An Unending Gift to Canada’s Veterans

Operation Veteran

Dr. Paul Kavanagh is so passionate about the importance of honouring Canada’s veterans that he has made a gift that will benefit veterans, and indeed all Canadians, far beyond his lifetime.

Kavanagh, a Montréal periodontist, has donated a life insurance policy, one of many planned giving options, to the Canadian War Museum. The proceeds of the policy will enable the Museum to support in perpetuity a program called Operation Veteran, which Kavanagh founded after a moving encounter with a Second World War veteran at the War Museum cafeteria in April 2009.

“He was just buying soup and a coffee but he didn’t have enough to pay,” Kavanagh explained. “There was a long line-up and people were becoming impatient. He was in tears. I had to do something. So I paid for his meal.”

Soon afterwards, Kavanagh founded Operation Veteran to ensure that on November 11 (when we celebrate Remembrance Day) no veteran would lack the funds for a meal at the Museum. That year, a total of 66 veterans benefitted from meal vouchers at the Museum’s cafeteria. In 2010, the program was extended to every day the Museum is open and more than 2,000 veterans have benefitted to date.

Educating Our Youth

The program also helps educate young people about Canadians’ debt to our veterans. By supporting the development of online modules about diplomacy and peacekeeping, Operation Veteran enriches the already considerable resources on the War Museum website. And on November 11 each year, Kavanagh invites private and public schools that raise funds for Operation Veteran to attend Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa and to tour the War Museum. All expenses of these visits are covered by the participating schools.

What inspires Kavanagh’s tireless commitment to veterans? “My dad enlisted in 1943 when he was only 17 years old,” Kavanagh said. “He was the youngest of seven boys in his family and four of the boys enlisted. His father had fought in the First World War. On my mother’s side of the family, my uncle William Henry Cardy was one of only seven Canadians to be cited for conspicuous gallantry in Second World War. Another uncle, Padre Joseph Cardy, won the Military Cross and retired as Chaplain General (Protestant) of the Canadian Armed Forces in 1974. Also, two of my cousins were killed in action in 1943, one of them on November 11.”

For Kavanagh, donating an insurance policy was the ideal way to leave his own legacy. “It allows me to make a major gift to the War Museum that I couldn’t otherwise afford,” he explained. “And the policy premiums are tax exempt. It’s a great option.”

What’s Next for Operation Veteran?

Dr. Paul Kavanagh is continually enlisting more private and public schools in Operation Veteran because he believes education is critical to the program.

Last year, students from eleven schools came to the National Capital Region on November 11 for the wreath-laying ceremony at the National War Memorial and a tour of the War Museum. This year, students from more than thirty schools—from Vancouver Island to St. John’s, Newfoundland—will attend.

“These students come to Ottawa and they get to meet vets,” said Kavanagh. “They ask questions like, ‘How old were you?’ ‘How were you trained?’ ‘Where did you ship out?’ ‘Were you scared?’ It’s that one-to-one contact that makes it so personal. I believe that if young people know our history and respect our vets, they will value and take care of our country.”

If you’d like to learn more about donating an insurance policy or other planned giving options, contact Claude Drouin, Director of Philanthropy, at 819-776-8625.