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Métis veteran receives long-overdue recognition

The Brandon Sun - 3/2/2020

RIVERS – Friday was Phyllis Eastcott’s day.

But, at 98, she also represents the many Métis who never have received the Canadian government’s recognition for wartime service.

“She’s the 19th,” said Métis National Council leader David Chartrand, who presented Eastcott with a $20,000 cheque at the Riverdale Personal Care Home in Rivers Friday morning.

More than one million Canadians served in the Second World War. In June 2019, at a nation-to-nation negotiation table, the Métis and the federal government signed the $30-million Métis Veterans Recognition Payment Contribution Agreement.

A Government of Canada website states “at least 3,000 First Nations members – including 72 women – enlisted, as well as an unknown number of Inuit, Métis, and other Indigenous people. The actual numbers were no doubt much higher.”

In 2002, the federal government compensated First Nations veterans with up to $20,000 for benefits they were denied after returning from the war. Benefits non-Indigenous people received at the time included money for clothing, “war service gratuities,” and other monies the government calls “a financial head start.”

Chartrand, who is also president of the Manitoba Metis Federation and the minister of veterans affairs for the national council, has fought for this recognition for more than 20 years.

“In Canada, we talk about reconciliation and how it should flow its way out in this country and how it should really clear unjust wrongs of the past. This has been a real wrong in our country. It was intentionally done because of a race of a people,” Chartrand said.

He also said many of Canada’s prime ministers refused to acknowledge the real contribution made by Métis people, until Justin Trudeau became prime minister.

“I made a promise to them (veterans) that I would never give up, and I never did. So I went through many different prime ministers in this country, different governments. And I was very fortunate to have Prime Minister Trudeau, who actually believes in reconciliation and walks the talk. And he proved that with this particular file. He made a promise to us,” Chartrand said.

Most importantly, he added, is the apology.

“Because in their heart of hearts, they (veterans) were out there; they were out there to champion and fight for his country, to fight for people who did not know. To go to a foreign land they never went to in their lives. But to find out, at the end of day, how the country would treat them so horrifically … So many of them died young, so young. A lot of them died in their ‘50s or ‘60s, because they turned to alcohol as an escape route because they could not stand the horrific things they saw,” he said.

“Canada would not touch them.”

At the ceremony, Eastcott snoozed through a few speeches, but her character shone through the stories others told of her.

Trained at CFB Shilo, Eastcott, then sporting her maiden name Hyde, served as a stenographer, bookkeeper and canteen operator. She also worked with the Canadian Women’s Army Corps in Winnipeg, Fort Osborne and other locations in Canada. It’s when she worked as a physician’s assistant in Portage la Prairie, helping soldiers returning from the war, that she met her husband, Wilton “Slim” Eastcott. The couple settled in Rivers and raised three children: Wilton (George), Leslie, and Richard.

George spoke emotionally at the ceremony. He told how his mother came from a family of 13 children, and she was one of five siblings who served. Other family members served, and some never made it home.

“Mum grew up in Fisherton, just west of Fisher Branch. In them days, in 1922, if you were married to an Indian woman, you were shunned. So my grandfather always said they were white. My mum probably didn’t know she was Métis till after,” George said.

“My mum presents as white. I present as white.”

Eastcott’s son also spoke of how his parents were foster parents for the Metis Federation. More than 25 children passed through their home, he said. Each one was part of the family.

“It didn’t matter – white, black, green, purple. If you come to our house and it was dinnertime, mum would look around and say, ‘Why don’t we put another cup of water in the soup.’ That’s the way we were. We shared. That’s the way mum worked.”

In a biography provided by the family, it’s also noted Phyllis was a champion homemaker.

“Her most beloved hobby was sewing and quilting. Her children’s clothing rivalled that of Paris fashion houses and her beloved quilts found their way into homes across Manitoba,” according to the written biography.

“Later, after her children moved out of the home, Phyllis transformed a main-floor bedroom of their home into a sewing room and spent many years sewing and shipping dresses and quilts to orphanages in developing countries.”

Royal Canadian Legion #75 president Dave Cluney thanked Eastcott and her family for their service and offered her an apology. He said he learned the previous night that years ago the legion refused the Eastcotts’ membership.

“With your permission and your family’s permission, I would like to correct that immediately,” Cluney said.

“On a personal note, I was raised to believe that veterans are veterans, Canadians are Canadians, people are people. You judge everyone by who they are, not what they are. And if our country thought that way, these sorts of things wouldn’t happen.”

Chartrand said that while it’s 75 years late, the apology from the federal government matters.

“Some (veterans) have shed tears. We’re finally giving Phyllis her justice today. Seventy-five years ago, imagine she would add a head-start in life, what her life would have been. I know that many that I saw, through veterans communities, when they got to head-start. … Some became cattle ranchers — I’m talking non-Indigenous people. They did very well for themselves,” he said.

And while he doesn’t begrudge those who did receive financial benefits to forge their way forward after the war, he wishes the same had been offered to the Métis.

“Some lives weren’t as fruitful as they should have been.”

 » mletourneau@brandonsun.com

» Michele LeTourneau covers indigenous matters for The Brandon Sun under the Local Journalism Initiative, a federally funded program that supports the creation of original civic journalism.