When military personnel return to life at home, the transition isn’t always smooth. From potentially coping with stress or trauma, to finding new work and rebuilding relationships, life after military service can be immensely challenging. 

The Veterans Transition Network (VTN), a pioneering Canadian charity, aims to assist veterans and military personnel at all stages of transition. Blakes has partnered with the VTN since 2017 to provide a broad range of pro bono legal services.

Initially, Blakes lawyers were involved in helping the VTN to protect and disseminate the intellectual property of their program that was developed by Canadian mental health experts and former veterans at the University of British Columbia. The VTN’s unique program combines methods such as therapeutic enactment, group counselling and peer mentoring, and has already aided over 1,800 veterans and military and police personnel.

Blakes Associate Brady Gordon has been involved in providing pro bono support to the VTN for many years. He says that helping the VTN expand the success of their program to other countries, such as Australia and the U.K., has been rewarding, knowing Blakes would be having a more global impact on those struggling. “It was important that we protect the integrity of their process as it grows, because it really is such a uniquely successful program,” he says.

In 2021, Blakes helped the VTN take on an urgent and highly impactful challenge. After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in the summer, many of the staff, donors and participants of the VTN’s programming, some of whom had military experience in the country, feared for the safety of Afghans who had aided Canadian and NATO troops. In response to this urgent need, the VTN took on a special mandate and launched a new mission to support and evacuate those in danger and bring them to safety in Canada. Blakes was pleased to support these efforts, helping the VTN navigate a complex legal environment and ensure compliance with all applicable Canadian laws. Blakes also assisted the VTN with negotiating and drafting funding agreements, supply agreements and services agreements with contractors providing safehouses, transport and logistics. Overall, the VTN supported the evacuation of over 2,000 Afghans to safety through this campaign. 

For Blakes Associate David Rennie, the Afghan evacuation work was particularly rewarding. “It had an immediate real-world impact, and that continued once the news had moved on to other stories. The VTN was still working to get people out, and they were still focused on helping people every day.”

Throughout the course of Blakes and the VTN’s ongoing partnership, over 20 lawyers have contributed pro bono legal services. Blakes Associate Tony Magre notes that lawyers from all experience levels, from partners to students at the Firm, have collaborated on VTN files. The partnership has allowed lawyers from different groups to share expertise and work together on a shared mission.

For many of the lawyers involved, the benefit of working with the VTN comes from knowing their work has an impact on people struggling, both on a global scale and within Canadian military communities.

“We’re just thrilled to see how the VTN makes a real difference in people's lives. We hope to see them continue to grow and expand the program to as many people as they can, because I have seen firsthand the difference that can make to people who have gone through the program,” says Brady. 

“They're a real force for good. And we're just happy to help.”