterans, who feared it would cut off an important lifeline to those with ongoing physical and psychological pain.

A class-action lawsuit filed by a group of Canadian veterans against the government remains before the courts. The suit claims that the New Veterans Charter violates their constitutional and Charter rights.

Since coming into power in 2015, the Liberals have come under fire for failing to restore the lifelong veterans’ pensions — breaking an election promise that surely earned them votes from affected vets. Despite reopening some Veterans Affairs offices and increasing funding, the pensions remain a serious point of contention.

It’s unclear whether we will see any major changes to the distribution of funds amongst vets, injured or otherwise, but The Damage Done demands that we confront the underlying problem and listen to those in the know.

“If we’re going to send people off to war, into harm’s way, we kind of have an obligation to them when they come home,” said Stevens.

“If you can’t afford it, then maybe you shouldn’t be sending them off to war. It’s expensive not just in the immediate cost, but it’s expensive as it resonates down through a man’s life or a woman’s life. And even to the next generation.”

The Damage Done, an episode of War Story, premieres Friday, Nov. 11, at 5 p.m. PST on History as part of Days of Remembrance.