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May 31, 2010
JAMES CADGER
In memory of Jim who passed away May 31, 2008.
I'd like the memory of me to be a happy one, I'd like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done... I'd like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways, Of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days. I'd like the tears of those who grieve to dry before the sun. Of happy memories that I left behind When life was done.
Ex gratia | Blackburn says more than $62 million has been paid out to 3,136 people
The federal government isn't planning to introduce another Agent Orange-related compensation package.
Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said recently that nothing is in the works, despite rumblings that suggest the opposite.
"It's not the truth," Blackburn said in an interview with The Daily Gleaner.
The minister said he understands people would like to have more compensation, but a $95.6-million package announced in the fall of 2007 for veterans and civilians affected by the U.S. military's spraying of Agent Orange at Gagetown during the 1960s has helped many.
Those who met the compensation criteria received a $20,000 ex gratia payment.
"We have acted and the Liberals before us were not able to take a decision about that," Blackburn said. "They just let that discussion go on, and we thought, as government, it was important to help those people who have, maybe, suffered for that."
Blackburn said 3,136 payments have been delivered under the now-completed program to qualifying individuals, representing $62.7 million.
The minister said 3,136 people have been helped - individuals who never received anything from government before.
Blackburn said people should realize that more than $60 million was distributed through the program.
"I understand that somebody would like more," he said.
"(But) I think we were correct. We have respected what we said in the campaign in 2006. We delivered to those people. We hope, and I hope, that those 3,136 appreciate that we did deliver this ex gratia payment ... I think we did something helpful (for) people."
The minister acknowledged, however, that not everyone qualified and that has resulted in people being disappointed.
But Blackburn said a line had to drawn, and that meant some people weren't eligible for compensation.
"We (had) to do some rules, some regulations ... and, I understand, some people would have liked to obtain the ex gratia payment. But we (had) to define specific ways."
Blackburn said the original April 1, 2009, program deadline was extended by 18 months to accommodate individuals where circumstances beyond their control caused them to miss the first deadline. The extension ended Oct. 1.
Since then there have been seven new applications received, along with eight individuals who have submitted new information to support an application made prior to Oct 1.
Because Veterans Affairs Canada's authority to make payments ended on Oct. 1, it wasn't possible to process the requests, said the department.
Blackburn's comments, meanwhile, come as a disappointment to Widows on a War Path.
The group is upset over being left out of the 2007 compensation package because their husbands didn't die within the parameters set by the Tory government.
Catherine Peters, a member of the Widows, said her group had heard rumblings that something might be in the works from Veterans Affairs.
"There's no way we are going to quit," said Peters, who lives in Oromocto.
"We are going to push this all the way. I don't feel the government has been fair."
Monetary awards were considered for primary caregivers of qualifying individuals who passed away on or after Feb. 6, 2006 - the date Stephen Harper took office.
The widows have been fighting to have that decision reversed.
Blackburn, meanwhile, reiterated the government's stand regarding a public inquiry.
"I think we have to tell the truth to the people. This is not the plan of the government to do a public inquiry about that," he said.
Blackburn also dismissed efforts of opposition parties to make compensation an issue in the next federal election.
"We have acted, and the Liberals were before us were not able to take (a) decision about that," he said.
Canada's top soldier, Gen. Walter Natynczyk, says concerns raised by the veterans ombudsman are "absolutely correct issues" and the controversial New Veterans Charter "doesn't work for everyone."
At a news conference Friday, Natynczyk, the chief of the defence staff, was asked if veterans ombudsman Pat Stogran, whose term is not being renewed, has been doing a good job.
"He has certainly voiced with clarity what the issues are," said Natynczyk, who held the news conference with his Dutch counterpart, Gen. Peter Van Uhm, who has been on an official visit to Canada.
Earlier this week, Stogran hit out at the Department of Veterans Affairs for being "deliberately obstructionist and deceptive," rather than helping injured soldiers. Stogran also said one government official told him that soldiers were less of a liability if they died in war, rather than coming back to Canada injured.
One issue Stogran says is a problem is the New Veterans Charter, under which a lump sum of money is awarded to injured soldiers, rather than a monthly pension for life.
Over a veteran's lifetime, a monthly pension works out to be hundreds of thousands of dollars more. And there are concerns that soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder may mismanage money that is given in a lump sum.
Natynczyk weighed into the debate Friday.
"I know Veterans Affairs has done their survey and 69 per cent have some satisfaction. [We] gotta worry about that 31 per cent and we gotta make sure they get the support that they need because their circumstances may be different," Natynczyk said.
Operations under review: Blackburn
Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn has said operations at the department are being continually reviewed, including the lump-sum payment.
Natynczyk also encouraged soldiers to speak out, whether at parliamentary committees, to the media or in public, about the issues they face and the needs they have, because every soldier is different.
"Everyone's had a different war, a different fight. Their family circumstances are different," he said. "I think the bottom line is we can't do enough for our soldiers, our wounded soldiers."
At a separate news conference Friday afternoon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his government will continue to work with the current and next veterans ombudsman and Veterans Affairs to address the concerns of military veterans.
"Serving our veterans is one of the highest priorities we have as a government," said Harper. "Men and women who serve in uniform are our best and bravest citizens and, particularly when they get injured, we have an eternal debt to them."
On Friday, Liberal Veterans Affairs critic Rob Oliphant submitted a letter to the clerk of the all-party veterans affairs committee and demanded it be recalled to study the government's refusal to appoint Stogran to another term.
He said public criticism of the system by the former ground commander in Afghanistan is serious enough to warrant special hearings.
The committee requires the signatures of four MPs to be recalled, and Oliphant got the backing of other Liberals on the committee as well as the NDP. Its return would mark the third Commons committee brought back this summer.
Steve Bird, 46, lived all over Canada during his 23 years fixing helicopters in the military.
In 2002, he was badly injured while pulling a fuel cell out of a helicopter and, after three operations, he is still in constant pain.
He also has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, related to various active assignments over the years. But for seven years, Veterans Affairs denied him a disability pension, saying his injuries were not related to his work.
Six appeals later, he was finally granted a disability pension and Bird wonders why it took that long for the federal department to do what was right.
"I felt abandoned," he says. And he is not alone.
Phil Minty's grandfather, William Coulson, was injured by shrapnel and mustard gas in the First World War and was designated completely disabled.
Yet, Veterans Affairs awarded him only a small disability pension and Minty remembers his grandfather writing monthly letters in the 1960s to try to get a modest increase. It never came.
"People think the older vets were treated better than those today," says Minty. "It's just that their stories didn't get told."
In their years in opposition, the Conservatives and Reform party often dined out on these veterans' stories, promising to bring changes should they come to power.
Indeed, in the 2006 election campaign, Stephen Harper promised a Veterans Bill of Rights that would require Veterans Affairs Canada to give servicemen and women the benefit of the doubt when they make a claim or apply for assistance.
But now, faced with an uproar over the decision not to extend the term of a popular veterans' ombudsman — a former colonel who raged against departmental stonewalling and has promised to bring forward the stories of deserving veterans — it seems clear the Conservative government has not fixed the problems it vowed to solve.
The bill of rights now exists, but veterans like Bird say it hasn't changed how they're treated.
"I felt I was being called a liar from day one," he says.
Veterans' charter
On coming to office, the Harper government also enacted a new "Veterans Charter," which was designed to change how veterans' benefits and services work.
The charter was meant to be a "living" document that could be adapted as unforeseen issues developed.
Many veterans now argue that the charter is rife with problems that are not being addressed.
For instance, injured vets no longer receive a monthly disability pension for life.
Instead, they are granted a lump sum payment up to a maximum of about $276,000, based on the level of disability.
The issue is that, even if invested properly, the amount equals hundreds of thousands of dollars less than what someone would have received under the previous system over the course of a normal lifetime. And that's if it's invested.
Many also question the wisdom of giving a young, injured serviceman, who is perhaps also suffering from PTSD, a large sum of cash up front.
Find your own way
Another problem with the system, according to the veterans who have been calling the ombudsman's office, is that injured veterans may be eligible for other monies in other programs. But the labyrinth of criteria and eligibility requirements makes it extremely difficult for anyone to figure out what is available.
"They don't offer help. Their attitude is, if you find your own way, then fine, but otherwise you're on your own," says Bob Grant who was a reservist for 25 years.
Grant's father, Michael, was a veteran from the Second World War. When he returned, he had lost most of his hearing and suffered from night terrors, which stayed with him until he died. Grant's sister, who was seven at the time, had to walk their father around the block to help calm him down during his panic attacks.
Veterans Affairs denied him a disability pension or even a pair of hearing aids, although they did send along a set of glasses.
Grant says that from what he sees, Veterans Affairs has not improved much since his father was a vet. He says every past government — Liberal or Conservative — is to blame, but he is especially disillusioned with the current one.
"The Conservative government stands up in Parliament and says, 'We stand up for our brave men and women.' They're saying one thing and doing another," Grant says, arguing that if Canadians don't make veterans' assistance an election issue, nothing will change.
See you in court
Another issue that has not been resolved under the new charter is the long-term disability program that soldiers pay into while serving. It is set up as an insurance plan for those who are injured in the line of duty and unable to serve.
The problem, however, is that those who receive a monthly disability pension under the pre-charter system are now seeing the government claw back that pension and other income from the insurance payouts.
Some veterans are currently fighting the clawback in court in a class-action lawsuit.
They say the clawback is unfair because they paid into the insurance plan in good faith and because it is not applied equally to those who leave or who remain in the Canadian Forces.
A Senate Committee and a former DND ombudsman have agreed the practice is "profoundly unfair," but the government has not budged.
As well, veterans argue the clawback works to deter veterans from working and reintegrating into civilian life.
Veteran Affairs clearly does not want to be a welfare system for veterans; the department worries about creating a dependent population and many veterans agree this can become a problem.
However, they argue that they only want what they've been promised: that if they put their life on the line, they will be taken care of if they get hurt.
The impasse has led to a relationship that has become highly antagonistic in recent years and in which the government has been taken to court by veterans on a number of occasions: over interest not paid on pensions held in trust; over pensions not granted to veterans' widows; and over compensation for exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.
Many of these cases are still winding their way through the court system and veterans argue that the government is spending more money fighting them in court than they would have to pay out if they just conceded the cases.
Carla Murray is Steve Bird's wife. She says taking care of him is a full-time job and that getting reimbursement from Veterans Affairs for his pain medication and for travel to see specialists is a constant battle.
She also wonders what veterans who come back with missing limbs or mental health issues do if they don't have wives, husbands or family to advocate for them.
"A lot of these guys don't have it in them to fight anymore," she says.
Bird says he would not recommend any young person sign up for the military today.
"Everything is great until you get injured," he says, adding that's when you become a liability. "The sooner they can get rid of you the better."
Bureaucracy stymies efforts to help veterans, ombudsman charges
By: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - The country's soon-to-be former veterans ombudsman is accusing federal bureaucrats of "cheating" war widows and saying it's better for the country if soldiers die in Afghanistan rather than come home wounded to be a burden on the treasury.
Retired colonel Pat Stogran and several disabled veterans, all of them boiling with frustration, painted a Dickensian picture Tuesday of veteran's care — one that contradicts the Conservative government's long-standing assurance of standing behind the troops.
"I was told by a senior Treasury Board analyst, who shall remain nameless, that it is in the government’s best interest to have soldiers killed overseas rather than wounded because the liability is shorter term," he told a marathon Ottawa news conference.
Stogran, who has been told by the Conservative government he won't be appointed to a second term, laid out several examples of how the bureaucracy at Veterans Affairs Canada has stonewalled and deep-sixed his efforts to improve benefits for former servicemen and women.
He says he suggested better entitlements for war widows. The idea was rejected because it cost money.
Stogran asked why Canada, unlike its allies, doesn't automatically recognize ALS — Lou Gehrig's disease — as a condition members of the military are more likely to develop. That's just the way it is, he said he was told.
How did the Veterans Affairs come up with its program to compensate former soldiers exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange in the 1960s? Stogran says he was handed a press briefing backgrounder.
And when he spotted what he considered to be "gross exaggeration, bordering on outright lies" in a note headed to the minister, he complained — only to be cut off of the mailing list.
"Welcome to my world," Stogran said.
The issue of widows particularly got under his skin and he accused the department's deputy minister of "cheating" the spouses of dead soldiers.
''It is beyond my comprehension how the system could knowingly deny so many of our veterans the services and benefits that the people and the government of Canada recognized a long, long time ago as being their obligation to provide."
Much of his attack was focused on the bureaucracy and Stogran declined to lay the blame directly at the feet of the Conservatives. He said the minister was being poorly advised.
Stogran admitted to being frustrated and angry with his battles, but denied his impending dismissal had anything to do with the extraordinary outburst.
''It's absolutely clear to me that the government expected the veterans' ombudsman to behave as a complaints manager responsible to the department," Stogran said.
''Is it a surprise to anybody that the veterans'ombudsman would speak out on behalf of veterans and their families?''
But Veteran Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn suggested it was sour grapes and denied the former ground commander was being punished for being too frank in his criticism.
Blackburn also stood by his officials.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper waded into the debate and said Stogran's three-year appoint was "understood right from the outset" to be a single term commitment.
"There are no positions for life," Harper said at a news conference in Mississauga, Ont. "That's the way we do things."
But the prime minister, speaking in French, suggested Stogran's last months in office may still prove productive.
"If the ombudsman has concerns, has suggestions, the government is open always to incorporate these suggestions in our future programs and I encourage him to work with us," said Harper.
In 2006, the federal government overhauled the way veterans received benefits. The New Veterans Charter, conceived under the Liberals but enacted under the Conservatives, was supposed to usher in a new era of care for the country's former soldiers, Stogran said.
“What has become profoundly obvious to me as the veterans ombudsman is the only commitment that’s changed is the commitment of our government to look after our veterans,” he said.
Stogran said he's going to spend his last three months in office telling Canadians how badly vets are being treated.
He's urging people to protest the government's handling of veterans' problems. Write letters to the editor, to MPs and ministers, he said; post messages on the Internet; stand up for vets.
The federal Liberals and NDP have lined up with Stogran, demanding another term for him.
New Democrat defence critic Jack Harris said he doesn't buy Stogran's argument that the bureaucracy is out of control and the Tories are blameless.
"Parliament and the government has control over the bureaucracy," he said.
"There is ministerial responsibility. If the instruction is, 'don't bring anything that'll cost any money,'well, who's in charge of that? That's the government."
Stogran joins a growing list of federal appointees who have been fired or not reappointed after expressing opinions at odds with the government.
Peter Tinsley, chair of the Military Police Complaints Commission, did not have his term renewed last fall after ordering public interest hearings into the handling of Afghan prisoners.
Paul Kennedy, who headed the RCMP Public Complaints Commission, was also not reappointed.
__________________________
July 24, 2010
For Immediate Release July 23, 2010
Robert Oliphant, M.P., Calls for Full Public Inquiry into Agent Orange
OROMOCTO, N.B. – Robert Oliphant, Liberal Member of Parliament for Don Valley West, and Official Opposition Critic for Veterans Affairs, re-iterated his call for the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs to initiate a full study and conduct hearings investigating the Agent Orange spraying program at CFB Gagetown and surrounding areas during a town hall event held yesterday. During his remarks yesterday, Mr. Oliphant assured community members that he would push for increased compensation and a full public inquiry.
Mr. Oliphant organized a town hall event in Oromocto, New Brunswick on July 22 to hear from those Canadians most affected by the Agent Orange and other defoliant programs. He was joined by the Hon. Judy Sgro, M.P., also a Liberal Member of the Standing committee, and over 125 members of the community. Participants shared their concerns both intelligently and emotionally about the suffering they, and their families, have endured, both personally and as a community.
The very limited nature of the Conservative government's compensation program has led many to feel abandoned by the Canadian government. The program, consisting exclusively of ex-gratia payments in the amount of $20,000 as compensation for victims of the Agent Orange spraying, was widely criticized for its small amount and its limited eligibility. Currently, only those who were still alive on February 6, 2006, the date the Conservative Government was sworn in to office, are eligible to receive compensation. Widows of those who died prior to this date justifiably feel left out. Additionally, the list of eligible illnesses is much more restrictive in Canada than in other countries.
The group “Widows on a Warpath”, represented at the town hall by founder Bette Hudson continued to call for the government to change the eligibility date for the ex-gratia payments. “To use such an arbitrary date to determine eligibility for this payment is simply ludicrous.” Oliphant said. “The government is punishing families who lost loved ones prior to their election. This payment is nothing but a symbolic gesture from a government that bills itself as pro-military, but has yet to demonstrate that they are prepared to care for those who have served,” Oliphant added.
The Agent Orange Association of Canada Inc., represented by Co-President Carol Brown Parker, called for the government to conduct a full inquiry into the spraying program. “The Liberal Party is committed to bringing this issue before the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs and will call for increased compensation and a full public inquiry.” Oliphant continued. “After the committee has conducted our study we will then be able to make a series of comprehensive recommendations to the government on the appropriate way forward.” Oliphant concluded.
The town hall provided local veterans and civilians with a forum to share their concerns. “My goal was to come to this event and listen to the people who have had their lives altered by Agent Orange,” Oliphant said. “I applaud the brave men and women who came forward and shared their concerns. I am committed to bringing a new voice to the concerns that were presented to me when I return to the House of Commons in the fall.”
-30-
Contact: Noah Farber, Office of Robert Oliphant, MP, 613-992-2855 ___________________
By Larry Hayes-Richards, Edmonton JournalJuly 3, 2010
Re: "Syncrude found guilty; Feds won't rule out seeking a whopping fine of $300,000 for each duck that died in pond," The Journal, June 26.
When I read this, I couldn't believe my eyes. I am a veteran who served in the Canadian Army during the years that our government allowed the U.S. to spray some of Camp Gagetown's forests to test Agent Orange, along with other toxic defoliants.
Because of my exposure to this spraying, I now suffer from one of the medical conditions our government has listed as being caused by this exposure. Along with other veterans, I received the ex gratia payment of $20,000.
Does it look strange that the government sees dead ducks as worth $300,000 apiece, yet a dead soldier, or a still suffering soldier from one of the conditions is only worth $20,000?
I find it somewhat interesting or better said perverse that the whole world under the guise of the United Nations, was only able to come up with five million dollars, for the over four million Vietnamese victims and their clean up efforts for dioxins in Vietnam, while the Canadian Government in Ottawa was ready willing and as it seems very able, to shell out nearly eight million dollars, to keep themselves out of court when it comes to using the same chemicals in Canada, at CFB Gagetown.
We must also never forget that if Dow Chemical and Pharmacia (formally known as Monsanto) have (only) spent the same amount as Ottawa in their pursuit to stay out of court and to prevent them from having to produce documents in an open court on the Canadian spraying at CFB Gagetown, then the allegedly guilty here have spent close to twenty four million dollars to keep their Rainbow Chemical secrets.
There seems to be a lot more hush money in Canada, then there is clean-up money world wide.
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret)
_____________________________
July 1, 2010
From: David Palmer
As we suffer and die from service at Base Gagetown his majesty King Harper spends over a billion on security alone, not to mention the other cost to hold the sumit. Imange the pitling 90 million set aside for agent orange. History has shown most dictators like to show of their control by having other leaders in for a social event.
The Canadian government, led by PM Stephen Harper, has come under pressure from the liberal opposition after it was revealed that almost CAD 8 M has been spent on legal fees in an attempt to stop army veterans, who were exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange, from receiving compensation.
Over a 50 year period, from 1956 to 2008, the Canadian government, and for two years in the 1960s the American government, used Agent Orange at a base in New Brunswick, Canada called Gagetown. German, British and Australian soldiers were also amongst those from elsewhere in the world who were trained at Camp Gagetown, the largest training base in the commonwealth. A large number of the soldiers at the base were sprayed with the toxic Agent Orange defoliant, which was used to clear dense brush amongst other things.
The deadline for applying for ex-gratia payments related to the spraying of Agent Orange at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown is closing in.
While the deadline was reported to have passed April 1, Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn confirmed this week that the government continues to process new applications from individuals who were unaware of the deadline.
Under the 2007 ex-gratia payment order, payments will cease to be made on Oct. 1. People have until Sept. 17 to make a request, but they must indicate why they couldn't meet the original deadline - April 1, 2009.
STUFF.CO.NZ, JULY 28, 2006 Significant genetic damage to the DNA of Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange has been found in a study by Massey molecular scientists. Analysis of blood samples from 25 New Zealand veterans exposed to the toxic defoliant showed that the group had suffered genetic damage.
I'd like the memory of me to be a happy one, I'd like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done... I'd like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways, Of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days. I'd like the tears of those who grieve to dry before the sun. Of happy memories that I left behind When life was done. ________________________
BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - Thousands of local soldiers may have been exposed to Agent Orange even though they never set foot in Vietnam.
Some of these retired soldiers from right here in Massachusetts are sick, and are wondering if the Agent Orange they encountered at a remote Canadian military base is to blame.
"I'm totally convinced that the government that I worked for knew this stuff before we went there," said Matthew Masnik, a retired Army Reserves colonel suffering from diabetes and other health problems. "They need to do something at least to get the people checked out."
Masnik and thousands of others trained at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, a vast military base located deep within the New Brunswick woods. They would typically drill for two weeks at a time, working and sleeping in the mud and dust, even eating wild berries.
________________
May 1, 2010
Hatfield Consultants has now made available a number of their Agent Orange reports for download at their website.
Programs needed to monitor DDT in Fundy: scientist
by Derwin Gowan
ST. ANDREWS - Scientists still find DDT in sea creatures from the Bay of Fundy, scientist Peter G. Wells said in St. Andrews Friday.
Canada and the United States stopped spraying this insecticide to control the spruce budworm forest pest 42 years ago.
However, it still the most common chemical that monitoring programs find in Bay of Fundy/Gulf of Maine mussels, Wells, a toxicologist from Dalhousie University in Halifax, told a workshop on threats to the health of the bay.
The Bay of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership's Working Group on the Cumulative Effects of Stress organized the by-invitation-only workshop for fisheries and aquaculture industries and others interested in the bay.
Canada registered dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) for use as an insecticide in the 1940s.
From 1952 until governments suspended it for this use in 1968, industry and government sprayed about 15 million hectares of eastern North American forest with DDT to control spruce budworm, according to Bill Freedman in the book Environmental Ecology - the Ecological Effects of Pollution, Disturbance and Other Stresses second edition available online at Google Books.
New Brunswick sprayed 5.75 million kilograms of DDT from airplanes during this period, the book states.
Canada phased out most uses of DDT by the mid-1970s, then discontinued its registration in 1985. But those with the insecticide were allowed to sell, use or dispose of remaining stocks until the end of 1990, according to Environment Canada. Selling or using it in Canada is illegal.
Wells, the lead-off speaker at the day-long workshop, stressed the need for monitoring programs for DDT and many other things that do not belong in the Bay of Fundy.
"We need monitoring," he said.
"There are lots of indications that the Bay of Fundy is under stress," he said, citing chemical pollution, increased marine traffic, litter and certain fisheries and seabird species doing better than others.
A survey 10 years ago found tidal barriers, such as causeways, across 25 of 44 rivers draining into the upper Bay of Fundy. Many flats are closed to clamming, Wells said, but he noted the efforts to clean up sewage at Boston, Saint John and elsewhere.
"There is an effort to put in more waste treatment systems around the Gulf," he said. (Marine scientists consider the Bay of Fundy an extension of the Gulf of Maine).
He counted 88 monitoring programs that find everything from chemical pesticides and bacteria to caffeine from people's morning coffee.
These programs show the "linkages" between land and water. Most of them each look for one thing, but not enough at cumulative effects, he said.
Interested parties should meet periodically to make sure they are looking for the right things related to land use and coastal development, the impact of fisheries and aquaculture, climate change and other things, Wells said.
They should also ensure funding for monitoring programs "because a lot of them are hanging on by their pinkies."
DDT is the most common chemical monitoring programs find in Bay of Fundy mussels, scientist Peter G. Wells said Friday.
____________________________
From: Kenneth Dobbie
Today, I received the following couriered letter from Tony Merchant, I have quoted what he says verbatim. However, what I cannot put here is the attached 143 pages of the Regina argument which was argued just yesterday and the day before on March 29 and March 30, 2010.
Tony says:
"Dear Ken
As you likely know, the Court of Appeal of Newfoundland and Labrador over-ruled certification. We believe the same errors of merits based analysis and predominance were made in that Court of Appeal as we saw in the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench. Whether we can right the ship through an Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada or success in the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal is a matter that remains to be seen, but clearly things are going poorly. I enclose a copy of our Saskatchewan submissions for the Regina argument of March 29 and 30 and the judgement from the Newfoundland Court of Appeal.
Yours Truly,
Tony" _________________________________
It is clear that unless the arguments in the Saskatchewan court yield us a victory, then we will be headed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Reading the enclosed documents that Mr. Merchant has sent me verify to me that the arguments in the Saskatchewan Court are powerful and evidence oriented. Whether the justices of the SK court will give their thumbs up remains to be seen and that opinion will again take some months to be handed down.
If we do fail in SK, then we will be headed to the Supreme Court of Canada where I have always thought this would eventually end up when I started the class action in Federal Court on July 12, 2005. It is hard to believe that almost five years have gone by.
I thought that everyone would want to know this, especially everyone who was in the original Agent Orange Association of Canada as well as all of you who are in the class action.
It, like Art's website, www.agentorangealert.com is purely for information and the telling of what happened at CFB Gagetown and the surrounding communities. It needs to be told to the world and we will persevere in maintaining an online presence to educate, inform, persuade and generally make sure that the atrocity of the spraying programs of DND over a period of 28 years will not be kept under government whitewash and outright lies of denial.
I have been very ill this past year and consequently have had little to do with the ongoing battle. However, my health has improved somewhat for the time being and I wanted to share my knowledge with all who read this and be aware that I am "clearing the decks" so to speak as my health will deteriorate. Regardless of the past, feel free to contact me or Art for further information. I will be sharing everything I can with Art.
A Court of Appeal has decertified a class-action lawsuit relating to Agent Orange at a former military base in New Brunswick.
More than 3,000 people from across Canada - including close to 70 from this province - were involved in a class-action lawsuit against the government and the chemical manufacturers.
They were seeking compensation for being exposed to Agent Orange.
However, a decision by Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal Justice Margaret Cameron to overturn a previous ruling by a lower court means the claimants now have to file individual lawsuits.
That process would be more costly and time-consuming.
Retired Brig. Gen. Ed Ring of St. John's - who put his name forward on behalf of all the claimants in the lawsuit - was unavailable for comment Wednesday.
However, last fall, when the merits of the appeal were being argued, he told The Telegram that if those involved have to file individual lawsuits, "98 per cent of them would walk away from this, either because they can't afford it, don't have the time or are too ill."
In the fall of 2007, the federal government announced a $95.6-million compensation package for veterans and civilians who were at the base in 1966 and 1967 and were affected by the U.S. military's spraying of Agent Orange at the Gagetown base.
A one-time, lump sum payment of $20,000 each was paid to those who qualified for compensation. Roughly 4,500 people were eligible for the payment. But many believe it fell short of what the veterans and their families deserve.
In December 2007, Justice Leo Barry ruled the class-action lawsuit against the federal government would proceed in this province, as opposed to New Brunswick.
Since then, the case had been dragging through the system as the government and chemical companies file various motions and appeals.
Last fall, lawyers from both sides argued the merits of an appeal, filed by the government and the chemical manufacturers Pharmacia Corp. and Dow Chemical Group, seeking to halt the class action.
At that time, several people involved in the class action also came to court.
Their fight was all about people who were affected by the U.S. military's spraying of Agent Orange at the Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick.
Agent Orange - a herbicide used by the military to control vegetation and clear dense brush - was used in Gagetown between 1956 and 2004.
The powerful and toxic defoliant was proven to have caused serious long-term health effects on those who were exposed to it.
Used by the U.S. military in the Vietnam War, Agent Orange was recognized to have caused such illnesses as Hodgkin's disease, lymphoma, respiratory cancers, prostate cancer and Type 2 diabetes.
David Eaton, who represents Dow Chemical Group, had told the appeal panel that because of the large numbers involved, the diversity of the group and the specific circumstances of each, it would be difficult to deal with it as one case.
Eaton declined comment Wednesday.
Ring - who served 34 years in the military and was diagnosed with cancer in 1996 - had said they have a right to a fair hearing, despite the complexities of the case.
"This is a significant effort by large companies and the federal government to deny us that right.
"There's a common issue involved here. It's all about what happened in Gagetown."
But the appeal panel agreed with Eaton and didn't believe there was enough to establish the criteria for certification.
For example, Cameron noted that the class may have been too broad, and that it is difficult to narrow its scope.
One issue she had was with the wording of the class: it's defined as "all individuals who were at CFB Gagetown between 1956 and the present and who claim they were exposed to dangerous levels of dioxin or hexachlorobenzene while on the base."
"While various numbers have been used to estimate the potential size of the class," Cameron pointed out, "it is generally agreed that it is in excess of 400,000 people and, thus defined, includes everyone who was at CFB Gagetown, for any period of time, between 1956 and the present, whether exposed to herbicides or not.
"It lacks the rational connection to the causes of action and common issues identified by the plaintiffs. Given the pattern of spraying, its time frame and size of the base, not every one of the 400,000 plus potential claimants in fact have a claim."
She said as it's worded, it "limits class members to those who 'claim they were exposed' rather than those who 'were exposed.'"
Cameron also questioned real common issue in the class.
"The trial division judge did not address the question of whether the (primary) common issue is a common issue for the whole of the class or a series of common issues to be determined for various subclasses," Cameron said.
"Unless the relationship between various chemicals and all types of lymphomas is the same, the determination will have to be made for each type of lymphoma."
The lack of criteria for certification in this case, Cameron said, "undermines the trial division judge's decision that a class action is the preferable procedure."
Ottawa must reverse position on Agent Orange deadline
The Daily Gleaner
Tuesday March 16, 2010
Letters to the editor
Re: Compensation
Is our government getting worried about the next election or do they think the people have forgotten how this same party fought to cut back on the Gold Plate pensions for retiring members of Parliament?
There is no money for the widows and families of the Agent Orange fiasco because the government set an impossible date to qualify for the ex-gratia payment.
Maybe they could do likewise and flip-flop to help us out.
Catherine Peters Widows on a Warpath Oromocto, N.B.
A Framingham veteran says many Massachusetts National Guard soldiers - and others from New England - may have been exposed to dangerous levels of Agent Orange defoliant if they trained at a military base in New Brunswick.
A Framingham veteran says many Massachusetts National Guard soldiers - and others from New England - may have been exposed to dangerous levels of Agent Orange defoliant if they trained at a military base in New Brunswick.January 28, 2010
Federal veterans ombudsman listening to concerns about Agent Orange use THE CANADIAN PRESS
FREDERICTON The issue of a wider compensation package for those affected by the spraying of Agent Orange at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in the 1960s may not be dead.
National veterans ombudsman Patrick Stogran, a retired colonel, said his office is listening to people who have concerns.
“We’re also accumulating evidence with the assistance of veterans who have been doing the research,” Stogran said.
“We’re accumulating data, precedents from our counterparts to the south, (and) from other like-minded militaries who have been (affected) by Agent Orange.”
Stogran will be at the Fredericton Legion on Friday as part of a cross-country public consultation process.
Once he’s sure he has an overall insight of the issue, he said he will weigh in. But, he added, he has no executive authority and his recommendations aren’t binding.
The federal government announced a $95.6-million compensation package in the fall of 2007 for veterans and civilians affected by the U.S. military’s spraying of Agent Orange at CFB Gagetown, but attached a number of strict conditions.
Among other things, payments were considered for primary caregivers of qualifying individuals who died on or after Feb. 6, 2006 — the date the Conservative government took office.
Bette Hudson, a Lincoln, N.B., resident who speaks for a group called Widows on a War Path, lost her husband to cancer in 2004 at the age of 64. Although he was at Gagetown from 1964-66, his death didn’t fall within the parameters identified by the federal government.
She said she is encouraged by the ombudsman’s interest.
“He is quite interested in getting to the bottom of what is going on and what has gone on with the chemical debacle here at Base Gagetown,” Hudson said. “He’s an ombudsman and someone we can go to and present our case.”
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January 28, 2010
The Daily Geaner
Letters to the Editor
Re: Editorial on Greg Thompson's resignation, published Jan. 19, called I did it my way
Thank you for your recent editorial on Greg Thompson's resignation as minister of Veterans Affairs. Your editorial has been the only media source that has been honest enough to mention that Thompson has failed on what he likes to call the Agent Orange file.
The editorial quoted Thompson as saying that he is one of the few members of Parliament "who never insulted individuals or groups in this country."
I beg to differ. I can think of two groups he has insulted. Thompson has insulted all the widows, widowers, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters who lost loved ones due to defoliant spraying at Gagetown.
He has also insulted the Canadian public by demanding a public inquiry into the spraying of defoliants at Gagetown during his term as an opposition member but once he became minister and had the authority to initiate an inquiry, he refused.
Those who voted for him due to his calls for a public inquiry also feel insulted.
Thompson is also quoted as saying, "I've always played by the rules that I believe elected politicians should play by..."
Apparently Thompson, and far too many politicians, have a different view of the rules than most people.
Re: Retirement of MP and Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson
Widows on a Warpath wishes Hon. Greg Thompson an "apology-free" exit from politics.
We are sure his back will be slightly sore from all the pats he has given himself.
We do not feel he has had an insult-free stint as minister of Veterans Affairs. All victims of the spray program at CFB Gagetown have been treated in an insulting, disrespectful manner.
Ignoring large numbers of sick and dying victims is not something to be proud of.
Our husbands paid the ultimate price for their presence at Base Gagetown. We still suffer because of our loss. Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised compensation for all victims, a promise broken. The ex-gratia payout was as well an insulting blow to widows and their families.
Have just recd email from Art Connolly with link to the Telegraph Journal with an editorial re the resignation of Greg Thompson as vets minister.Now is the time to re-garner your support and endeavour – go for the jugular! Nice one Greg, couldn’t happen to a nicer (?) guy – good riddance
— 69, of Dartmouth passed away peacefully, but unexpectedly, in his favourite chair at home on December 18, 2009, after battling Pulmonary Fibrosis for almost four years. Born November 25, 1940, and raised in East Jeddore, he was a son of the late Eva (Boaz) and the late Douglas Jennex.
Jim retired as a Master Corporal after 20 years with the Canadian Signal Regiment and served with the UN in Cyprus and Egypt, and Germany with NATO, and several bases in Canada. During his service in the army, he was a radio operator and was a master at Morse Code.
Jim received an award of bravery from the Canadian Forces in recognition of the heroic rescue of three children from a house fire in Head Jeddore (December 1973). After retiring, Jim worked as a civilian with Petro Canada and Mobil Oil as an air traffic controller for off-shore helicopters. He later worked as a custodian at the former Vocational School in Dartmouth. Jim was an avid lover of sports all his life.
In most recent years, Jim focused his time and energy into the battle/fight for victims who were exposed to Agent Orange in CFB Gagetown and lately, enjoyed researching the genealogy of the Jennex family.
He is survived by his partner of 28 years, Myrna Blakeney; sisters, Margaret Ann Jennex, Pauline Jennex, Jean (Tom) Wright, Jerrie (Bob) Burnett, and brother, Gordon. He was predeceased by an infant sister, Geraldine. "Papa Jim" will be sadly missed by his stepchildren, Blair, Brenda, Stacy and Shauna; stepgrandchildren, Miranda, Shane, Matthew (whom Jim played army with almost daily); his nieces and nephews, Lisa, Dara, James and Kris, Joshua, Brienne and Amber; many friends, especially Bill Arnold, Paul Power, Bill Murphy and Dave Tait.
Cremation has taken place at Dartmouth Funeral Home. No visitation by request. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, December 23 in Jeddore United Baptist Church, West Jeddore Road, followed by reception in the church. Private burial in Oyster Pond Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Lung Association of Nova Scotia or charity of choice.
The above report was obtained under the Access To Information Act.
______________________
December 8, 2009
IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The Widows on the Warpath Take on Parliament
Ottawa, Canada – December 8, 2009 – The Widows on the Warpath testified today on Parliament Hill to demand compensation for their family members killed by Agent Orange and other pesticides sprayed at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick.
The Widows on the Warpath is a group of 100 civilian and military widows throughout Canada.They represent thousands of victims that were lied to by the Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Less than one month before he took power, Stephen Harper promised “full compensation to all the victims exposed to Agent Orange or other toxic defoliants at CFB Gagetown.”
The Government of Canada has denied them compensation because their husbands died before February 6th, 2006, the date the Harper Government took office.
Today at the Standing Committee, Hon. Judy Sgro, Member of Parliament for York West, tabled a motion to open a public inquiry into the chemical spray program at CFB Gagetown.
The victims of the secret chemical spray program have been fighting for a public inquiry since the Government cover-up was exposed in 2005.
Before his election in 2006, Minister of Veterans Affairs Greg Thompson demanded a full public inquiry on 4 separate occasions.Once elected, the Minister decided a public inquiry would be too expensive.
At a meeting in the Village of Gagetown, Greg Thompson said to the Widows on a Warpath, “I didn’t lie to you to get elected.”
The Minister did not attend the hearing.Mr. Greg Kerr, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs said, “Our Government was the first and only Government to deal with this issue.”
The Government of Canada announced an Ex Gratia compensation package on September 17, 2007 that excluded thousands of victims.
A total of 96.5 million dollars were allotted for 4,500 victims out of an estimated 300,000 people who could have been exposed during the toxic chemical spray program, which began in 1956 and still continues to this day.
Daniel Feighery, director of an upcoming documentary about the Gagetown spray program, also testified at the Committee Hearing.
“The Base is still contaminated today by these toxic chemicals, and is used to train troops headed for Afghanistan.”
Daniel Feighery and the Widows on a Warpath anticipate a return to Ottawa to appear before the Standing Committee again when they return from winter break.
I could cry and weep for those brave men and woman who have died and are still giving their lives for our freedom. But I wonder why our current and past governments are what they are.
As I enter my final stages of Leukemia and Lymphoma, I have come to accept that the government is going to get away with their little $20,000 settlement.
As of this week the government are paying out to the New Brunswick potatoe farmers much greater sums of money for the settlement of the PVYN class action suit. Some in the $100,000 range. I hope someday our government will consist of people worthy of the sacrifices the soldiers have given over the past and current.
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November 11, 2009
They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.
LEST WE FORGET
_______________________________________________
November 7, 2009
From: Kenneth Young
I sent this letter below to the Office of the Auditor General, with the hope that it might get something going again. Any one else wishing to ask for the same can send it to "Auditor General <communications@oag-bvg.gc.ca.;>"
If they wish to do so but do not wish to write something them selves they have my permission to copy and paste what I have written and send it off. Maybe if they get enough interest in this they may just do the audit
Now the letter
******************
Dear Office of the Auditor General of Canada,
I would like to formally request that your office conduct an in-depth audit into the CFB Gagetown Toxic Chemical use, in order to actually find out how much Ottawa and all its offices, departments and contractors have spent so far in order to keep the CFB Gagetown Defoliation program out of the Canadian courts, out of the media and to refuse Veterans their just VAC pensions, due to Gagetown's Ottawa ordered toxic chemical use from 1956 through 1984.
It is not that big of a issue to most Canadians but there are as many as 440,000 veterans, their families and their descendents waiting for answers and we would like to know just how much of our own Tax dollars that Ottawa is willing to spend to make sure that they do not have to say that they are sorry for killing us, to assure that we never see a cent of our VAC pension when it comes to CFB Gagetown toxic chemical related medical conditions and most of all to make sure that no one ever finds out the whole truth of the matter by denying us a full Judicial Inquiry.
(1) This would need to include a complete accounting for the "Base Gagetown and Area Fact Finding Project," and all of the so called independent contractors who supplied reports such as Jacque Whitford Ltd, Cantox Environmental, Dalhousie University and the laboratories involved with soil sampling tests.
(2) The costs of meetings, press releases, Senate and House Committee time spent on this issue, the cost of having ministers as co-chair and the cost of DND involvement both at HQ, public relations and CFB Gagetown and anywhere else that this issue was discussed.
(3) The Ex-gratia payments including the costs of administering it.
(4) The now defunct Federal law suit.
(5) The provincial law suits to date.
(6) and the media campaign to white wash the issue.
Thank you in advance
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret)
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November 1, 2009
From: Gilles Chiasson Windsor ON
Well I want to comment also. I was posted in Gagetown in 1967 to 1968. I just had a my prostate check and they found cancer cells. Also about 3 years ago i got diabetes 2 and my son was born in 1973 with a crooked spine just before the neck and got constant discomfort all the time.
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October 25, 2009
From: Kenneth Young
Remembrance Day
In a few short weeks -- we will be observing Remembrance Day. We'll pause once again to pay tribute to all those who have worn Canadian uniform. We will reflect on their sacrifices and those of their families -- citizens of Canada who have already done their duty and who have fulfilled their responsibilities to their nation, this nation, Canada. MP's at Tax Payers expense will again head out across this land and to countries far away and present remembrance reefs on the graves of many fallen soldiers both for battles won and battles lost. As a nation, we should be pledging to fulfill our promises and responsibilities to the Canadian veterans and their families who are still alive, because Canada's commitment to its veterans is a sacred trust, and upholding that trust is a moral obligation.
On Remembrance Day, after all the parades, after all the solemn ceremonies and after all the cameras are turned off... all veterans may ask: Does Ottawa really mean it? Will Canada keep its promise, not simply with words, but also with actions? Will Veterans finally get fare treatment?
Suffield, Gagetown, Claw back of Veterans pensions on reaching age 65 and Chalk River among a few incidences should under normal circumstances never have happened let alone now be an issue but sadly they did and the are. All of the veterans and families involved should be taken care of. They should have been taken care of when these issues took place, when the first signs that there were causalities or something going wrong but they weren't and still haven't been.
On November 11, 2009 Canadians need to realize this and need to demand that Ottawa remedy the situation on all veterans issues. For my part I would have liked to present a leafless stick reef with an rainbow colored ribbon in Ottawa to commemorate the thousands of soldiers who have already died and for the tens of thousands veterans still dying because for Gagetown Defoliation Tests from 1956 through 1984 but because Ottawa still hasn't admitted that it ever took place, there is little chance of that ever happening.
Remember Canada... Without our military, Canada would not exist. We would surely belong to the USA or still be part of Great Brittan. Be brave Canada, put your soldiers and Veterans issues first on your list to do.
Without them you would not have a country.
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret)
____________________________________________
October 22, 2009
From: John H.W. Hummel
Dear Friends,
I forwarded the attached study I received from Dr. Rignell-Hydbom to Dr. Joel Michalek who headed up the famous Ranch Hand Studies of Vietnam Veterans exposed to Dioxin and his response was that:
"This replicates the findings of the Ranch Hand Agent Orange study. As a consequence of the Ranch Hand and other studies of dioxin-exposed cohorts, all Vietnam veterans are compensated for type 2 diabetes."
Also, here is a recent Canadian study showing a possible link between DDT (DDE) exposure and diabetes in a First Nation community in Ontario.
Hope You find this of interest in light of the Type II Diabetes epidemic ravaging the Aboriginal communities in Canada. Health Canada estimated that 27% of all First Nations in Canada will have Type II Diabetes within 10 years. Many Aboriginal people in Canada have been exposed to a variety of pollutants which have recently been linked to diabetes e.g. dioxin, PCB's, DDT, Cadmium, Arsenic, Hexachlorobenzene etc.
Hope you find this information of interest.
For Land and Life,
John H.W. Hummel,
Nelson, B.C. ____________________________ October 18, 2009
Widows on a War Path demand compensation from Ottawa for Agent Orange
(CP)
HALIFAX, N.S. — A group of women who lost their husbands to illnesses they have linked to the spraying of Agent Orange in New Brunswick several decades ago staged a protest in Halifax on Saturday.
The women say they were disqualified from a compensation package offered two years ago by the federal government to people who lived around CFB Gagetown when the spraying by the U.S. military took place.
The Widows on a War Path want Ottawa to apologize and provide monetary relief.
"We are a group of determined women," organizer Bette Hudson told ATV News. "We are going to continue this fight until there is some resolution..and they can help us by apologizing and by compensating these women."
Ottawa announced a $95.6-million compensation package in the fall of 2007 for veterans and civilians affected by the U.S. military's spraying of Agent Orange during the 1960s.
The federal government provided one-time $20,000 ex-gratia payments that were limited to people alive on Feb. 6, 2006 - the date the Conservatives came to power - and could show illness before April 1.
As of June 15, the department had received 3,837 applications for the ex-gratia payment of $20,000. Of that number, 2,492 of the applicants qualified and 1,004 didn't.
Our views: Toxic killer VA makes overdue move to extend Agent Orange coverage to Vietnam vets
Returning veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are learning the physical and emotion scars of combat remain long after they leave the battlefield.
It's a lesson known all too painfully among the men and women who served in the Vietnam War and were exposed to Agent Orange, which was sprayed to erase the jungle and reveal enemy positions.
An estimated 2.6 million military personnel were potentially exposed between 1965-70 to the toxic herbicide, which has been blamed for many forms of cancer and birth defects in the children of veterans.
Vietnam veterans fought a long battle to get the Department of Veterans Affairs to admit the connection, with Congress finally passing the Agent Orange Act in 1991 that allowed them to receive treatment and compensation for 12 related conditions.
In an overdue move Tuesday, the VA added three more diseases to the list of presumed service-connected illnesses related to Agent Orange. They are B-cell leukemia, Parkinson's and ischemic heart disease.
The action will allow veterans to obtain VA-covered treatment for the diseases without having to prove their illness is associated to their military service. As many as 250,000 veterans could benefit.
"Veterans who endure health problems deserve timely decisions based on solid evidence" so they can get treatment, said VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.
Yes they do, not the decades it has taken Vietnam veterans to receive the care they need.
As of May 28, the federal government had spent $48.5 million, paying $20,000 ex-gratia payments to 2,426 eligible victims of the spraying of Agent Orange at CFB Gagetown. The government had estimated 4,500 people could be eligible for the payment.
The cost of payouts so far has been $38.9 million less than the government budgeted.
This is not a money saving effort that the government should be proud of.
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October 11, 2009
Happy Thanksgving Canada!
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October 5, 2009
OCTOBER IS AGENT ORANGE AWARENESS MONTH. Help promote awareness on this imporant issue of the chemical spraying of CFB Gagetown and surrounding areas from 1956 to 1984!"
Class action lawsuits in jeopardy Re: Base spraying and resulting legal issues Ottawa, and what I consider their questionable third partied Dow and Pharmacia's win in the New Brunswick class action courts against Spalding, which blocks CFB Gagetown victims from even launching a class action lawsuit in New Brunswick, has emboldened them to try the same in Newfoundland, using pretty much the same arguments.
In most ways, Dow and Monsanto (Pharmacia) make the same argument about manageability and lack of commonality to each court. If their appeal is allowed in Newfoundland and certification is dismissed in Saskatchewan, subject to appeals, class members would have to bring their own individual actions or not sue at all.
It is hard for me to personally understand how Ottawa and the chemical industry can claim in one court that they believe there should only be one court case, that being in New Brunswick, and then use all means to prevent that very same New Brunswick certification from taking place. I am also having trouble with Dow and Monsanto (Paramecia) being in this case at all.
We never sued them, and even Ottawa has only brought them in as third parties concerning the 1966 and 1967 U.S. chemical use in Gagetown.
Both Dow and Pharmacia have denied providing the agent orange that was used in 1966-67. So why are they allowed to argue over the remaining 29 years and over three million pounds/litres sprayed and the Canadian use of toxic pesticides at Base Gagetown?
The problem lies in the detail, much of which is under a court order and cannot be made public yet, but basically it boils down to this: If the victims and general public don't start to make their voices and opinions heard on how both the veterans and civilians are being done by in this case, if we continue to allow our government to use our own unlimited amounts of tax dollars to defeat us in court, if we continue to allow Ottawa to choose which and even if they will compensate people for their government mistakes, and if we continue to be lead quietly like sheep to the slaughter, Canada is doomed to the dictatorship we ourselves vote in.
What's more, we will deserve it.
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret.) Nanaimo, B.C. ____________________________
Oct 3, 2009
From: Anonymous
Let's not overlook the role of the provincial governments in spraying campaigns. As road supervisor, my father personally delivered these miracle defoliants to your doorstep. In 1961 every ditch with overgrowth received a dose of agent with instant and, apparently, everlasting results. You can stop puzzling over why nearly every rural household within 20Km+ of Gagetown has been touched by horrible disease
__________________________
September 28, 2009
From: Kenneth Young
Canadian Soldiers Are Expendable In response to "Swine flu vaccine may be mandatory for soldiers in Afghanistan" By The Canadian Press, CBC.ca, Updated: September 28, 2009 I believe that I told everyone that this was going to happen weeks ago. Ottawa has no problem with contaminating its soldiers in CFB Gagetown with toxic chemicals, killing our soldiers in Suffield with mustard and nerve gas, eradicating our troops in Chalk River and Nevada and now, our boys and girls are guinea pigs again. The government hasn't changed its mode of operation and according to Ottawa's actions, Canadian soldiers are just EXPENDABLE test rats for the pleasure of the chemical, biological, nuclear and pharmaceutical industries. In short, cannon fodder.
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret)
___________________________________
September 25, 2009
From: Kenneth Young
A story about CFB Gagetown and how Ottawa and the chemical companies are trying to get it dismissed before it ever gets started, sighting among other things that there is little if any interest, is I am afraid being born out by the comments and responses so far.
Three days now and so far only 31 comments with the people who agreed at 68. Wile stories of polygamy, Hells Angles, and almost every other story are up in the thousands of comments, leaves even me totally disheartened and depressed. If we can not get along, if the military or veterans issue are different, if we came for different regiments and if we became ill in different years, who cares, but if we can't or won't stand up for ourselves and together, what in the heck makes you think for a minute that others in this country will for us.
Ottawa is depending on the fact that old veterans can't agree on the time of day let alone get organized enough to show a united front and any Veterans issue. Why can they get away with robbing our pension fund, why can the decrease veterans disability pensions under the "one time $250,000 dollar", why can they claw back your CPP when you reach 65 and why are all the other veterans issues on the back burner? Because we let them put them there. We still vote for the A-- holes who vote against veterans issues, we don't speak up and by the looks of the comments on this story, we don't even care.
If the victims of this Gagetown atrocity as well as too many other veterans issues to bother write here are too dammed self centered, too lazy, too fed up and too uncaring to even write a comment which is free to do so, well I can fully understand why the rest of Canada has said to hell with us and why Ottawa has taken the route that they have. All Ottawa has to do is stall a bit more and the problem will go away all on its own.
Stand up for yourselves or stop moaning, bitching and complaining how badly you were treated by Ottawa, DND and the VAC. That no body gives a dammed is the fault of each and every one of the, "let's just sit around and drink beer, bitch and wait and see what happens people," and they have no one to blame but themselves. They can also stop asking why no one gives a dammed and why no body does the right thing. What they can do is look in a mirror and point the finger at where a lot of the blame belongs.
PS: If you don't have your own computer use a friends, but bitch where and when it counts.
The federal government and two chemical companies went to court Wednesday in a bid to stop a class-action lawsuit launched by people who claim they developed cancer after being exposed to Agent Orange at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick
Former soldiers deserve their day in court LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Telegram
On Sept. 23, the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal will hear an appeal by the Government of Canada, chemical manufacturer Monsanto and Dow Chemical Corp, seeking to halt a class action brought by former members of the Canadian Armed Forces and their families.
This action seeks to address serious long-term harm caused to these individuals by the actions of the federal government and these chemical companies.
My husband, a 34-year member of the Canadian military, served his country well. He went where he was told, with his young family in tow.
He never, ever imagined that his employer was putting his life, and the lives of his family, in danger in his own country and without his knowledge.
CFB Gagetown seemed like as safe a place as the Newfoundland and Labrador home we left. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Agent Orange was sprayed and no one gave a second thought as to what this deadly chemical would do to the soldiers or their families.
These chemical companies, with the full knowledge and co-operation of our federal government, profited from deploying these poisonous chemicals against our own soldiers.
Now, once again these same parties wish to decide the fate of a group of people who, as young eager Canadians, wanted nothing more than to serve their country.
I will be at the Court of Appeal on the Sept. 23 in St. John's to show my support for my husband, whom I watched for 15 years suffer the effects of a cancer that many experts say was most likely caused by the chemicals he was exposed to at CFB Gagetown. All that he and the other members of this action want is a chance to have their side heard. We live in a country that prides itself on helping others around the world win this democratic right.
Is it too much to ask the same of our own government, for our own soldiers?
If you, a family member or a friend have been affected by this injustice, I look forward to meeting you at the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal at 9:45 a.m. on Sept. 23.
This is Canada, and the strong-arming of our soldiers by the Canadian government and the chemical companies is still unCanadian.
WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - U.S. researchers said on Monday they had made more links between the use of pesticides and Parkinson's disease but said they only found a higher risk for people who use the chemicals as part of their job.
Three compounds, including an ingredient in the Vietnam-era herbicide Agent Orange, the herbicide paraquat and the insecticide permethrin were associated with a more than three-fold increased risk of Parkinson's disease, they found.
Their study, published in the Archives of Neurology, backs a growing body of research linking the incurable and often deadly brain disease with pesticide and herbicide use.
"Because few investigations have identified specific pesticides, we studied eight pesticides with high neurotoxic plausibility based on laboratory findings," Dr. Caroline Tanner of the Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, California and colleagues wrote.
They studied 519 people with Parkinson's disease and 511 similar people who did not have Parkinson's.
"We examined risk of parkinsonism in occupations (agriculture, education, health care, welding, and mining) and toxicant exposures (solvents and pesticides) putatively associated with parkinsonism," they wrote.
"Work in agriculture, education, health care, or welding was not associated with increased risk of parkinsonism," they added.
"Occupational use of pesticides was associated with an almost 80 percent greater risk of parkinsonism. Growing evidence suggests a causal association between pesticide use and parkinsonism."
In July, an Institute of Medicine panel found links between Agent Orange exposure and both Parkinson's and heart disease, but the report by Tanner's team is the first to make a link with permethrin, a commonly used synthetic bug killer and repellent. (Editing by Eric Walsh) ______________________________
Tuesday September 15, 2009
The Daily Gleaner
Our boys would be happy to help
Re: Greg Thompson's planned office move from Moncton to Fredericton
Widows on a Warpath has a suggestion for Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson.
We are more than willing to gather our sons and grandsons and their pick-ups and trucks to move his office from Moncton to Fredericton.
The $700,000 cited to pay for that move would pay 35 of our widows the $20, 000 ex-gratia payment. This payment was denied by his government because our husbands died before Feb. 6, 2006, the day the Harper government took power.
Our boys would be happy to help us out. So, Mr. Thompson, give us a call.
We'll arrange something so that some of our deserving widows get some closure for the untimely deaths of their husbands, who died with agent orange illnesses, as a result of the Canadian government's spray program at CFB Gagetown.
We are not going away! Abbie Magee Waterville, N.B.
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Tuesday September 8, 2009 New Brunswick Telegraph Journal Spray victims can't give up fight
It seems Ottawa was right. If they stalled long enough, theGagetownspraying problem would just go away and sulk in the corner like a beaten old dog.
What started out as a united front against Ottawa's use of toxic chemicals at CFB Gagetown is now fragmented to non-existent at best. Differences of opinions along with seeming constant misinformation from Ottawa have left many disheartened to the point of giving up.
This is not the military way or the Canadian way. We didn't elect these want- to-be leaders to trample all over us.
All of us should be working together and not just the few who have been carrying a very large portion of the weight for the past four years. Sitting back and doing nothing will do nothing for your health and certainly nothing for future generations yet to be contaminated by indifference.
If you still care for the people of Canada and the Canadian way, write your MP, editors of the newspapers and anybody else who will listen.
If the two big political parties refuse to deal with the Gagetown issue, maybe it is time to vote for parties that claim they will. This may not fix the problem, but it will give you peace of mind.
KENNETH H. YOUNG Nanaimo, B.C.
___________________________
September 8, 2009
The Daily Gleaner
Is arts funding tied to film's rejection? Re: Documentary film on Agent Orange spraying at CFB Gagetown
Are the arts paying too high a price for government support? Although many Canadians send up cries of foul play anytime Ottawa cuts back on cultural spending towards the arts such as film festivals, we as Canadians may be paying a very high price of censorship for that very same government support. Recently an independent movie about the Canadian military's use of toxic war chemicals on or near their own soldiers at CFB Gagetown was rejected by the Toronto Film Festival. We have since found that one of the few recipients of the Summer 2009 Marquee Tourism Events Program (MTEP) funding stream is The Toronto International Film Festival.
The MTEP, under Canada's Economic Action Plan, is designed to provide $100 million in funding over the next two years for marquee tourism events and is a Government of Canada initiative. Ottawa has made it more than clear that it wants any facts about the CFB Gagetown atrocity to simply go away. No investigation into the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of Canadian soldiers and the health of tens of thousands, no apologies and, in effect, still denying that it ever took place or, if it did, that our Canadian Agent Orange and Agent White chemicals were safe to drink. Was the Gagetown movie rejected by the Toronto Film Festival because of pressure from Ottawa? I have no idea, but with all the money Ottawa has been spending to keep the Gagetown story from getting to court, having barred all government employees and military personnel from even talking to this film crew (under threat of charges) and for keeping even the evidence in the class action lawsuit from becoming public, I for one wouldn't doubt it in the least. At the very least, it gives the appearance that Ottawa is once again keeping control of any and all information and is not allowing anything independent when it comes to Gagetown. The hush-hush is back on as Ottawa tries desperately to put Canada's dirty little secret back in the 60-year-old CFB Gagetown Pandora's box. Cpl. Kenneth Young CD (Ret.) Nanaimo, B.C.
_______________________
September 1, 2009
From: David Palmer
Fall Election
The NDP Party has said they would help us victims of Base Gagetown spraying. Today the Liberal Party said they would try to bring down the Consevative Party this fall. If they need the NDP Party to do this, then they have their opportunity to demand the issue of Base Gagetown be quickly resolved. We do not have a long time for futher studies, most of us have died and are dying.
___________________
August 29, 2009
Money could be better spent
Re: Greg Thompson's proposed move to Fredericton
I have been trying desperately to hold off writing about Greg Thompson's proposed $700,000 office move to Fredericton.
But, alas, I can't seem to get over his arrogance and mistreatment of the very veterans he is supposed to represent as the Minister of Veterans Affairs.
On one hand, he states there is little or no money to pay veterans and their widows for the carnage Ottawa ordered on them between 1956 and 1984. Then he goes and somehow finds almost three quarters of a million dollars to move his office.
Now to be fair, Greg Thompson has been quoted to have said that if it really costs that much he will move the office himself.
But after his claims to compensate all the CFB Gagetown toxic chemical victims, his yelling of how inadequate the Liberal-formed Base Gagetown and Area Fact Finding Project (BGAFFP) was, his demands for a full public inquiry, and now his claims to have dealt fairly with the Gagetown victims by paying inadequate blood money to all of one half of one per cent of the possible victims, I really wonder if there is one veteran left who still believes a single word this man has to say.
When you stop and think about it, Greg Thompson could have used this $700,000 to compensate almost all of the Widows on the Warpath, gotten one big thorn in his side out of the way, and might even have come out looking like a veteran and their dependants' hero.
In my opinion, Greg Thompson knows full well that the Gagetown issue hasn't been dealt with fairly. He also knows what happens to any minister who doesn't follow Prime Minister Harper's instructions.
A pension of a minister's salary is almost double that of an MP's pension.
Do the math.
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret) ________________________
August 29, 2009
Times & Transcript (Moncton) Opinion Page B10
Norbert Cunningham The Sleuth
Sleuth got a chuckle out of a couple of suits on Main Street the other day yakking about N.B. federal cabinet minister Greg Thompson moving the minister's office from Moncton to Fredericton.
According to his critics -- particularly Smilin' Brian Murphy -- the move will cost $600,000.
'Heck,' says one suit to the other, 'I can sell Greg an empty office right here on Main Street for a lousy 20,000 bucks!'
'You've got some competition from the Agent Orange vets,' shoots back his buddy, 'they're offering him a nice place in Gagetown on the practice range.'
Give us more notice; Better still, stop spraying altogether
Re: Editorial published July 17 called
What is our water worth
Despite heat waves, law suits, petitions and concerns over groundwater contamination as I saw in the editorial that noted the boil orders from Oromocto to Lincoln, we are informed all too abruptly that CFB Gagetown is again spraying what was agricultural land with thousands of litres of glyphosate herbicides, VisionMAX and Siloxylated Polyether Surfactant.
Living in a war zone of our own creation where military and civilians alike are sick and dying from former spray programs at CFB Gagetown, (with second and third generations now susceptible to genetic malformation), it appears incredulous and disturbing that such archaic practices should continue unabated well into the 21st century.
Increasing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancers and stillbirths constitute but a few of the sicknesses from youth to old age in New Brunswick, with the dubious distinction of making several lists marked highest in the nation.
The Oromocto Post Gazette of July 4 gave, alongside its well illustrated map, "Public Notice of Aerial and Ground Application of Herbicides."
If this paper cannot be made available to the general public, then our provincial newspapers should be carrying such information.
The currently conceived and initiated practice of radio notification, on the day of spray inception, is both insufficient and potentially dangerous to those with compromised breathing or the immature immune system of children.
More importantly, the practice of spraying thousands of litres of toxic spray along the very spine of New Brunswick every year for decades, should immediately be stopped in preference to non-toxic management of these woodlands.
Gloria G. Paul Hoyt, N.B.
__________________________
August 25, 2009
In response to - "Ottawa to appeal Khadr ruling to top court," found at CBC news on August 25th 2009
It is of little surprise to many Canadian Veterans that Ottawa has chosen once again to fight yet another Canadian using the courts and an unlimited source of Canadian tax payers money such as in Khadr case. Then again when Ottawa sees no problem with using the courts and the appeal system to refuse its own veterans and their Military disability pensions such as in the CFB Gagetown Agents Orange, White and Purple cases, there was as I have said, no surprise.
Except in very few cases the Opposition parties and being somewhat hypocritical decried the decision to appeal, saying it goes against the government's legal and moral obligations toward its own citizens, all the wile these same parties sat on their hands with closed mouths during the past 4 years when it comes to the Gagetown Issue.
I see no contradictions in what Harper's Tory's are now doing in the Khadr case. They have been using our own tax dollars against us from the very beginning and there doesn't seem to be an end in site.
The Honourable Senator Downe asked the Government of Canada to provide the government's legal costs to fight the Canadian Veterans' class action lawsuit, on January 26, 2009.
I have been trying desperately to hold off writing about Greg Thompson's proposed $700,000 office move to Fredericton.
But, alas, I can't seem to get over his arrogance and mistreatment of the very veterans he is supposed to represent as the Minister of Veterans Affairs.
On one hand, he states there is little or no money to pay veterans and their widows for the carnage Ottawa ordered on them between 1956 and 1984. Then he goes and somehow finds almost three quarters of a million dollars to move his office.
Now to be fair, Greg Thompson has been quoted to have said that if it really costs that much he will move the office himself.
But after his claims to compensate all the CFB Gagetown toxic chemical victims, his yelling of how inadequate the Liberal-formed Base Gagetown and Area Fact Finding Project (BGAFFP) was, his demands for a full public inquiry, and now his claims to have dealt fairly with the Gagetown victims by paying inadequate blood money to all of one half of one per cent of the possible victims, I really wonder if there is one veteran left who still believes a single word this man has to say.
When you stop and think about it, Greg Thompson could have used this $700,000 to compensate almost all of the Widows on the Warpath, gotten one big thorn in his side out of the way, and might even have come out looking like a veteran and their dependants' hero.
In my opinion, Greg Thompson knows full well that the Gagetown issue hasn't been dealt with fairly. He also knows what happens to any minister who doesn't follow Prime Minister Harper's instructions.
A pension of a minister's salary is almost double that of an MP's pension.
Do the math.
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret)
Nanaimo, B.C.
__________________________
July 11, 2009
From: Kenneth Young
In response to, "Vietnam boosts legislative links with China, Canada," found in VOV news, "THE VOICE OF VIETNAM," 08/05/2009,
Dear Editor,
It should be mandatory for governments or in reality countries to pay for their misdeeds. I say country because governments conveniently change and many times what was done wrong isn't discovered until many years after the fact or dirty deed was done. Canada took part in the production of chemicals of mass destruction or defoliation depending on weather you were sitting here in Canada watching from the sidelines or were the recipient of these chemicals, while in military use.
Canada even though they now insist that they were unaware these chemicals contained Dioxin and Hexachlorobenzene, should have know what the chemicals they were producing and were sending for use against foreign citizens contained. They knew for what and where these chemicals were to be used.
"Canada to pay more attention to issues related to Vietnamese Agent Orange victims." After Prime Minister Harpers speech in Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada stating what help he would afford Gagetown Victims of Chemical defoliant if elected, one really has to wonder what, "pay more attention," actually means. Lets face it, they now pay more attention to Gagetown Canada victims. They don't help us, test us for chemicals, help pay for medications or even give us the VAC, workmen comp and CPP pensions which in my opinion we are entitled to. Heck Ottawa (the government of Canada) won't even acknowledge that chemicals Agent Orange, Purple and White ever existed. But they do pay more attention to us victims now if for no other reason then to know for sure who not to invite as a guest speaker at their next political rally.
It is a nice sentiment that Canada or more properly Ottawa our Government will pay more attention to issues related to Vietnamese Agent Orange victims. I wonder if it was another misspoken statement or there must have been some cameras around but in any case if they give Vietnamese victims of chemical defoliation as much attention as they have given their own Gagetown Agent Orange, Purple and White Victims, it would actually mean a decrease in Aid to Vietnam.
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret
____________________________
August 9, 2009
THANHNIEN NEWS.COM
US needs to better steer Agent Orange aid in right direction
The modest Agent Orange aid from the US should go directly toward cleaning the environment instead of expensive scientific studies, Madame Ton Nu Thi Ninh has said.
Ninh, former vice chair of the parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs, said that as far as she knew, very little of the first US$3 million in Agent Orange-related aid earmarked for Vietnam by the US administration had benefited Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, a toxic herbicide used by the US army during the Vietnam War.
Dear Mr Wilfert, I am writing regarding a story posted on the VOV NEWS (see below) in which you are attributed to have said that the Canadian parliament will pay more attention to issues related to Vietnamese Agent Orange victims and increase the exchange of visits to share experience.
Since 2005 I have been actively involved in advocating for those who have been affected by the spraying of Agent Orange and other deadly defoliants at CFB Gagetown New Brunswick. I have created the website www.agentorangelaert.com which has seen over 3 million “hits” from around the world, was one of the founding members of the Agent Orange Association of Canada and a former Vice-president. I was also invited to speak to an international delegation at a conference in March of 2006 in Hanoi Vietnam about the spraying of agent orange in Canada. I am somewhat confused by the story reported in the VOV NEWS because if memory serves me correctly in 2005 the then Liberal government of Canada had no interest in paying “more attention to issues related to”.. Canadian victims of Agent Orange spraying that had happened on Canadian soil at CFB Gagetown. I am also unaware of any statements from you or the Liberal Party indicating that you or the party are in fact concerned with any of the issues that the victims of CFB Gagetown are dealing with at the present. I would greatly appreciate it if you could educate me to the policy of the Liberal Party regarding the spraying of defoliant at CFB Gagetown.
I am hoping that it is as mindful as the one it has towards the Vietnamese victims. Thank you.
VOV NEWS Vietnam boosts legislative links with China, Canada
The Vice Chairwoman of the Vietnam National Assembly, Tong Thi Phong, on August 5 had bilateral meetings with Chinese and Canadian delegations while attending the 30th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly in Thailand. In a meeting with Zha Peixin, Vice Chairman of the China National People’s Congress’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Ms Phong praised China’s role and contributions to the regional legislative body as an observer in recent times. She welcomed the exchange of visits between the legislative bodies of both Vietnam and China and said that the Vietnam National Assembly will do its utmost to strengthen traditional friendship between the two countries. Zha Peixin congratulated Vietnam on its hosting the upcoming 31st General Assembly of AIPA in Hanoi in 2010 and said that China is looking forward to receiving a Vietnam National Assembly delegation led by its chairman Nguyen Phu Trong in Beijing at the earliest possible time. He told Ms Phong that Vietnam and China have treasured the friendly relationship for years, which has developed strongly in all fields, including legislation. In a separate meeting with MP Bryan Wilfert, deputy head of the National Security and Defence Committee of the Canadian House of Commons, Ms Phong thanked Canada for providing assistance to Vietnam, especially its victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin. She noted that Vietnam is one of Canada’s 20 aid recipients. Ms Phong expressed her belief that Canada will increase cooperation with Vietnam in trade, education, science-technology and human resources development.
Bryan Wilfert praised Vietnam’s increasing role in AIPA as well as its initiatives introduced at the 30th General Assembly of AIPA. He affirmed that the Canadian parliament will pay more attention to issues related to Vietnamese Agent Orange victims and increase the exchange of visits to share experience. _____________________________________________
Appeal filed after Agent Orange suit dismissed Class action | Legal team to try again
By SHAWN BERRY berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com
A Moncton judge's decision to dismiss a class-action lawsuit filed against the Canadian government for exposure to toxic chemicals sprayed at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown for more than five decades is being appealed.
Justice Stephen J. McNally of the Court of Queen's Bench dismissed the suit recently, noting that the proposed classes of claimants would include hundreds of thousands of people, and that those eligible for the class action weren't required to have any exposure to the chemicals.
"I find that the plaintiffs have failed to establish an identifiable class, to define workable and manageable common issues and to establish that a class action would be the preferable procedure for proceeding," McNally wrote in his decision.
The class action was filed against the Canadian government by Charles Bryson and Donald Murrin. It was originally filed by Bryson in June 2006.
The Dow Chemical Company and Pharmacia Corp. were listed as third parties.
The class action would have extended to all persons who "claim to have suffered injury" who resided, were employed or visited the base or any area within 10 kilometres of the perimeter.
It also would have provided coverage to their family members.
It would have included a medical monitoring regime for everyone who may have been affected.
Nathalie Maude, a lawyer with Barry Spalding, the company representing the plaintiffs, confirmed that they have filed notice to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal that they plan to challenge the decision.
She said they expect to present a motion Oct. 16.
In his decision, McNally said the size of the population was too broad in scope.
"As it stands, the proposed class action has virtually no meaningful restriction and would potentially include hundreds of thousands of claimants, including many who had no actual exposure to the chemicals, as the evidence confirms that the chemicals were generally applied seasonally at fairly specific times of year and in specific areas of the base to which many in the proposed class would likely have had no access or exposure and therefore no real interest in the resolution of the proposed common issues," he said.
"Nevertheless, one could reasonably anticipate that many such persons would have an interest in being tested for the effects of any possible exposure, even if never exposed or if in fact exposed, no matter how minimal the exposure, even though they exhibit no symptoms whatsoever,'' McNally said in his decision.
He noted that geographically the claim included the entire area of the base and a 10-kilometre perimeter surrounding it, which encompasses large portions of the Town of Oromocto and significant portions of major highways such as the Trans-Canada Highway and Route 7.
"Access to justice, although one of the most important objectives of class proceedings, is not the only consideration and I am not satisfied that the proposed class proceeding would result in any significant advancement of the goal of judicial economy or that it would provide an efficient and manageable method of resolving the dispute.
"The trial of the proposed common issues would quite likely either become overwhelmed or bogged down by the individual issues contained within them; or their resolution, even if possible to resolve in a common issues trial, would do little to advance the resolution of the individual issues which would still be largely left to be dealt with in the individual proceedings."
Tony Merchant, a Saskatchewan lawyer representing claimants in separate class-action lawsuits filed in Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, said the ruling may be a step back, but it's not a knockout blow.
"This is not a case where a judge said the government didn't do anything wrong, the judge said this procedure can't go forward," he said.
"I hope they will decide to appeal because while in a way they are our competitors for the same victims; we want what's best for the class and for the victims, so we hope they will appeal and succeed.''
Merchant noted that his firm's class actions are more limited in scope.
He said he has thousands of New Brunswickers signed onto his class actions filed in other provinces.
The federal government announced a $95.6-million compensation package in the fall of 2007 for veterans and civilians affected by the U.S. military's spraying of Agent Orange at CFB Gagetown during the 1960s.
The federal government provided one-time $20,000 ex-gratia payments that were limited to people alive on Feb. 6, 2006 - the date the Conservatives came to power - and could show illness before April 1.
As of June 15, the department had received 3,837 applications for the ex-gratia payment of $20,000. Of that number, 2,492 of the applicants qualified and 1,004 didn't.
By MICHAEL STAPLES staples.michael@dailygleaner.com
Judy Sgro wants to find a way to have fair Agent Orange compensation for widows of former servicemen who may have been exposed to the defoliant at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in the 1960s.
Sgro, the federal Liberal Veterans Affairs critic and Member of Parliament for the Ontario riding of York West, was in Oromocto on Thursday where she met with members of the Widows on a War Path group.
The Liberal critic said she isn't making any promises, but is willing to take a look at how some of the group's concerns can be addressed.
She said she'll take that information back to Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.
"He is waiting for his critic to fill him in and give him all the details on it and to come up with some recommendations," Sgro said.
The federal government announced a $95.6-million compensation package in the fall of 2007 for veterans and civilians affected by the U.S. military's spraying of Agent Orange at CFB Gagetown.
To qualify, applicants had to have a medical condition listed by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine.
Affected individuals must also have worked or trained at Gagetown or lived in a community that was within five kilometres of the base when the spraying occurred.
Monetary awards were also considered for primary caregivers of qualifying individuals who died on or after Feb. 6, 2006 - the date the Tory government took office.
The limitation disqualified numerous individuals who insist they should've been awarded damages.
The program ended April 1 with just over half of the pot of money awarded to claimants.
"The Feb. 6 date - the date of the inauguration of the government - seems to be a date that excluded an awful lot of people whose husbands, from information given to me, sounded like they were exposed and victims of it," Sgro said.
Bette Hudson of Lincoln, who speaks for Widows on a War Path, falls within that category.
Hudson's husband Sgt. Ralph Hudson, an artillery officer, was at Gagetown from 1964-66. He died of lung cancer in 2004 at the age of 64, but fell short of the parameters identified by the Tory government.
Hudson's group would like to see every widow of a soldier or civilian who died because of herbicide spraying at Gagetown compensated, regardless of the date.
The Lincoln resident led a group of women to Ottawa last month where they met with Sgro, among others, and picketed Parliament Hill to make people more aware of their cause.
Hudson said Sgro is willing to listen.
"There were no promises and we didn't expect any," Hudson said. "We just wanted to be heard. At least she knows our plight and she knows our wishes."
Sgro, the vice-chairwoman of the standing committee on Veterans Affairs, wants the widows group to appear before the committee.
Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson has told the group that the compensation program will not be reopened. "The fact is, what we did was very fair and it was generous," Thompson said last month, regarding the ex-gratia payment. "We took action where (the previous Liberal) government would not."
Hudson, meanwhile, said group members have taken the advice of Thompson and applied for Agent Orange pensions.
Aside from the more than $49 million in compensation paid out, 13 disability pensions or awards from Veterans Affairs Canada have been granted for Agent Orange-related disabilities associated with service at Gagetown as of June 15.
Some were granted prior to the announcement of the ex-gratia payment.
WASHINGTON - Medical researchers say there may be a link between exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange and other herbicides used during the Vietnam War and an increased chance of developing serious heart problems and Parkinson's disease.
A study from the Institute of Medicine released yesterday contains several caveats, but suggests there is a stronger connection than previously thought about the health risks to Vietnam veterans.
The research was sponsored by the Veterans Affairs Department, which will decide what to do with the findings.
A VA spokeswoman said the department is reviewing the study to determine the full extent of the toxic effects of Agent Orange so exposed Vietnam veterans get the disability benefits they are entitled to.
American forces sprayed millions of gallons (litres) of Agent Orange and other defoliants over parts of Vietnam from 1962 to 1970. Military authorities used the defoliants in an attempt to massively prune away the dense jungle cover used by Communist forces to hide.
American troops and others exposed to the chemicals later complained of numerous health problems, however, and researchers are still trying to determine the scope of the damage.
The Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academy of Sciences, is mandated by Congress to review every two years evidence about the effects of Agent Orange exposure.
To determine whether Vietnam veterans faced an increased chance of ischemic heart disease -- a condition involving reduced blood supply to the heart -- researchers reviewed several studies that showed links between higher exposure levels and greater incidence of the disease.
Other factors such as smoking, age, and weight can also play a role, they noted. Still, they said veterans exposed to the chemicals may be at greater risk.
The conclusion on Parkinson's was based on a review of 16 studies that looked at herbicide exposures among people with the disease or Parkinson's-like symptoms. But the study cautions the review was hindered by the lack of studies specifically investigating Parkinson's rates among Vietnam veterans.
________________________
July 22, 2009
From: J W Hummel
Do contaminants play a role in diabetes? Evidence is growing.
In reply to an almost non existent media announcement of Gagetown's resumption in toxic Chemical use. Posted in the The Post Gazette of July 4th.
Canada reneging on yet another International Signed Deal and adding insult to injury when it comes to CFB Gagetown Toxic Chemical Victims.
On May twenty third of 2001 when Canada approved, ratified and signed the Stockholm Convention, I am sure that no one on the Canadian committee had any idea that the government down the road would ignore much of what was negotiated and agreed to by them in this ground breaking Stockholm Convention for the elimination of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP's).
It seems that any chemical banned by any of the other signatory to the convention must be given a mandatory review by all members. Glyphosate has been banned by at least two members and therefore it is mandatory for Canada to review the status of this chemical. Seemingly having learnt nothing from the tens of thousands of Previous Gagetown civilian and military Toxic Chemical Victims, Canada has decided to spray CFB Gagetown once again only this time with a different Toxic Chemical. I guess one hundred and sixty three times the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) allowable levels for dioxin in soil isn't polluted enough for Ottawa they have to make the toxic soup at Gagetown even thicker.
According to Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) Glyphosate is persistent, has a very high likelihood of water contamination and has no recognized First Aid, leaving it's victims no other alternative they to seek professional Medical attention in a country where there is little or none when it comes to occupational and environmental medicine.
I tried to look up the CCME Guidelines for water quality but when I went to their web site A notice (without any forwarding URL) that it had been moved was all that I found. Then again how much Ottawa listened or upheld their guidelines on soil contamination, I believe that it would just be another futile attempt to bother finding their water guidelines because in my opinion Ottawa doesn't care either way.
One of the reasons that many of us victims of the Gagetown atrocity have continued to fight Ottawa on what happened in CFB Gagetown is so that it can never happen again. I have often written that if Ottawa doesn't accept responsibility and guilt for what was done to us in Gagetown, that they would just do it again. I was wrong. They have never stopped doing it to our young soldiers and any civilian stupid enough to live close to Base Gagetown.
Just a thought, If we veterans die off young enough, just think of the pension money they get to save.
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret) ___________________________
MacKay announces $300M to clean up Labrador airbase
The federal government will spend $300 million over the next decade to clean up toxic waste left on a Labrador airbase during the Cold War when it was in use by the United States Air Force, Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced Sunday. ...MORE...
_________________________________
From: Michael Christie
July 11, 2009
The Charlottetown Guardian
11/07/09
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
What weed is worth it?
Editor:
I recently visited your province and was enthralled by its beauty and tranquility; what a great place to live and raise kids, I thought. Imagine my disappointment when the press reported that cancer rates among P.E.I. children were greater than anywhere else in Canada. They put that down to the spraying of potatoes.
Now I hear that the spraying of the weed killer PAR 3 is permitted. This chemical, I'm told, contains a known carcinogen called 2,4-D, which was one of the two chemicals in the defoliants Agent Orange and Agent Purple, and has a half life of 20 to 200 days.
What weed, I ask, needs to be destroyed badly enough to risk the life of a child?
Re: Story by Michael Staples published June 23 called Late Agent Orange applications under review
In response to the article, the writer mentions about 50 people who hope to be accepted after the April 1 deadline.
It will probably make no difference anyway. If a person was not diagnosed with one of the approved diseases after June 1, 1966 and before June 6, 2006 they will not be approved for compensation. Hundreds of soldiers who were poisoned by the government of the day will get nothing because they remained healthy too long.
In the following scenario, two veterans doing the same job on the same day were sprayed by the military, in the time frame in the 1960s.
One got sick with cancer on April 23, 2006. The second soldier led a fairly healthy lifestyle and fought off the diseases until after June 6, 2006, after which time he contacted diabetes.
Both will die prematurely from their diseases but only one will get a bit of compensation. Is this not blatant discrimination for being healthy?
If anyone is still alive and was poisoned by our criminally negligent government and has one of the approved diseases, time frames should be set aside.
Hundreds of people, both military and civilian, are sick but do not qualify because they remained healthy past the deadline for diagnosis.
The government of the day has made all the calculations and knows all those involved are in their sixties and will die before too long. The money set aside can be put back in the general revenue to bail out companies who did not make enough profit last year.
It is summer and the season of spraying toxic lawn pesticides has begun. People who use these toxic products don’t need to worry about being charged with the crime of poisoning people, because on Prince Edward Island, it is perfectly legal to poison your neighbour.
Children lobbied against a homeowner in Stratford last week that sprayed his lawn with toxic pesticides. The choice of poison was PAR 3. Parents in the area are very concerned.
The herbicide PAR 3, is a combination of three toxic chemicals, 2,4-D, Dicamba and Mecoprop.
PAR 3 has a very appropriate label that clearly states ‘Commercial liquid turf herbicide, caution – poison!’
2,4-D has an ugly past and was an ingredient in the defoliant ‘Agent Orange’.
This herbicide causes so many human health problems that it’s impossible to list them all. They include serious eye and skin irritation, nausea, weakness, fatigue, developmental problems, disruption of the human hormonal system, etc. 2,4-D causes chromosomal alternations and an increase in white blood cells. It is banned in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Mecoprop is a hormone-type phenoxy herbicide. It can cause loss of appetite, loss of weight, vomiting, depression, general tenseness, muscular weakness, severe eye injury, irritation to the skin, eyes and mucous membranes, etc.
Scorecard.org states that Mecoprop causes developmental problems in children, psychological and behavioural deficits as the child grows.
Dicamba causes injury or death to a fetus. It damages your genetic code. Research shows an association between Mecoprop and cancer of soft tissues and non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. (Extoxnet.orst.edu).
The U.S. and Canada found an association between cancer and herbicides and an increase of nonHodgkin’s Lymphoma. They found several types of cancers were higher among farmers.
Why are we allowing our federal government to licence these toxic products? These toxic products are causing babies to be born toxic.
Will our provincial government and the City of Charlottetown be heroes and ban cosmetic pesticide spraying? Now is the time. How much proof do they need? Banning these poisons is the right thing to do.
Sandra Boswell, Charlotetown
_______________________________
June 25, 2009
From: Nancy Belfry
The Telegraph Journal Published Thursday June 25th, 2009
Pesticide lawsuit may not hit here by Adam Huras
A chemical company that is challenging the legality of government bans on cosmetic pesticides says it doesn't have any immediate plans to add New Brunswick to its legal battles.
Dow AgroSciences, a U. S. company with offices in Calgary, filed suit this year seeking the repeal of a 2006 Quebec ban on lawn pesticides containing 2,4-D. The company is also seeking $2 million in damages.
The deadline has come and gone -- and -- members of the Agent Orange Association of Canada are still waiting for a response from Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson.
The group marched on Thompson's office last month demanding a public inquiry by June 15th -- Art Connolly of Agent Orange Alert tells CHSJ News the limited 20-thousand dollar compensation package which expired this year didn't go far enough.
Meantime -- when we last spoke with Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson -- he wasn't budging -- he says his government's 20-thousand dollar compensation package was more than fair even though a report by Dr Dennis Furlong found no grounds for it.
Agent Orange Association co-president Gary Goode tells us plans are being made for a protest march on Parliament Hill.
________________________
The Daily Gleaner Published Tuesday June 23rd, 2009
By MICHAEL STAPLES staples.michael@dailygleaner.com
More than 50 people are hoping late is better than not at all when it comes to Agent Orange compensation.
The Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed it's looking at Agent Orange ex gratia applications received after the April 1 deadline.
"These 54 applications are now being reviewed to determine if there were exceptional circumstances beyond the applicants' control," said Veterans Affairs spokeswoman Janice Summerby.
As of June 15, the department had received 3,837 applications for the ex gratia payment of $20,000.
Veteran's Affairs Minister Greg Thompson has a new best phrase: "Widows may apply for a pension."
I would like to enlighten Thompson of some experiences widows have had regarding pension applications:
* Impossible criteria. For example, our men were to have been soaked in Agent Orange.
* Eye witnesses do not count. We must have a witness for the witness.
* Appointments rescheduled on very short notice.
* Venues changed, making it impossible for the widow to attend the hearing.
* Advocates who are not educated about the spraying tragedy at CFB Gagetown.
* The onus is on the widow to prove her husband was sprayed.
* Difficulty procuring necessary documents from pertinent departments.
These are just some of the problems experienced by both widows and veterans.
What about our civilian widows whose husbands died from the travesty? Where do they pick up their application forms for a pension? Their husbands are just as deceased.
Maybe Thompson can give us more direction, and we will be successful in our quest for justice.
Widows on the Warpath is a group of women who lost their husbands to medical problems which, they say, were caused by the spraying of chemicals, such as Agent Orange, at CFB Gagetown in the 1950s and ‘60s.
OTTAWA - Bette Hudson heaves a sigh before she describes in one word the trek from New Brunswick to Parliament Hill that she and eight other widows have made to fight their battle over Agent Orange.
"Emotional," she said.
"It's not easy to talk about our husbands and how they suffered."
Protest | Group wants rules changed for compensation
By SHAWN BERRY berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com
A group of widows pressing the federal government to expand the criteria for compensation for those exposed to Agent Orange at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown is taking its fight to Ottawa.
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JAMES CADGER
In memory of Jim who passed away May 31, 2008.
I'd like the memory of me to be a happy one, I'd like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done... I'd like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways, Of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days. I'd like the tears of those who grieve to dry before the sun. Of happy memories that I left behind When life was done.
RE the upcoming Protest/Rally in St Stephen New Brunswick on May 19, 2009 :)
I will be not be attending the gathering in Southern New Brunswick this weekend due to health reasons.
I will be supporting this gathering by a day of hunger and candlesat the end of day. We will also be praying for those traveling to this important event.
Good Bless you all
Steven and Kim Dixon
Beaver Bank, NS
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Wednesday May 6, 2009
The Daily Gleaner
Letter to the Editor
Chemical spraying at CFB Gagetown
There is a lot of talk about the chemicals that the U.S. sprayed at CFB Gagetown in 1966 and 1967, but no one ever mentions the spraying of chemicals on us children - the children of Gagetown soldiers - while we played on the streets such as St. John Avenue.
I have asked several people what that chemical was. It was sprayed from the back of a military vehicle, coming out in a white cloud, covering the street thick enough that we would hide from each other in it as it passed by.
No one has ever said what it was, but it was sprayed often in the summer nights to kill off mosquitoes. I think these direct sprayings on children are as bad as, if not worse than, the few weeks the U.S. sprayed.
If anyone knows what was used, I would like to know. I had one brother die at age 46 of lung disease. Another of my brothers and I both have had lung surgery, and two other brothers have lung problems.
From: Nancy Belfry Monday, May 04, 2009 Telegraph Journal
A7
Gideon Forman and Liz Smith Commentary
When it comes to lawn and garden pesticides - the chemicals used to kill homeowners' weeds and bugs - the people of New Brunswick and the province's health experts are in agreement: The use and sale of these products should be prohibited.
Recent polling done by Ipsos Reid shows nearly eight out of 10 New Brunswickers (79 per cent) support a provincial ban on pesticides used for purely "cosmetic" or non-essential purposes. The survey also says more than three out of four residents (76 per cent) support a ban on the products' sale.
What brought citizens to this position?
Likely it's their belief that lawn pesticides threaten the most important things in their lives, their children, their pets, and the environment. Ipsos found 85 per cent of New Brunswickers see pesticides as a potential health risk to pets and animals, while 80 per cent see these chemicals as a risk to humans and the environment.
"This belief is consistently strong across all age and gender segments as well as among both those who own and rent their home," Ipsos noted in its survey report.
New Brunswickers' concerns are well-placed. A growing body of scientific evidence suggests exposure to pesticides puts people at greater risk for cancer, neurological illness (such as Parkinson's disease), and birth defects. For example, a study written by doctors and published in the prestigious journal Paediatrics & Child Health (April, 2006) examined the medical effects of the most common weed-killer in Canada, 2,4-D. The study found that "2,4-D can be persuasively linked to cancers, neurological impairment and reproductive problems."
The Ontario College of Family Physicians, which represents 9,000 family doctors, released a landmark study on pesticides and human health in April, 2004. It found, among other things, that children exposed to pesticides had an increased risk of acute leukemia, "especially for exposure to insecticides and herbicides used on lawns, fruit trees and gardens, and for indoor control of insects."
Based on their scientific findings, the doctors concluded that people should "avoid exposure to all pesticides whenever and wherever possible."
The science is strong enough that New Brunswick's most respected health organizations, including the Canadian Cancer Society and the New Brunswick Lung Association, support a provincial ban on both cosmetic pesticide use and sales. These organizations also know that a pesticide-free property can be attractive. In fact, it's precisely by dropping toxic chemicals and opting for biodiversity and natural plant care that we create the healthy, balanced ecosystems on which beautiful lawns and gardens depend.
The experts know, too, that non-toxic lawn care involves such things as improving the soil and diversifying plant life around the lawn. Therefore it is good for the economy through payment for labour and for material from plant nurseries and garden centres.
Experience in other communities shows that after pesticide restrictions are brought in, the number of local lawn care firms actually increases. In the five years following Halifax's pesticide ban, for example, the number of landscaping companies in the city grew 53 per cent, from 118 to 180, according to Statistics Canada. The number of employees in the industry went up as well. There is every reason to believe a New Brunswick pesticide ban will mean similar benefits for local workers and business.
To its credit, the Graham government has said it will introduce new pesticide regulations this spring. A provincial ban on the sale and use of pesticides for lawn care and landscape purposes would be good news for our drinking water, our pets, and the economy. Most important of all, it would be good news for our children.
But it's also clear the pesticide industry is working to kill new regulations or severely weaken them. To ensure a ban is passed quickly and truly protects us, the province's health organizations are asking citizens to call or e-mail their MLA with a simple message: "This spring, please pass the strongest ban on lawn pesticide use and sales."
Sending that message today is one of the very best things you can do to protect your family's health.
Gideon Forman is Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (www.cape.ca). Liz Smith is an Environmental Programs Coordinator at the New Brunswick Lung Association.
ST. STEPHEN - Protesters from across Canada will come to St. Stephen May 19 to demand a public judicial inquiry into spraying chemical defoliants at CFB Gagetown, says a Canadian Forces veteran who is organizing the demonstration.
Gary Goode said the group will include former soldiers, environmentalists and politicians. They will assemble at the St. Croix Public Library parking lot and march up Milltown Boulevard to the New Brunswick Southwest constituency office of Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson.
"I think you're going to be quite surprised what's going to happen there," Goode said by telephone Thursday from Fernie, B.C.
The lineup of speakers includes Peter Stoffer, New Democratic Party MP for Sackville-Eastern shore in Nova Scotia, as well as Conservation Council of New Brunswick officials David Coon of Waweig and Inka Milewski of Miramichi.
The group Veterans Widows on the Warpath will attend, Goode said.
The group will demand a public judicial inquiry into what Goode calls a coverup related to the health effects of spraying chemicals to kill vegetation in the training areas at CFB Gagetown over 30 years from the 1950s to the 1980s.
"It was a whitewash to limit our government's liability and culpability," Goode said.
These chemicals - Agent Orange, Agent Purple and others - were different formulations of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T that released other chemicals called dioxins that cause cancer and other health problems.
Goode, a native of Springhill, N.S., served three years in the Canadian Army, all with the Second Battalion, Black Watch Regiment of Canada, at CFB Gagetown from 1967 to 1970.
In 1966 and 1967, Canadian authorities allowed Americans to spray defoliants at CFB Gagetown, Goode said.
He left the army and operated heavy equipment in Alberta and British Columbia.
He began to have trouble with pneumonia in 2003 and doctors diagnosed a tumour on his right lung in March 2005. The lung was removed a month later.
He joined the class action lawsuit underway now.
In Goode's view, Thompson did not keep promises he made as an opposition MP to deal squarely with victims of chemical spraying, and has not moved on a full inquiry. For this reason the group chose to demonstrate outside his St. Stephen office.
N.B. will introduce pesticide legislation P.E.I. environment minister wants all three Maritime provinces to legislate ban
By Nick Moore Times & Transcript Staff
FREDERICTON - New Brunswick says it's 'very close' to introducing legislation which would ban the use of cosmetic pesticides, following months of studies and promise making.
It also follows the recent urging of Prince Edward Island Education Minister Richard Brown who wants all three Maritime provinces to stand united on such a ban
P.E.I. says a streamlined cosmetic pesticide ban between the three provinces would protect consumers from buying banned products in places nearby.
New Brunswick Minister Roland Haché said the provincial government has been working on its pesticide ban file for some time and that it would come before P.E.I. introduced its own ban this fall.
"We have committed to making an announcement concerning pesticides during this legislative sitting," he said. "We will do that."
Haché kept mum on specific details about what the ban would include.
"It will include pesticides, the banning of certain pesticides, etc.," he said. "We're very close to making that announcement. I consider it to be a very important file."
Nova Scotia Environment Minister David Morse wasn't available for comment yesterday. Department spokesman Brent Baxter said Nova Scotia was also investigating the merits of implementing a ban, but said it had no similar legislation coming down the line at this time.
"We're really exploratory at the moment," said Baxter, adding that it's not a forgone conclusion Nova Scotia would go ahead with a ban because others are.
Ontario and Quebec are currently the only provinces in Canada with such a ban.
Four New Brunswick towns have banned the use of cosmetic pesticides in their municipalities including Sackville, Shediac, Caraquet and St. Andrews. More than 100 communities nationally have similar bans.
An Ipsos-Reid poll conducted in December found that 79 per cent of New Brunswickers would support a provincial ban on non-essential pesticide use, while 75 per cent would support a ban on the sale of pesticides.
The poll, commissioned by the Canadian Cancer Society, the New Brunswick Lung Association, and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, also found that 80 per cent of New Brunswickers believe cosmetic pesticides have the potential to pose a health risk to humans and the environment, while 85 per cent believe the chemicals could pose a risk to family pets.
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April 27, 2009
From: Nancy Belfry
MP pushes for national pesticide ban
THE CANADIAN PRESS
New Democrat MP Pat Martin has introduced a private member's bill in the House of Commons that would impose a national ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides on lawns, gardens and in parks.
Martin, a member from Winnipeg, says his bill would ban the use of pesticides until there is scientific evidence they are safe. The bill would take effect on Earth Day, April 22, next year if it's approved by the Commons. Private members' bills are rarely passed, however.
Martin says he wants to force manufacturers to prove that their products are safe.
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April 24, 2009
Protest Rally
A Protest Rally will begin in St. Stephen N.B. at the St Croix Public Library parking lot at 2 Budd Ave. on May 19, 2009 beginning at 1:30 PM. The rally will then march to Greg Thompson’s, the Minister of Veterans Affairs, Constituency office to demonstrate and present our demands between 2:15 PM. and 2:30 PM.
This protest rally is to advise the Harper government that Canadian veterans and the victims of the CFB Gagetown Agent Orange spraying program, as well as the general public, are unhappy with the government's coverup regarding chemical spraying at CFB Gagetown. Taking part in this protest rally will be participants from across N.S., N.B., Ont., B.C., U.S.A. and other parts of the world. In attendance will be guest speakers from:
The Military Widows on the Warpath. Agent Orange Association of Canada ( AOAC). Agent Orange Alert ( AOA ). Politicians, Health and Environmental experts.
Full measurable accountability and justice is our motivation and a Full Judicial Public Inquiry into the Gagetown Atrocity is our mission.
We will not be denied.
Anyone who would like to support CFB Gagetown's Toxic Chemical Victims are encouraged to participate in this historic protest rally, either by joining with us in St Stephen N.B. or by e-mailing a letter of support to gary1@telus.net demanding a Full Judicial Public Inquiry.
For media inquires please contact: Gary Goode gary1@telus.net Box 301 Fernie B.C. V0B 1M0 250-423-4245
SOON AFTER Chris Arsenault started researching the Canadian saga of Agent Orange he stumbled upon an eerie scene in a New Brunswick village that highlighted the story’s significance.
The toxic defoliant used by the American military during the Vietnam War had been tested around CFB Gagetown during the 1960s and some of the people with whom he’d spoken suggested he visit Enniskillen, where they’d lived at the time.
"The place was virtually a ghost town," the 25-year-old former Haligonian says in a recent email interview.
"It was clear people had literally fled in the middle of the night. Some didn’t even bother to bring their possessions and old family photographs and furniture were strewn about some of the abandoned houses."
Arsenault was so intrigued he wrote about it in a magazine article, his honours thesis at Dalhousie University and a recently published book entitled Blowback: A Canadian history of Agent Orange and the War at Home. Arsenault interviewed people who once lived in Enniskillen, including Doreen Thomas. This is what she told Arsenault about some of the former villagers:
"Kelly was forty-one years old; she died full of cancer. A nurse with all kinds of degrees, she knew how to take care of herself. Mom just died in October. She had diabetes, congenital heart failure; you name it, she had it. My father died with cancer when he was sixty-six. My uncle dropped dead. Aunt Mar died of cancer, two of my uncles died with cancer. My grandfather and grandmother died with cancer. It involved everybody’s household. Everybody’s household was full of cancer. The people who didn’t have internal cancer, we had outside cancer. I’ve had eleven (tumours) removed. My sister died with spina bifida."
Blowback delves into why the Canadian military and its private subcontractors sprayed more than a million litres of herbicides in New Brunswick between 1956 and 1984 — the U.S. Congress had banned their use on American soil.
Arsenault’s extensive research involved using the Access to Information Act to ferret out damning documents and produce a scathing indictment of a Canadian government in denial of its responsibility for exposing its citizens to a deadly substance.
"Senior Canadian officials did know that dangerous, unregistered chemicals were being sprayed, yet did nothing to stop it," Arsenault says, contradicting Dennis Furlong’s 2005 fact-finding mission for t he Liberal government.
"The Canadian government sprayed chemicals against its own people at a higher concentration than the U.S. sprayed in Vietnam."
It’s long been accepted as common fact that many of the Americans who served in Vietnam became sick with cancer after the war because of their exposure to Agent Orange. That is the same for the Vietnamese, many of whom suffered birth defects and other illnesses from the dioxin.
But Canadians have only recently realized the extent of their country’s involvement.
Arsenault explains that the Americans were concerned about using the chemicals for their counter-insurgency campaign. The Canadians were curious about how well the substances would control brush.
"The Canadian spraying represents the worst aspects of environmental management under a market system," says Arsenault, who has been arrested for his anti-capitalist activism. He was acquitted of unlawful assembly in January 2004. "The chemicals were simply a cheaper way of clearing brush than other non-dangerous methods. This was about saving money, while destroying lives.
"The legacy has been aborted fetuses, deformities, shattered lives, and cancer. I think a lot of soldiers, the people who are forced to do the dirty work of empire, are now questioning the super structure they once faithfully served."
A class-action lawsuit was launched in 2007 by civilian and military people affected by the spray program. It is still before the courts.
Also in 2007, the federal government announced an Agent Orange compensation package, which has been criticized for its funding and its limits on those who can apply.
Staff reporter Jeffrey Simpson freelanced this story.
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April 18, 2009
Attention: Protest Rally To Be held May 19, 2009 St. Stephen New Brunswick
May 19th. 2009 a protest rally will be held in St. Stephen, NB (constituency of Greg Thompson Minister of Veteran Affairs) starting at 2:00P.M.
ALL are invited to support the victims of the Gagetown Defoliant Spraying program of the past 50 years.
We ask that those in attendance act in a responsible and respectful manner.
There will be speakers and 1 minute of silence to show tribute to those that have lost their lives.
A Demand Letter will be presented to the office of Greg Thompson, Minister of Veterans Affairs.
In the event that you can not attend, we respectfully request that you draft a letter expressing your support of a demand for a Judicial Public Inquiry into the spraying of Agent Orange, Purple and White at CFB Gagetown N.B. and that you send this letter to Gary Goode for presentation at Greg Thompson's office in St Stephen NB on May 19. There will be more announcements to come regarding the protest.
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April 18, 2009
From: Michael Christie
Publication: Canadian Chemical News Date: Monday, January 1 2007
Poisons in our midst: the CIC's Environment Division broadens chemists' awareness of the effects... By Cullen, William R.
The executive of the Environment Division of the CIC has resolved to take a more active role in the annual CSC and CSChE conferences and hopes to encourage discussions that deal with issues of public concern and interest. To that end, the Division sponsored a special symposium at the 89th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition held in Halifax, NS. The focus of this session was Agent Orange, but talks also dealt with pesticides in general, and pesticide management.
Invited speakers from Health Canada, Dow Chemical, the University of Guelph, the University of Texas, Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), and Florida International University were in attendance. Agent Orange is a source of dioxins and several of these speakers presented findings on dioxin contamination, particularly as it relates to human health. It soon became apparent that despite the attention given this topic, much work remains to be done to establish conclusive links between dioxin exposure and various illnesses. While several presenters noted that there seem to be causal links between certain diseases prevalent in the general population and dioxin exposure, only one disease--chloracne--can be directly attributed to dioxin, and it occurs rarely.
Dow Chemical's Jim Collins presented findings of a study that spanned more than 50 years and involved more than 2,000 Dow chlorophenol workers. This study was the largest industrial study of dioxin workers at one location. It was found that even among highly exposed workers, cancer rates were consistent with rates throughout the U.S. This study's findings supported those of other presenters, including Arnold Schecter of the University of Texas, that it was difficult to make specific links between dioxin exposure and illness. Schecter has conducted extensive work in Vietnam and described how approximately 15 percent of South Vietnam, which covers an area roughly the size of Ontario, was sprayed with defoliants including Agent Orange and Agent Purple--both of which were contaminated with dioxin. Although preliminary studies conducted in the 1970s revealed high levels of 2,3,7,8-TCDD in breast milk among Vietnamese women, Schecter's work examining soil dioxin levels decades after the Vietnam war suggested that by 1984, most 2,3,7,8-TCDD levels were below detection.
Jake Ryan of Health Canada stressed that bioaccumulation of dioxin up the food chain could pose a threat to humans, since TCDD remains stored in adipose tissue. He added that, while the global body burden of dioxin had decreased in recent decades, a number of isolated incidents of dioxin poisonings have occurred worldwide--including that of Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko. Ryan said that human exposure data are crucial to establish a cause-and-effect relationship, and that it does not appear feasible with existing scientific techniques to resolve the issue of the human exposure effect, particularly as it relates to the use of phenoxy herbicides in New Brunswick in the 1960s.
Keith Solomon of the University of Guelph's department of environmental biology, stressed that accurate estimation of exposure to toxic substances is critical to any meaningful risk assessment. Many times in epidemiological studies, proxy measures of exposure (based on factors such as job titles or years worked at a job) are used instead of actual measures. He added that this makes the interpretation of epidemiological data and assignment of causality very difficult.
Yong Cai of Florida International University spoke about the use of arsenical pesticides and added that the same difficulty lies in trying to determine the extent of arsenic mobility and ecotoxicity in a n open system. Cai indicated that there is a need to develop a consensus concerning methods to evaluate total arsenic and arsenic speciation within various environmental reservoirs to help understand and predict mobility.
Gerry Stephenson, also of the University of Guelph's department of environmental biology, revealed that public fears of dioxin contamination led the Canadian government to pull products containing 2,4,5-T from the market for a time during the late 1960s. Although it was reinstated a few years later, after having the dioxin-contaminant 2,3,7,8-T removed, it was removed from the market again after a survey was published that suggested a link in Alsea, OR, between dioxin exposure and miscarriages. The threat of a non-confidence motion in Ontario maintained the ban in that province for a time, and finally during the 1980s, manufacturers withdrew 2,4,5-T from the market. After chemists with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada reported that a number of 2,4-D products included teratogenic 2,3,7,8-TCDD, the synthetic process for 2,4-D was altered and products are now manufactured to meet a standard of < 0.1 ppb total dioxin. Today, there are numerous, more significant sources of dioxins, such as forest fires and municipal/residential incineration. As a result of advances within the chemical industry and improved government regulation, current estimates are that dioxins as contaminants in pesticides represent less than 0.001 percent of the dioxins released into the environment by human activities.
Several presenters noted that while chemists can provide evidence suggesting links between dioxin contamination and human health effects, ultimately the decision to allow the use of substances containing dioxin lies with policy makers. This theme was taken up by Jason Flint from Health Canada (PMRA) who gave a presentation on the regulation of pesticides in Canada.
As a result of the public outcry that occurred when the first links between dioxin and health effects were made public in the 1970s, and that are continuing today with each new example of dioxin contamination, the U.S. Department of Defense has chosen to compensate people who claim they are suffering particular long-term ill effects (chronic lymphocytic leukemia, soft tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and chloracne) from previous dioxin exposure.
Most recently in Canada, it was revealed that nine areas on Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick contained soil dioxin levels that were above average. Former base and civilian workers called for action when the findings of a study by Jacques Whitford Environmental Ltd. were released in June 2006 showing contamination in more areas than initially thought. In response, Dillon Consulting Ltd. and RBR Consulting were commissioned to prepare a present-day health risk assessment to address concerns that those who work, hunt, fish, or play at the base now could be at risk of adverse health effects from exposure to dioxins and other contaminants in the soil, sediment, surface water, groundwater, fish, game, and vegetation at the base. This human health risk assessment (HHRA) does not consider the potential human health risks associated with past exposure to herbicides, test chemicals, or contaminants at the base.
The results of the HHRA indicated that there is no present-day risk from dioxin exposure for people using the Gagetown property. However, no studies have yet been completed to determine potential health risks to people who may have used the property in the past. As Ryan noted, this may be difficult to accomplish. More information on the recent findings is available at www.forces.gc.ca/site/reports/defoliant/task3a2-summary_e.asp.
The CIC Environment Division will sponsor more symposia of this kind to encourage chemists to become more aware of and involved in issues involving chemicals in the environment.
William R. Cullen, is professor emeritus of the department of chemistry at The University of British Columbia and vice-chair of the Environment Division of The Chemical Institute of Canada
Re: Agent Orange
I would like to commend the organizers of the Evening of Awareness at the Forestry Complex on March 29.
Although there was a large crowd present, conspicuously missing were our local elected officials. MLA Jody Carr was present as the only government representative for both sides and levels of government. Shame.
This was an opportunity for them to hear first hand the sad but true accounts of how our government is ignoring our military veterans, widows of veterans and civilians who were exposed to the poisonous, lethal chemicals used for almost two decades that federal governments had allowed.
One of the most heinous chapters in local military history is being ignored by the politicians, the media and the public at large.
Do you know how you may have been affected by the spraying of unsafe chemicals in and around areas where your local produce, dairy products and other food sources come from?
Correspondence to several people in power go unheeded and ignored although the spin-off effects of 2-4-D and 2-4-5-T will have ramifications for years to come.
It took the efforts of several young people (who live outside of Canada) to bring this shameful chapter into the 21st century by means of a documentary film. They are incurring costs out of their own pockets because of their deep belief that what is happening is wrong.
When the film is released, it will expose our government for what is has not done. Those exposed to Agents Orange/Purple/White may not live to see the release.
It's time for people to force our elected officials to listen and do the r ight thing.
Fredericton Book Launch: Blowback A Canadian History of Agent Orange and the War at Home Chris Arsenault
Date:
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Time:
7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location:
Renaissance College
Street:
811 Charlotte Street
City/Town:
Fredericton, NB
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April 9, 2009 http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/631527Asking the tough questionsRe: Agent Orange compensationIt's somewhat disconcerting that after almost four years of the Canadian Forces Base Gagetown story hitting the airwaves, reporters today are still misquoting, misdating and underestimating the events, the impact on the people and the toxic chemicals sprayed there.Many reporters seem to be using the issue as an easy space filler which needs neither investigation nor accuracy.Dates of the spraying, chemicals used, areas sprayed, spraying accidents, the government's inactions and number of possible victims, don't seem to matter as long as you quote some politician who knows even less about Gagetown than the reporter does.In many cases, facts, which are well documented in the very same papers, are presenting incorrect information to the general public and being ignored.Apparent facts found in the BGAFFP's task # 1 final report are that more than 7,000 regular military personnel were identified as being stationed at CFB Gagetown during summer training for the years 1966 and 1967 and that 358 civilians were identified as employed by CFB Gagetown during the years 1966 and 1967.Eight hundred and six family members were identified who may have been associated with the regular military and civilian employees during 1966 and 1967 for a total of 8,164 - not counting one single civilian living within five kilometres of Gagetown in 1966 and 1967.Some questions that reporters should be asking are: If the government's own BGAFFP reported 8,164 victims, not counting the civilians within the five kilometre limit, present during the summers of '66 and '67, why then was the ex-gratia package designed to compensate only 4,500 victims?Were the people who died before Feb. 6, 2006 any less dead or any less affected by the chemicals used at CFB Gagetown and why won't Ottawa compensate these widows?If everything was alright and aboveboard, as Ottawa would like us to believe, why is Ottawa now refusing to call for a full public and judicial inquiry?Could the answer to all three questions be the same?Ottawa knew full well that more than half of the Gagetown victims were already dead.Mr. Thompson, as reported on April 1 in the Montreal Gazette said: "I've stated very clearly the dates will not change."Just two days before on the 29th of March, it was reported in the Telegraph Journal that "Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson has said that the April 1 deadline for compensation isn't absolute and late applications will be considered."In Ottawa, our MPs call this a flip-flop, while in the opinions of many less honourable, we would call it bold face lying.I guess our only choice now is to figure out whether the newspapers are lying or whether the member flip-flopped, yet again, and mispoke to the newspapers.The only question which remains is did Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson mispeak to the Montreal Gazette or to the Telegraph Journal?And, more importantly, are there any Canadians left who would believe him even if he told us?If you are going to write about our story and our lives, please get your facts straight.Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret)Nanaimo, B.C.
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April 9, 2009
From: Kenneth Young
At just over $0.25 a head which Dow is asking for to never see Dow chemicals again in the province, this may be the best money Ottawa has ever spent. In my Opinion Canada should pay them off for the entire country or $7.5 million and have rid of them for the good of the country, hell for the good of the land and people.
Dow to sue over Quebec pesticide ban Claiming 'no scientific basis' for residential ban, U.S. company demands $2-million (U.S.) in damages under NAFTA's Chapter 11
by MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
Dow AgroSciences LLC has decided to sue the federal government over Quebec's ban on the residential use of pesticides.
The U.S.-based company, maker of the herbicide 2,4-D, is claiming $2-million (U.S.) in damages, using controversial provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement that allow businesses to sue governments over regulations that harm their interests.
Although Dow announced last year that it was mulling over such legal action, the company had until this month to file a formal notice of arbitration under NAFTA and begin its lawsuit.
The case has attracted wide interest because so-called cosmetic pesticide bans are becoming increasingly popular, with Ontario recently following Quebec's lead in introducing one and many retailers removing chemical bug and weed killers from their shelves.
Some environmental groups have been pointing to the possibility that Dow would launch its legal action as a reason for renegotiating the Chapter 11 provisions in NAFTA that allow investors to seek compensation over government regulations.
But Dow said in its notice of arbitration, which has been posted on the Foreign Affairs and International Trade website, that its dispute has arisen because Quebec has “no scientific basis to impose the ban.”
It says 2,4-D, a weed killer often used on dandelions, has received extensive testing and there is “no evidence” it poses a “health or safety risk to humans when used according to label directions.” Under NAFTA, Dow is required to challenge Ottawa, even though its problem is with a Quebec law.
Health Canada, which regulates pesticides, has approved 2,4-D for use on residential lawns, and ironically, Dow is using the federal stamp of approval as part of the basis of its claim.
A spokesperson for the company said its action wasn't taken to try to stop pesticide bans from spreading.
“What is really important here is the scientific principle. Do we want regulations in Canada made on political whim or do we want them based on science?” said Brenda Harris, regulator and government affairs manager for Dow AgroSciences Canada Inc.
But Lisa Gue, a spokesperson for the David Suzuki Foundation, said she was “disappointed” that Dow chose to go forward with the claim. “We're calling on the federal government to vigorously defend Quebec's ban on 2,4-D.”
Martin Mittelstaedt is The Globe's Environment Reporter
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April 9, 2009
Halifax Book Launch for Blowback: A Canadian History of Agent Orange
POLITICS: Feds to pay out $44M to Agent Orange victims
Posted By KATHLEEN HARRIS, SUN MEDIA NATIONAL BUREAU CHIEF
The Conservative government has paid out $44 million to victims of Agent Orange -- less than half the figure earmarked for the compensation fund.
But a lawyer handling a class action claim is vowing to make the feds pay more to ensure "justice" for those exposed to the toxic spray.
According to figures from Veterans Affairs, the department received 3,395 applications for the ex gratia program by last week's April 1 deadline. Of those, 2,187 were approved and another 882 rejected because their medical condition was deemed to be unrelated to the 1966-1967 sprays or because they did not live or work within the required five km of CFB Gagetown at the time.
While the firm deadline has passed, some applications are still being processed and Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson has said exceptions will be considered for late claims if there are "legitimate reasons or extenuating circumstances."
Tony Merchant, a Saskatchewan-based lawyer handling a class-action lawsuit by veterans and civilians exposed to Agent Orange, said the government's qualifying criteria were too narrow and the compensation amount too "pathetically low."
"It was a political program, it wasn't really a statement about fairness," he said.
Merchant said hundreds of thousands of civilians and former military could be eligible for damages if the lawsuit unfolds as he hopes.
About 1,692 people from across the country have registered with his office so far.
U. S. military herbicides, including the cancer-causing defoliant Agent Orange, were sprayed in forests near CFB Gagetown over several days in 1966 and 1967.
On September 12, 2007, Thompson announced the government program to award one-time "ex gratia" payments of $20,000 to compensate and $96.5 million was budgeted.
Unspent funds will be returned to the government's general coffers ____________________
Please see the latest trailer release for the documentary now in production.
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April 6, 2009
Mon. Apr 6, 2009
From: Michael Christie
N.S. veteran stages hunger strike
By THE CANADIAN PRESS
CHARLOTTETOWN — A one-man hunger strike took place in front of the Veterans Affairs headquarters in Charlottetown Monday on behalf of veterans who may be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and not know it.
Nova Scotia veteran Steven Dixon says he has a combination of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, known as PTSD, and Huntington's disease, a hereditary neurological disorder.
PTSD is an emotional disorder resulting from a very frightening, life-threatening or unsafe experience.
Dixon says he has been receiving treatment for both of his conditions from a medical centre in Nova Scotia.
In a news release sent to The Guardian Monday, Dixon said he hopes to raise awareness about PTSD, fight for those affected by agent orange testing, anyone who has been denied benefits from Veterans Affairs and people who have died waiting for benefits.
Tim Rose of Veterans Affairs came out of the Veterans Affairs headquarters to invite him inside to make his case.
A spokeswoman for Veterans Affairs, Janice Summerby, said she could not comment on what the two men talked about, but did say that anytime they know there's a dissatisfied client they try their best to get them the proper services.
Veterans Affairs Canada's mission is to provide services and benefits for veterans and to keep the memory of their sacrifices alive.
Dixon has requested aid from Veterans Affairs Canada in the past, and though he still has outstanding issues with them, he said the hunger strike is no longer for his own behalf.
When soldiers started to receive testing for the PTSD at or around 1993, several people who were released prior to that date were not tested, he said.
``This is the message to all ex-members of the Canadian Armed Forces prior to 1993,'' Dixon said. ``Get checked out, do some research and talk to someone that you can trust.''
He also wants to raise awareness for those affected by Agent Orange, an unregistered herbicide tested between 1966 and 1967 at a Canadian Forces base in Gagetown connected to several forms of cancer and other health problems.
Wednesday a group called Military Widows on a Warpath demonstrated in Oromocto at the gates to Camp Gagetown to protest their exclusion from federal compensation for victims of chemical spraying at the military base between 1956 and 1967, including use of Agent Orange. Their pleas should be heeded.
Do the right thing Woodstock NB Bugle Observer On the front page of today's paper, Bugle-Observer reporter Lauren Kennedy tells the story of Gwen Knox and her fight for justice.
The Woodstock woman who is a member of the group called "Widows on the Warpath" believes Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals her late husband was exposed to during the 1950s and 1960s in Base Gagetown are the cause of his early death to cancer. Murray Clark, a Second World War veteran and career military man, died at the young age of 57. After so many years of dedicated service to his country, Clark never had a chance to enjoy his retirement. He never had the opportunity to explore our vast country or enjoy the benefits and freedom he spent so many years protecting.
Knox still has her late husband's medical records and plenty of anecdotal evidence to support her claim that the spraying of chemicals around the base in the 1960s triggered the cancer which took his life.
"He would come home soaking wet with the spray, his clothes would be just brown, wet and it smelled terrible, but we didn't think anything of it at the time," Knox told Kennedy during an interview at her Woodstock home Wednesday afternoon. That same day, about 15 members of "Widows on the Warpath" were marching outside the gate at Base Gagetown, asking government to do the right thing. You see, government officials aren't denying the major health impact of those exposed to Agent Orange and other toxic defoliants. In fact, the Harper government, during its election campaign, promised to fairly deal with the Agent Orange issue. When elected, it dealt with the issue ... but the fairness is certainly under question.
While a lump-sum compensation package of $20,000 was handed to some widows, the conditions attached meant that many, such as Knox, were left out because their husbands died too many years ago.
"The ones that lived got payment, the ones that died got forgotten," Knox told Kennedy.
Government officials, including Veteran Affairs minister Greg Thompson, will offer plenty of reason why Agent Orange compensation was limited Even he will have to admit those limits were never noted when he campaigned about doing the right thing for military widows.
The truth is there are reasons for the limits, but they're not good reasons. Compensation is limited because of the high cost of handing out payments to the many who would actually qualify. Besides, government is always reluctant to admit wrongdoing, even in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Our government leaders, regardless of party or ideology, are always in protection mode. Unfortunately, their efforts focus on protecting government, protecting their party, protecting themselves and protecting their ideology. Protecting people is only on their radar when such acts come with political benefits.
When was the last time you remember government MPs or MLAs enacting policy because it was the right thing to do? Oh, you'll hear plenty of demands to "do the right thing" from the opposition benches, but they rarely if ever carry that attitude with them into government.
The problem doesn't lie only with our politicians. Voters must also take responsibility. We allow politics to become a contest a game which pits red against blue, yellow against green, right against left, while voters act as cheerleaders, not decision-makers.
We don't demand enough from our political representatives. We read the paper and turn on the news to see people like Knox and the "Widows on the Warpath" and wish them luck. Yet, no one outside those directly affected put pressure on their local MP to do the right thing for Knox and her friends.
Thompson the minister responsible for Knox's issue is New Brunswick's senior cabinet representative. Base Gagetown sits next door to his own riding. Knox lives in an area he used to serve as MP.
Base Gagetown sits in a Conservative riding. Knox lives in a Conservative riding. Conservatives are in government. After successive Liberal governments ignored the Agent Orange issue, the Conservatives campaigned on a promise to finally do the right thing.
Did they? No. They simply did enough to say they did something. They still have not done the right thing.
But neither have voters. Perhaps its time they did the right thing and held their elected leaders accountable for their actions or, in their response to Knox and her fellow widows, for they're inaction.
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April 6, 2009
From: Kenneth Young
It may be correct that many Veterans and plaintive in the Gagetown Class Action Lawsuit are becoming frustrated because of all the Government and their chemical company minions stalling tactics and constant appeals to even the simplest of questions, which is well demonstrated by the commencement today of a hunger strike in PEI by one of the frustrated veterans but then again they don't want the world to ever know what they did to the Canadian Military nor the civilians in and around CFB Gagetown for 28 years.
Let's face it, if Ottawa believed that they actually did nothing wrong, that they were in the right and that they would come out on top, we would have had three public inquires by now to prove it, and all of the information about the chemicals and their application would have been openly published to the Canadian people, not given a gag order like in the Newfoundland court.
The ironic thing here is that the longer Ottawa waits the more victims there are who get fed up and join the lawsuit and the more time they give us victims to accumulate evidence against them. The internet is a wonderful thing... I wonder if the government ever realized that it would come back to bite then in the butt? LOL
A Woodstock woman and member of the ‘Military Widows on the Warpath' is fighting for justice and fairness from the federal government
By Lauren Kennedy
Gwen Knox knows that what lies ahead is a tough and lengthy battle but she swears she will never stop trying to win. Gwen Knox has been looking for answers for years regarding the mysterious illnesses that struck her first husband and took his life at 57.
She believes exposure to Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals was the ultimate cause of the early death of her husband.
Knox wears an orange ribbon as a symbol of the fight for justice
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April 1, 2009
No Agent Orange deadline extension:Minister
By Becky Rynor, Canwest News Service April 1, 2009 5:02 PM
OTTAWA — The Minister of Veteran Affairs said Wednesday he will not extend the April 1 deadline for federal compensation for exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange.
"The date is not going to be extended," said Greg Thompson.
"I've stated very clearly the dates will not change. In terms of today being the deadline, we've made sure that's been communicated into the communities across the country. That date has been firmly established and I think understood by just about everyone."
Thompson did say "extenuating circumstances" would be taken into consideration, such as being out of the country or illness for those who haven't applied for the remuneration.
On Wednesday morning, about 25 members of the group Widows on the Warpath demonstrated outside the gates of Canadian Forces Base Gagetown to push the minister to extend the deadline and to eliminate the qualifying date that stipulates victims had to die on or after Feb. 6, 2006 for family members to be eligible for t he package.
Agent Orange was sprayed at the base in Gagetown, near Fredericton, in the 1960s.
"He's very inflexible," said the 70-year-old founder of the group, Bette Hudson. Her husband, Ralph, died at age 64 after lung cancer spread throughout his body. He was posted at CFB Gagetown from 1964 to 1967.
"We'll keep fighting. We're not going to stop. Inflexibility doesn't bother me in the least. So he can say he's not going to do this and not going to do that all he wants because I'll be in his face. And so will the rest of the group."
On Sept. 12, 2007, Thompson announced the government would offer a "one-time, tax-free ex gratia payment of $20,000 to eligible recipients connected to the testing of unregistered U.S. military herbicides, including Agent Orange, at CFB Gagetown."
The announcement also said individuals must have been diagnosed with a condition associated with Agent Orange, as determined by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, they must have worked or trained at CFB Gagetown or lived in a community within five kilometres of the military base when the herbicide was tested in 1966-67.
The Department of Veterans Affairs says it has received 3,395 applications. It has approved 2,187 applications and rejected 882.
Hudson says there "dozens, maybe hundreds," more that have not been approved.
Agent Orange widows to protest for compensation in N.B.
By Becky Rynor, Canwest News Service
A group of widows plans to demonstrate at the gates of Canadian Forces Base Gagetown Wednesday to protest the April 1 cutoff for federal compensation for exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange.
"We're pushing for justice," said the founder of the group, Widows on the Warpath, 70-year-old Bette Hudson. "We're pushing for the government to do the right thing."
Agent Orange was sprayed at the base in Gagetown, near Fredericton, in the 1960s. The federal government set April 1 as the deadline to apply for compensation for illness and death linked to the herbicide.
The government also stipulates victims had to die on or after Feb. 6, 2006 for family members to be eligible for the compensation package.
"My husband died too soon. He died in 2004," Hudson said of her partner, Ralph, who died at age 64 after lung cancer spread throughout his body. He was posted at CFB Gagetown from 1964 to 1967.
She said the widows and supporters of the group will demonstrate on the public sidewalk across from CFB Gagetown to push the minister of veteran affairs, Greg Thompson, to extend or eliminate Wednesday's deadline. They are also asking Thompson to do away with the Feb. 6, 2006 eligibility date.
"We're doing this for our husbands, our children, our grandchildren and for future generations," she said.
On Sept. 12, 2007, Thompson announced the government would offer a "one-time, tax-free ex gratia payment of $20,000 to eligible recipients connected to the testing of unregistered U.S. military herbicides, including Agent Orange, at CFB Gagetown."
The announcement also said individuals must have been diagnosed with a condition associated with Agent Orange, as determined by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, they must have worked or trained at CFB Gagetown or lived in a community within five kilometres of the military base when the herbicide was tested in 1966-67.
Hudson says Widows on the Warpath has more than 80 members across Canada. All have had their claims for compensation rejected. She said there is a total of 878 claims that have been denied by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Hudson said, to her knowledge, there have been 2,075 claims approved, but there are "dozens, maybe hundreds," more that have not been approved.
Mr. Speaker, two Fridays ago, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs gave a very cold and deliberately misleading statement to my question on agent orange. I would now like for the parliamentary secretary to stand, look in the camera and tell Agnes Conrad of Nova Scotia, Rose Gravelle of New Brunswick, Chris Young of Ontario, Fredrick Weaver of British Columbia and thousands of others who have been denied agent orange assistance even though the Prime Minister and the Minister of Veterans Affairs promised that they would get it.
Would he please stand, face the camera and tell those people how happy they should be on what you did on agent orange compensation?
Mr. Speaker, I am not sure, in the way the member phrased his question, that he was intent on getting a serious answer on what has been a most serious issue facing many Canadians who were around CFB Gagetown in the years 1966-67.
The fact is that was 40-some years ago and it has been looked at and studied. The previous Liberal government totally ignored dealing with the issue. I think even the member would acknowledge the fact that it was our government that stepped up. We provided ex gratia payments because it was so difficult to get the records all straight. We responded to the issue—
With great respect to my colleague from Nova Scotia, Mr. Speaker, it was not 40 years ago. The spraying in Gagetown happened from 1958 to 1984. He knows that very well. He also knows that the Minister of Veterans Affairs, when in opposition, promised on four separate occasions to call for a public judicial inquiry to get all those documents and call for the facts of this. He also knows that the Prime Minister was in Gagetown in 2006 and promised that everybody from 1958 to 1984 would be looked after. That is simply not what has happened.
Will the parliamentary secretary now rise in his place and do two things: first, extend the compensation deadline for agent orange—
Mr. Speaker, it is most unfortunate that the member, who should have knowledge of the veterans as much as anybody should in the House, would deliberately point out something that is absolutely erroneous.
The program that was put in by this government was for people who were hit in 1966-67 by agent orange. The program has been very effective. Over 2,100 people have been recognized and have in fact been sent cheques.
I would also point out that, as emotional as the member gets, it is a shame that his leader and party have not supported any of the programs for veterans in Canada.
FREDERICTON - A crew of New York filmmakers are aiming to bring a story they call "Canada's dirty secret" to a worldwide audience.
The four-person crew is in Fredericton this month working on a documentary about the lingering effects of Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam war, and other toxic chemicals sprayed at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in 1966 and 1967.
Widows seek changes for Agent Orange compensation rules, deadline
A group of military widows is trying to have the deadline extended for people seeking compensation for illness and death from Agent Orange spraying at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in the 1960s.
The deadline to apply for the federal government's compensation package is April 1, but an organization is pushing to have that date moved and for a change to the qualifying date to cover when their husbands died.
Calling themselves Widows on the Warpath, the group has about 80 members across the country, said founder Bette Hudson.
"I wasn't eligible because he didn't die on or after Feb. 6, 2006. He was to have died on or after that date. And he died in 2004," Hudson said.
All members of Hudson's group have seen their claims rejected by the compensation package, which offers payments of up to $20,000 to veterans with specific diseases linked to the spraying of the herbicide Agent Orange in 1966 and '67.
The U.S. military tested Agent Orange, Agent Purple and several other defoliants on a small section of the base over seven days in 1966 and 1967.
The federal government's compensation offer is subject to tight restrictions, with payments only available to veterans and civilians who worked on or lived within five kilometres of the base between 1966 and 1967, and only those who have illnesses associated with Agent Orange exposure.
Those illnesses include Hodgkin's disease, lymphoma, respiratory cancers, prostate cancer and type 2 diabetes, as determined by the U.S. Institute of Medicine.
It is anticipated roughly 4,500 people will be eligible for the payment.
Hudson's claim is one of 878 denied by the Department of Veterans Affairs, while 2,153 have been approved.
Widows on the Warpath will be pressing federal politicians to open up the compensation package with public meetings and protests planned before the April 1 deadline.
"As far as we know and as far as our feeling is, they were eliminated before it was ever announced in 2007. And that wasn't right and it's not fair to these widows," Hudson said.
The widows' fight has caught the attention of a documentary film crew from New York.
"A lot of people think the compensation package addressed the issues. In actuality, only about 2,000 people have gotten the compensation package and over 315,000 travelled on the base during the times of the chemical defoliation period," said director Danny Feighery.
Agent Orange spraying victims to tell their stories Sunday night
Published Tuesday March 24th, 2009
New Brunswickers affected by the chemical defoliation spray program at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown will come together to tell their stories to the public Sunday.
The event is set to run from 6-10 p.m. at the Hugh John Flemming Forestry Complex's K.C. Irving Theatre.
It will feature a forum for speakers to tell their first-hand accounts regarding the history of the base, the deadly poisons that were sprayed there, the people who were affected, the health risks that still impact nearby communities and the possibilities for the future.
The event will be open to the public and there's no charge.
Speakers will include members of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, the Black Watch, the Agent Orange Association of Canada, Widows on the Warpath, science experts and civilian victims.
The event will be filmed and footage will be used in an upcoming independent feature-length documentary about Gagetown. There will also be the premiere of a three-minute trailer for the film.
The event will also mark the release of a book called Blowback: A Canadian History of Agent Orange and the War at Home, written by Chris Arsenault.
The evening is motivated by the deadline for the Canadian government's compensation package for Agent Orange victims, which ends April 1.
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“An Evening of Awareness: Stories from the Agent Orange Legacy”
On March 29, 2009, a coalition of New Brunswickers effected by the chemical defoliation spray program at CFB Gagetown will come together to tell their stories to the public.
The evening will feature a forum for speakers to tell their first hand accounts regarding the history of the base, the deadly poisons that were sprayed there, the diverse group of people who were effected, the health risks that still impact local communities today, and the possibilities for the future.
The Evening will be open to the public and there is no charge.
Date: March 29, 2009 Time: 6pm-10pm Price: Free Location: K.C. Irving Theater, Hugh John Flemming Forestry Complex, 1350 Regent Street South, Fredericton N.B.
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March 19, 2009
From: Audrey (Pothier) Vaughan
Dear Mr. Kerr,
I felt obligated to respond to your comment in Parliament about how satisfied people are with the Agent Orange Compensation.
My father was in the military for 28 years. He served at CFB Gagetown from 1961 - 1971. I and three of my sisters were born there during this time.
He was there during the height of the Agent Orange spraying. Unfortunately my father passed away from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma on October 26, 2002. He was just 69 years old.
Although his cancer is directly linked to the Agent Orange spraying (and his doctor concurs with that), Veterans Affairs has thus far refused his widow's application for the compensation.
The reason - he died before the Conservative government took power. So in essence, you are telling a Military Wife/Widow and her children that her husband/their father died too soon.
Well, I certainly agree with that. My father died too soon for me as well. There were plenty of moments that we have wanted him to be there for....births of great-grandchildren, weddings of grandchildren, graduations. He certainly died too soon. We have to wonder how many of these moments he would have enjoyed with our family if Agent Orange had not been sprayed. So to say he died too soon is ignorant and heartless on your part.
Agent Orange is directly linked to his cancer, he was in CFB Gagetown during the years of spraying, and he died from the cancer. How can anyone think that his widow is not entitled to that compensation? How can you look at the Canadian Public and say only those who died after your party took power are worthy of this compensation? If our neighbor in Gagetown contracts this dreaded disease now (God forbid, I certainly don't wish that heartache on any family) but if they do, they are entitled to it.
My father served at bases in Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Germany. He went to Cyprus and Korea. He served his country well. How sad that this country's current government now feels that he died too soon for them to recognize his service and what it did to him. Your government has deduced my father's military service worth based on when he died and not on the time that he served.
No Mr. Kerr, people certainly are not satisfied with the compensation package. Speak to the widows who have been told that their husband died too soon. Talk to their children and grandchildren about it.
My mother (your constituent) will keep fighting this. I only hope that your government can see how absolutely ludicrous your package set up is.
Sincerely, Audrey (Pothier) Vaughan Moncton, NB
proud daughter of Cpl. David G. Pothier and Rose Marie Pothier
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March 17, 2009
From: Kenneth Young
Insult after Harper's Conservatives Insults
Today it was announced that Canada will put $21 million toward the salaries of Afghan police and prison guards over the next two years, a fund which should cover the salaries of somewhere near 3,000 police officers.
After the in poor taste and insult of Greg Thompson's CFB Gagetown compensation package handed out to only one half of one percent of Canadian Gagetown Victims, to hear that Canada will now foot the bill for one and one half times that amount of Afghani cop. Well they do have some unspent Gagetown Victims money, you know the money Ottawa refuses to give to the widows of diseased Gagetown military victims.
And we are not supposed to take this as a personal insult even when the Gagetown package ends on April Fools Day and when Mr., Kerr stands up in the House of Commons and tells Canada that only 2,000 out of the possible 440,000 victims of Gagetown are even worth a dime, then that even they are only worth $20,000 to Ottawa and now everybody's happy, has moved on to the economy.
This Harper Government has given Gagetown Victims one lie and insult after the other.
I begin by quoting the Veterans Affairs mission statement: "To provide exemplary, client-centred services and benefits that respond to the needs of veterans, our other clients and their families, in recognition of their services to Canada; and to keep the memory of their achievements and sacrifices alive for all Canadians."
My husband was in the military for over 30 years where he was called away from home for months at a time, leaving me to keep our family together. We were taken from our hometown for years because of his duty.
As for the memory that I keep alive of their achievements and sacrifices, my husband, like others, was a lab rat used as a long-term experiment that the government of Canada won't acknowledge. In those memories are the pain, suffering and death that was contributed by the agent orange spraying.
There are many others like myself who formed Widows on a Warpath who have been turned away from Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson regarding help with the agent orange issue. He, as leader of Veteran's Affairs, should be helping us convince government to remove the date Feb. 6, 2006, instead of fighting us. I believe that Mr. Thompson should be removed from the office of Minister of Veterans Affairs as all he seems to have done was build walls to discourage and forget about veterans, leaving their memories to die in vain.
CARLETTA MATHESON
Lakeville Corner
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March 17, 2009
During Question Period Peter Stoffer asked the following question: Mr. Peter Stoffer (Sackville— Eastern Shore , NDP):
Mr. Speaker, from VIP for veteran's widows, from SISIP to Agent Orange to Allied Veterans and on and on, the Conservative government has deliberately misled veterans and their families. In 2005, the Prime Minister and the veterans affairs minister said to thousands of people in Gagetown that if a Conservative government is elected, they would look after everyone affected by spraying from 1958 to 1984. The Conservatives brought in a compensation package even worse than what the Liberals were going to do. This prompted the following “answer” Mr. Greg Kerr (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I am certainly glad the hon. member pointed out that we have moved on the issue of Agent Orange and all those poor people who suffered from that terrible incident. As a matter of fact, we settled with over 2,000 of those individuals at $20,000 a person. They are very satisfied with that. The more discussions we have with them, the more concerned they are about where the economy is going, the more concerned they are that the more concerned they are that the hon. member's leader is opposed to the very action plan that helps these very important plan. The hon. member knows full well we can never do enough for our veterans. That is what that action plan is all about. Many people have written to Greg Kerr (Kerr.G@parl.gc.ca ) directly to let him know their level of satisfaction, sometimes in very strong terms: Peter Stoffer wants to stand up in the House of Commons and read the names of those people who have written to Kerr and others who are not satisfied with the compensation package.
In other words it’s not over! In order for him to do this he needs the victim’s permission to read their name in the House of Commons. So if we can have everyone who wrote to Kerr or even if they haven’t written Kerr provide Peter with their contact info as well as state that they are giving permission for Peter to read their name in the House of Commons that would be great! Again the person who is providing their names should be a victim. That includes people who have lost loved ones or have loved ones who are ill.
So if you know victims lets get them to provide their names and addresses.
I am writing to apologize for my past thoughts about you. I thought that you were somewhat of a dictator in not allowing your Mp's and Ministers to talk without first consulting you sir and for that I must apologize.
I now see that it wasn't a point of being a dictator but rather a fact that you have no one around you in the Party with the brains which God gave them, or at least they haven't been able to demonstrate any to Canadians.
Mr. Kerr on March 13th stood up and said that the Gagetown Victims were happy with only 2,000 of them having received $20,000 checks and had somehow moved on to worrying about the economy. First it implies that we do not have the capacity to worry about more then one thing at a time and secondly it suggests that a soldiers life and welfare is only worth $20,000 and further that we are very satisfied with this.
Mr. Kerr who holds a seat in NS. doesn't seem to realize or maybe it is that he doesn't care that a very large percentage of the Black Watch (who all served in Gagetown), their families and friends live in NS. Then again I fear that there is no pill for stupidity.
I think that this week has shown that it may be necessary for you to remain in Ottawa to answer all questions as neither your MP's nor your Ministers seem capable.
Again I would like to apologize for my past thought and I send you my deepest sympathy for what you must now be enduring.
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret)
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March 15, 2009
From: Kenneth Young
Mr. Kerr-stuck foot deep in mouth.
On March 13th at approximately noon in Ottawa, MP. Greg Kerr (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs, CPC): stood up in the house of Commons and answered a question from Peter Stoffer (NDP Veterans Affairs Critic) about the CFB Gagetown Atrocity, with an answer which may turn out to be his fall from grace in his own riding, which is packed with ex-Black Watch (all were stationed in CFB Gagetown), their families and friends.
He stated that, "As a matter of fact, we settled with over 2,000 of those individuals at $20,000 a person. They are very satisfied with that." which was totally unexpected as well as unknown by the victims. First let me say that $20,000 a pop as he put it doesn't even come close to covering the costs incurred over the years because of these chemicals and it is a out right insult to our Military to even suggest that their lives are only worth $20,000 and that we are, "very satisfied with that."
Now I realize that MR. Kerr was only elected in 2008 and is new at the game of Politics, but since parliament was suspended for almost two months and the MP still got paid, it might have been a good move to learn his portfolio as, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs.
To stand up there and say to the country that the Gagetown victims are very satisfied with Greg Thompson's and Stephen Harpers compensation package when that were promised much more, is not only a lie but an insult to the intelligence of most Canadians.
Mr. Kerr learn the job and the issues or sit down and shut up.
PS: One question Mr. Kerr: If the Soldiers and other victims of Gagetown are so very satisfied with your Compensation package, why are almost every single one of them which you paid checks out to still in the class action against the government of Canada, with respects to Gagetown chemical contamination?
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret)
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March 14, 2009
Emails to Greg Kerr MP
Hi, Art
.Where have you been, Mr. Kerr? Give your head a shake. Your statement that people are satisfied with the $20,000 ex gratia payment is pure fiction.We are most certainly NOT satisfied.Our husbands were all affected by defoliant use at C.F.B.Gagetown.
They have all passed away affected by this travesty.We have all been excluded from the payment because of a date, Feb. 6, 2006. How demeaning is that?
No, Sir we definitely are NOT satisfied and we will not give up until we are. You can count on that.
Bette J.Hudson,
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Mr. Gregg Kerr,I don't know which victims of Agent Orange stated that they are Very Satisfied...because I know of a large amount of victims who are the furthest from being satisfied!My father passed away on February 9, 2005. Approx. 1 year before he would have qualified. Don't you think that we would have given anything to have my Dad here for one more year? Or 20 more years for that matter. It goes without saying that because he passed away too soon, my mother wasn't entitled to receive the ex-gratia payment. How fair was this? Dad was only 72.Also, the list of medical diseases that are caused by the defoliants being sprayed are few. How do I know that while growing up I was extremely sick with rhumatic fever, and our son had a form of meningitus that was extremely rare, and my husband suffers with poly mialgia rhuematoidic. I have recently been put on medication for high blood pressure, and my doctor told me there isnt much that I can tell you to fix. I am not over weight, I excercise and I eat healthy. So what caused my blood pressure to be so high? Who can rule out 100% that the defoliants sprayed here did NOT cause any other diseases than the ones listed?I dont mean to ramble on, it just got to me when I heard your quote that victims are very satisfied. When in fact it is the extreme opposite!Donna-Marie Carberry
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Dear Sir:
Its wonderful that you have moved from the issue of Agent Orange and feel that the meager settlement being offered is sufficient. But, there are quite a few of us who are not "satisfied" and refuse to have the issue swept away even during the economic crisis our country is facing.
You were correct in saying that there is not enough we can do for these people but can you honestly say that what we've done is sufficient? I've read the stories of the people who fought valiantly for our country now dying of cancers and other illnesses brought on from the effects of Agent Orange. I've read the stories of the spouses, who have cared for these individuals but what really serves as the injustice in all this is the children...children that played in the fields while the spraying Agent Orange, and picking strawberries from fields that were recently sprayed ... now you tell me if it was your child, niece or nephew would you say what we've done is sufficient?
Shame on you for being ignorant to the situation you felt necessary to comment on.
K. McLeod
London, ON
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Agent Orange Compensation package:
Let it be known, Mr. Kerr, that the public is NOT buying your comments of a $ 20,000.00 happiness package for SUPPOSEDLY ALL victims of the Gagetown disaster! It is shameful to assume that with this small handout you can focus people on the economy...oh where to spend ALL that money!!!!!
It appears to me that $ 20,000.00 is the end all for all Government payouts...did the Chinese not just got the same token Dollars for past autrocities committed by the Government????
Wake up Mr. Kerr, not everybody believes your comments....
There is one truth to be found in your statement however:
"...WE CAN NEVER DO ENOUGH FOR OUR VETERANS.."
How about proving at least that you are willing to try!!!!!!!
Chris Young
Box 355
Emo, Ontario
P0W 1E0
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Well Mr. Kerr,
You seem to have a very clear lack of knowledge of the impact of Agent Orange. You certainly have stuck your foot in your mouth now haven't you?
You see, Mr. Kerr, the apparent "satisfied" persons involved with the Agent Orange aren't satified at all. I know this because I know several of them who received their "payout".
My family, however, is one of the families whose father didn't die from the effects of Agent Orange at the "right" time.
Until the government of Canada admits negligence, no one in the CFB Gagetown area will be satisfied.
Karen Slaunwhite-Peterson
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Dear Dishonorable Greg Kerr
I can assure you that your callous and inaccurate response in Parliament yesterday to Peter Stoffer's question regarding the Agent Orange issue at CFB Gagetown NB will come back to haunt you in the not too distance future.
The Veterans and Victims of the Gagetown Atrocity are not happy with your Governments handling and continual coverup of the Gagetown TOXIC File.
Your Government stole thousands of my fellow Veteran and Gagetown Victim's votes with the promise given by your leader Stephan Harper in Woodstock to compensate all military Veterans and Civilians whose health was compromised by the Governments twenty eight year mass poisoning of its own citizens. A promise made during an election campaign and not honored, is a lie.
We will be taking those votes back with interest compounded for every day that a Judicial Public Inquiry is not in place to to provide measurable accountability and the true justice that is needed to answer for the past and continuing Federal crimes committed against the Victims of the Gagetown Atrocity.
With My Deepest Sincerity Gary Goode
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Dear Mr. Greg Kerr
My father was poisoned with Agent Orange from 1958 until 1964 and then he died. The fact that he was poisoned while in service to his country, and that his wife and children were as well, was carefully covered up until 2005. In effect, he was murdered. The people who killed him – people like you, sir, for telling your lies today – have simply not yet been brought to justice. It is political suicide to deny the Holocaust occurred, and for many Canadians that is exactly what you have done today. Did you know a documentary is being filmed about Gagetown’s dirty little secret right now? Your actions will be immortalized. I hope what you did today dogs your family for generations, just as surely as CFB Gagetown’s poisons will continue to pollute Canada’s victim’s children’s children. Kelly Porter Franklin -----
Dear Sir: I was born on July 12, 1955. I lived in Oromocto , New Brunswick from 1962-1969 with my family. My father was stationed there during that time. He was in the Blackwatch until it disbanded. Unfortunately, he died in 1991 at the age of 59 from lung cancer. During our years there, every weekend my dad took his family out to the Area picking berries, flowers and apples or fishing or just for a picnic. We ate wild game he hunted there also. We were ignorant to the danger we were all in from Agent Orange, etc. In 1998 I was diagnosed with 4th stage non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I had the disease for several years before it was an issue. I was 43 at that time, self-employed for 25 years with a 5 year old daughter. This was when I started Chemo and my battle. The lymphoma was too aggressive for the chemo to be effective. The only chance I had was if a sibling was a match to give me a bone marrow transplant. Luckily, my brother from Alberta was a match, so I had the transplant in March 2000. Thankfully it took and I have been in remission since then. But, unfortunately, the necessary drugs were too hard on my body and resulted in renal failure with other side effects that are irreversible. I have been on renal dialysis for over 6 years now. Dialysis causes several other health issues.
So here I am today at 53 with a 15 year old daughter trying to support her and myself alone on my CPP disability. My overall health is not good – just grocery shopping alone is exhausting. I have had so many complications and have been hospitalized so many times that I wonder what keeps me going. God somehow is keeping me here so far for my daughter’s sake. Because of my health, I have been unable to work since 1998, which made it impossible to live in the middle class lifestyle we had. I ended up going bankrupt within the first year. I lost my house and was forced to move into low income housing. I had to move away from my home and family to be close to a hospital that performed dialysis. So now my daughter and I live in a crime ridden, noisy neighbourhood with no family near if we need them. I could no longer afford to maintain and insure my vehicle, so now I have no transportation of my own either. There are times we need to rely on food banks, and when my daughter needs glasses I get help from church groups. Dental care is a luxury we don’t have. All this because of Agent Orange. I did receive the $20,000.00 ex-gratia payment. I paid back money to those that had helped me over the past 10 years, replaced my ancient washer and dryer, took care of some old overdue bills, treated my daughter to some new clothes and a computer. Also, for a few months, instead of eating cheap foods, we ate what we wanted. I would like to have a kidney transplant, but my hematologist will only approve the procedure if it’s a kidney from my brother who was my marrow match. His marrow will not reject his kidney. Because of all the other health issues, my body could not tolerate the drugs that would be needed if I tried a kidney transplant from an anonymous donor. My brother is willing to give me a kidney, but he has three small kids and a hefty mortgage. I don’t want him to go three months minimum with no income and end up in the same financial mess I was in without being able to work. There is no funding available to help in this situation that I am aware of. So for now I am stuck on dialysis. My illnesses have all been confirmed and tests are conclusive for all that I list below: Non Hodgkins lymphoma – 3 separate rounds of chemo (chop) – bone marrow transplant Graft verses Host disease – bowel, liver, skin, and eyes Renal failure – renal dialysis Pericardial effusion caused heart attack , hole in heart and leaky heart valve Thyroidism COPD High and low blood pressure – depending on if it is a dialysis day or not Osteoporosis fractures in my spine High cholesterol Bursitis Psoriasis Vaginal atrophy Menopause since 1st round of chemo Allergic reactions to pain killers Shingles and chicken pox at the same time Infection in portocath Numerous biopsies and bone marrow test among too numerous to mention medical tests Septic shock (sepsis) in Nov 2006 – was living in Yarmouth , airlifted to Halifax and not expected to survive the trip There is a blood clot in my jugular vein I have had 2 fistulas – 1 in each are – both not working now I am on the last spot in my upper body for a dialysis catheter, all other vessels too damaged Angioplasty to open up the artery they are using for dialysis – there were 3 narrowings causing my neck and face to swell. In July of this year I was overdosed on heparin, causing internal bleeding. In November 2008, I was diagnosed with gastroparesis and small varices in the upper esophageaus. After seeing this in black and white, even I don’t know how I have beaten the odds so many times. I will give permission to anyone who would care to verify my medical history since this nightmare began. My life has been ruined and I have lost everything I worked for because of those deadly chemicals! Not only that, but my daughter, and even her daughter should she have one in the future, must very carefully consider the wisdom of having children because the risks from these chemicals are genetic. I worry everyday about how I can assure my daughter’s future and education if I lose my battle with these health issues. I know there is the class action suit, but I am afraid I won’t live long enough to see the outcome of that. There is all that money left from the compensation package and there are people like me who have suffered for years and been forced to live in poverty. The $20,000.00 was nice but it did now make up for one year’s wages. Agent Orange has so far ruined 10 years of my life. I have no chance of my situation improving under the present circumstances. If the eligibility dates for compensation are not going to change so widows like my mom qualify, then why are the funds not given to those of us in need who did meet the criteria of the ex-gratia payment? I have registered with The Merchant Law Group which is bringing forth a lawsuit on behalf of the victims of Agent Orange against the Government of Canada. The financial loss I feel agent Orange has cost me so far is as follows Lost salary since 1998 – 10 years x $30,000. $ 300,000. Loss of house 100,000. Medical and personal expenses due to illness 50,000. Lost salary to age 65 – 12 years x $30,000. 360,000. Compensation for pain and suffering 1, 290,000. Total Compensation for Settlement $2,100,000. I believe this amount to be a fair representation of what I am owed for the years I have spent, and will continue to spend, suffering from the effects of the irresponsible actions related to the spraying of Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals at Gagetown, New Brunswick. I look forward to hearing from you on this matter in the very near future. I am available to answer questions and provide further information if required. I hope you consider people in my position before you make a statement like "The victims are very happy with 20,000."
I have lost my Father & Sister to Lung Cancer & neither death meets the dates necessary to receive the ex-gratia.
You think 20,000 makes up for my losses? Bonny Nelson
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This is the most offensive and absurd answer ever given in the House of Commons. You, Mr Kerr, are so badly misinformed that you should not be allowed to even enter the House, let alone talk in there.
Your leaders. Harper, Thompson, et al, lied outright during an election campaign, and did nothing they said they would after they got elected. Your spouting of garbage penned by them does absolutely nothing for your credibility Mr Kerr, and my suggestion to you is to make sure you know the facts prior to making your next public statement. Otherwise, you will continue to only open your mouth to change feet.
Lorne Amos
Voter (who used to be PC and can't even spell it now you will notice !!)
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Mr Kerr.
Never believe for one moment that the victims of the Agent Orange Atrocity in Gagetown NB are anything but outraged at this Government's continuing cover-up and denial of the truth of this issue. Mr Harper has proven over and over that he is unable to keep his promises, nor will admit to his continuing duplicity.
In fact this entire Government has shown themselves to be morally bankrupt, ethically challenged, and completely deceitful.
To say that the recipients of your paltry compensation package, constricted as it is by abitrary deadlines, restrictive conditions, and inexplicable exclusions, are "very satisfied" is equivalent to spitting in their faces.
Shame on you.
Beverley Cadger (Widow of another Agent Orange victim)
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Dear Mr. Greg Kerr (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs, CPC),
While watching Question Period today I heard one of the most un-researched and poorly thought out answers to anyone question that I have heard in over 3 years, where Keith Martin when asked about the chemicals used in CFB Gagetown said that they had sprayed us soldiers for our own good. Martin was first elected in 1993 as a member of the Reform Party of Canada, before it joined the PC Party to become your party today, so I guess we now know where he and you both got your dumb ideas.
I fail to see how sending out completely inadequate checks to less then 2,000 Gagetown Victims when according to the BGAFFP there are over 440,000 possible Victims of the Gagetown Atrocity constitutes having taken care of the issue. One Half of one percent and then only $20,000 dollars which in many cases doesn't even cover the cost of required medication for more then one year.
When your party came to power because of the time that had passed since the PC had been in power and the fact that the Reform never had, your party enjoyed a grace period where we the Victims could place no blame on Ottawa and therefore believed that Ottawa would actually deal with the victims fairly and quickly. We were wrong, the grace period is gone, many soldiers have died and are gone and your party has the sole distinction of owning the Gagetown issue, lock stock and barrel.
VAC has decided to not do their jobs and have publically refused to follow the Veterans Act regardless of what Ottawa has to say. DND continues to send soldiers into 173 times (17,300 %) the CCME acceptable levels for dioxin, HCB has not been properly tested for and the spraying of questionable chemical defoliants goes on as if nothing happened.
What could possibly have made you think that the ex-grata package was something to be proud of? Hell Tony Merchant has more then double the victims that your party paid out in 9 Class actions through out Canada who are not happy and I fully expect that to double when that Greg Thompsons poor excuse for a Gagetown final solution runs out without even compensating the widows of soldiers who died for Ottawa's mistake.
But the one miscalculation that you have made is that many and I do mean many, of the ex-Black Watch who were all stationed in Gagetown during the killing years, live and vote in NS.
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret)
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Dear Mr. Kerr:
I listened to Mr. Peter Stoffer’s question re the Gagetown Agent Orange issue in the House today and your reply to it.I was somewhat shocked at your response.You did not answer his question and the words that came out of your mouth such as calling the spraying of deadly herbicides by DND for over 28 years “a terrible incident”, made my blood boil. Either you are uneducated about the magnitude of what happened at Gagetown or arrogant and/or don’t give a rat’s ass.
I am one of the “poor people who suffered from that terrible incident.”An incident is a one-time event. The spraying of deadly, toxic herbicides over Base Gagetown was continuous over many, many years, as were people’s exposure to these deadly herbicides. Your choice of such a word is a slap in the face to us.
My family moved to Oromocto in 1964 shortly after the Base was built and they’ve lived there ever since.I know many, many people in Oromocto and the surroundings areas and I can tell you for a fact that they are not at all “satisfied” with what you have done.In fact, they are very, very angry. Angry that PM Harper lied in Woodstock when he promised compensation to all exposed to all the herbicides sprayed over those 28 years and did not.He did not keep his promise.
Instead of keeping his word, your government made this an American issue when the Americans came to Gagetown and sprayed Agent Orange for a total of seven days in 1966 and 1967.By doing this, you limited the number of people exposed over a minute timeframe and to diseases relating to exposure to only one chemical, dioxin.
Harper did not keep his word and take responsibility for what DND sprayed, including Agent Orange, for eight years before the Americans ever arrived in Gagetown and for eight years after they left. Therefore, he didn’t include the longer list of diseases attributed to exposure to all of these chemicals (HCB’s) and compensate the 98% of people that these chemicals affected.
To add more insult to injury, by putting a political cut-off date of death, February 6, 2006, the date your government took office, you denied the majority of people who died from their exposure prior to this date.How heartless can a government and a group of human beings be?To say that the life of lost loved ones who died prior to that date is worth nothing and only those who died after your political cut-off date, is worth an insulting $20,000, is shameful and unconscionable.I don’t know how you can be so heartless, uncompassionate and smug.
I’d like to know who you had discussions with down here because you sure didn’t talk to me or the many others that I’ve spoken to in the Oromocto and outlying areas.In fact, Dr. Furlong’s Town Hall meetings were packed with angry people telling their stories of sickness and death, of working in the wet training area after it was sprayed, year after year during those 28 years and they were angry then.Obviously, by the conclusion of your studies and the compensation package that you came up with, it was a waste of our time and you didn’t hear a word we said.
No, Mr. Kerr, we are not happy with you or your government. If you would like to see how unhappy we are, I would be pleased to call upon hundreds of people in this community to come together and prove it to you.
Marilynn Kirchgessner
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Mr. Kerr; (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs)
With what authority and/or expertise do you present your outlandish statement in the House of Commons concerning the satisfied settlement of $20,000 to 2000 victims of defoliant chemical spraying at CFB Gagetown, when you and your party know full well there were over 350,000 military victims alone?
Stop patronizing yourself Mr. Kerr, you and your Conservative Party have failed miserably in dealing with this file and that is why there is a Class Action against the Government of Canada to ensure people like you, Mr. Harper and Mr. Thompson are held accountable for the deaths and illnesses of almost a million loyal Canadian citizens.
You and your party should hold your heads in absolute shame Mr. Kerr because none of you have the moral compass to do the right thing for the victims of the greatest mass poisoning campaign in Canadian history.
Paul G. Thompson Sgt (Ret)
Black Watch (RHR) of Canada
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Mr. Kerr:
Your reponse to Peter Stofffer's query in yesterday's Question Period was outrageous. I must in all honesty question how someone in your position can be so uninformed.
The Gagetown victims are not as you stated "very satsified" re the ex-gratia compensation package. The compensation package is restrictive in that it only deals with the years 1966 and 1967 and any person dying before the present Conservative Harper government took office is ineligible to apply.
I am curious as to how many of the victims you have spoken with and would request that you advise me as to how many of the recipients of the compensation package have actually told you that they are "very satisfied".
I further suggest that you need to educate yourself regarding this issue so please visit www.agentorangealert.com or you may call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx.
I would be more than pleased to take the time to try and educate you to the truth regarding this matter.
Mr. Peter Stoffer (Sackville—Eastern Shore, NDP): Mr. Speaker, from VIP for veteran's widows, from SISIP to Agent Orange to Allied Veterans and on and on, the Conservative government has deliberately misled veterans and their families. In 2005, the Prime Minister and the veterans affairs minister said to thousands of people in Gagetown that if a Conservative government is elected, they would look after everyone affected by spraying from 1958 to 1984. The Conservatives brought in a compensation package even worse than what the Liberals were going to do. Mr. Greg Kerr (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I am certainly glad the hon. member pointed out that we have moved on the issue of Agent Orange and all those poor people who suffered from that terrible incident. As a matter of fact, we settled with over 2,000 of those individuals at $20,000 a person. They are very satisfied with that. The more discussions we have with them, the more concerned they are about where the economy is going, the more concerned they are that the more concerned they are that the hon. member's leader is opposed to the very action plan that helps these very important plan. The hon. member knows full well we can never do enough for our veterans. That is what that action plan is all about.
It is obvious by Mr, Kerr’s response that he has either very little political experience or common sense or both. The response from Mr Kerr is unacceptable and insulting.
Either Mr. Kerr is lying or uninformed because the victims of the Gagetown defoliant spraying are NOT “very satisfied” as he stated.
I am urging everyone to contact Mr. Kerr’s office to advise him that we are NOT “very satisfied” nor are we going to tolerate his foolish comments.
His office can be reached at Kerr.G@parl.gc.ca or by calling (613) 995-5711 in Ottawa or (902) 742-6815 in Nova Scotia.
Liberal Party of Canada Should be Charged with crimes against humanityuld be charged w ith crimes against humanity should be charged with crimes against humanity _______________________
In our view: If conscience won't prompt action, maybe a movie will
The story has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster: poisonings; disease and death; international implications; government denials and cash payments.
The story of Agent Orange spraying at CFB Gagetown is, in fact, about to become a documentary movie, which will bring the saga to a wider audience and hopefully put added pressure on the federal government to take responsibility for its actions.
While the Agent Orange Association of Canada says more than 3.3 million litres of chemicals were sprayed on CFB Gagetown between 1956-84, the only federal government acknowledgment of responsibility is rather twisted.
Ottawa will only admit to allowing American military personnel to use the base to spray Agent Orange from 1966-67. The U.S. needed a place to test the chemical defoliant for future use in Vietnam's jungles while fighting there, and we kindly let them use our base for that purpose.
As a result of that limited acknowledgement, any payment for harm done has been to soldiers on the base, and people living within five kilometres of the base, during that time.
The payment issue has been a huge thorn in the side of the Stephen Harper government since it announced a one-time ex gratia payment of $20,000 for those affected, or their surviving primary caregiver. Yhat payment comes with no acknowledgement of responsibility and no apologies.
But wait. The Harper government promised, just before it was elected in early 2006, that it would "stand up for full and fair compensation to persons exposed to defoliant spraying during the period from 1956 to 1984," and it would "... disclose all information concerning the spraying to veterans and civilians."
That most definitely has not happened. In fact, the greatest insult in this whole drama, besides the refusal of the government to admit anything, is the niggling detail of date of death.
Feb. 6, 2006 is the determining day - the day on which the Harper government was sworn in. If you were affected by Agent Orange spraying during that window of 1966-67 and you died before that date, you lose. If you died on or after that date, your widow gets the paltry sum of $20,000 to compensate for all the pain and suffering, indignity and betrayal.
Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson says they had to start somewhere, so they picked that date. That is the sorriest example of arbitrary government decision-making in recent history, but it's more than that.
It is a further insult and punishment to an already ignored segment of the population that did nothing more than be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A massive letter writing campaign by the many widows affected has made many aware of the issue, but it has not changed the government's mind.
We can only hope this movie, which has hopes of being screened at the internationally acclaimed Toronto Film Festival, will change a few minds in cabinet. Sadly, if that happens, it probably won't be because it's the right thing to do. It will be the enormous international outrage that does it.
Still, we can hope our government will finally do what every kindergarten-age child is expected to do - take responsibility for their actions.
Fredericton new Brunswick Filmmakers to tackle Agent Orange scandal Published Monday March 9th, 2009 Movie | Shooting begins soon By SHAWN BERRY berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com A group of New York moviemakers will settle into the Fredericton region for the next few weeks to film what it calls "Canada's dirty secret" to a worldwide audience. Filmmakers Danny Feighery and Gregg de Domenico and two colleagues arrive in Fredericton today to work on their documentary about the lingering effects of the spraying of Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown. They will remain until the April 1 deadline for the federal government's $20,000 ex-gratia compensation payments passes. "It's such a bizarre story," said Feighery. "There's all these different qualifiers and rules and absurdities to it." "The whole story seems to be pretty absurd. There's never been anything so massive in western civilization for a government to poison their own people on this scale." He's personally invested in the story. His grandfather was a member of the provost corps at CFB Gagetown - the precursor to the military police - so his mother Sharon grew up on the base, ate blueberries that had grown on the base and played there. When his sister Theresa was born, she had spina bifida. It's a congenital defect of the spine, in which part of the spinal cord and the meninges are exposed through a gap in the backbone. The condition has been linked to exposure to Agent Orange and a whole host of other toxic chemicals that were sprayed on the base. It wasn't until a family reunion last year in Nova Scotia where relatives talked about Agent Orange that Feighery's family began drawing possible links to his sister's spina bifida and exposure to toxic defoliants. "No democracy has ever let half a million people be contaminated by a toxin and then never tell them about it and cover it up," he said. De Domenico said the story deserves a wider audience. "I'm curious about the story and I'd like to see somebody see this through to get some answers," he said. "I know, personally, I feel like - especially coming out of the Bush administration in the United States - we're all looking for some degree of accountability from our governments. "I know I personally feel like I want to see transparency and I want to see fairness. I want to know we're not being taken advantage of by corporate interests." They plan to delve into the involvement of chemical companies, the military and the government. "We want to go further, looking into the factfinder's mission, the results of the factfinder's mission, how that affected Veterans Affairs and the compensation packages. Then straight into the compensation packages ending April 1 and where does everyone go from there," de Domenico said. Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson has said the April 1 deadline isn't absolute and if a late application is received, it will be considered. Payments are also considered for primary caregivers of qualifying individuals who died on or after Feb. 6, 2006, the date the federal Conservative government took office. Thankfully, he said, many people in the region have taken up the challenge of doing the research. He just hopes to do them justice on the big screen. "We're very much doing our best to tell their story." "There's only so many times you can sit with them and hold their hands while they're crying, saying they feel left in the cold. I want to feel like we can get the word out and maybe bring some more attention to this." And for de Domenico and Feighery, who have long worked making commercials and feature films, it's a chance to put their craft to a higher use. "We want to get back to a place where filmmaking is about helping society and making a difference." "What we really need now is to talk to politicians who understand the story and are sympathetic.'' The film is tentatively titled Gagetown: Canada's Dirty Secret. They hope to have an 80- to 90-minute film ready by later this spring, the deadline for entering the Toronto Film Festival. Feighery and de Domenico have been keeping in touch with people involved with the movie through their website: www.gagetownmovie.com. With files from Daily Gleaner reporter Michael Staples
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March 9, 2009
From: Wayne Coady
Here is what I am doing to protest against the abusive actions of "government" . Since the Government of Canada has decided to ignore those of us who were involved in the Agent Orange program at C.F.B. Gagetown, I have contacted Election Canada and Elections Nova Scotia to request that my family be removed from the voters list.
In response to dozens of stories related to the dismissal of the court cases against US producers of the Rainbow chemicals by the US Court and Supreme Court, published over the last three days.
Dear Editor,
Again I must stress that the US courts in all cases had no choice but to dismiss the cases against the producers of war Products as the US law is written in such a way that no company can be held in any way liable for products manufactured in the USA for the US war efforts.
Judges can't change the laws they can only rule on given subjects using the laws that are in place and were in place at the time of the production of these chemicals.
The US and Canadian Governments on the other hand are quite another question. The chemicals were not only ordered but produced and delivered to the US military for use in Vietnam, in these countries. I know that the Geneva convention forbid the use of war chemicals but I wonder in the case of Canada just how legal is it for a country to produce war chemicals and sell it to another country when they know full well what use it will be put to?
Then again Canada and the US both seem to think that it isn't even illegal or immoral to kill your own soldiers or civilian population with these chemicals and have systematically ignored both the Blue Water Navy and CFB Gagetown Victims, so what chance does a foreign population have in claiming damage against countries who just don't give a dammed about how many lived they have destroyed.
We victims here in Canada are suing the Federal Government because it was the Federal Government who ordered which mixtures of chemicals they wanted, paid for these mixtures, ordered how much and where the spraying of these mixtures would take place and then ordered the soldiers to be in location where it was being sprayed or shortly after it was sprayed. We didn't feel that the Chemical industry had a hand in much if any of these decisions and we felt that if Ottawa wanted to sue the industry for reimbursement, that it should be on their nickel not ours.
Ottawa however as most now know claimed Dow and Pharmacia (formally Monsanto) as co-defendants, so we got stuck with them and their uncounted lawyers and resources any way.
All Rainbow Chemical or defoliant victims go after the people or organizations who ordered your destruction, the ones who with out any second thought to the consequences to our health, welfare or to future generations made the decisions which now can't be reversed.
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret) _______________________________
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has turned down American and Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange who wanted to pursue lawsuits against companies that made the toxic chemical defoliant used in the Vietnam War.
The justices offer no comment on their action Monday, rejecting appeals in three separate cases, in favor of Dow Chemical, Monsanto and other companies that made Agent Orange and other herbicides used by the military in Vietnam.
Agent Orange has been linked to cancer, diabetes and birth defects among Vietnamese soldiers and civilians and American veterans.
The American plaintiffs blame their cancer on exposure to Agent Orange during the military service in Vietnam. The Vietnamese said the U.S.' sustained program to prevent the enemy from using vegetation for cover and sustenance caused miscarriages, birth defects, breast cancer, ovarian tumors, lung cancer, Hodgkin's disease and prostate tumors.
All three cases had been dismissed by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.
The appeals court said that lawsuit brought by the Vietnamese plaintiffs could not go forward because Agent Orange was used to protect U.S. troops against ambush and not as a weapon of war against human populations.
The other two suits were filed by U.S. veterans who got sick too late to claim a piece of the $180 million settlement with makers of the chemical in 1984. In 2006, the Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 on whether those lawsuits could proceed.
The appeals court ultimately said no to both. In one case, the court said companies are shielded from lawsuits brought by U.S. military veterans or their relatives because the law protects government contractors in certain circumstances who provide defective products.
In the third suit, the appeals court ruled that the companies could transfer claims from state to federal courts.
The cases are Isaacson v. Dow Chemical Co., 08-460, Stephenson v. Dow Chemical Co., 08-461, and Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange v. Dow Chemical Co., 08-470.
This is a Widows on a Warpath update. Our group was approached last May by a film crew out of New York to help them developed a documentary on the issue of agent orange at CFB Gagetown. The issue we are fighting is to have the government of Canada eliminate the date Feb. 6, 2006 in order for us to receive the ex-gratia $20,000 onetime payment. The film crew is working on a documentary highlighting our widows.
You may visit their website (gagetownmovie.com) for information.
The government has stated that as of Jan. 12, 1,938 cheques have been issued amounting to approximately $39 million leaving $56.6 million of the $95.6 million allotted for the ex-gratia payment to victims.
Greg Thompson has stated that monies left over will go to general revenues. There shouldn't be any money left over. It should be spent on those who are suffering or have suffered including widows of the men who have died affected by chemical spraying.
We're asking that Feb. 6, 2006 and April 1, 2009 be re-adjusted so those deserving this payment receive what belongs to them. We ask for justice for our husbands who did not have the foresight to die when government felt they should, and to stop the Harper government from gaining $56.6 million that would not be in his current budget as excess money that he will only use as a slush fund to try to buy more votes.
CARLETTA MATHESON
Lakeville Corner
___________________________
March 1, 2009
Military/RCMP Veterans
Against Annuity
Benefit Reduction at age 65
To: Our Supporters
Cc: Mr Peter Stoffer, MP
Sackville-Eastern Shore
Mr. C.J. Wallace,
Publisher of Veterans Voice Info
February 28, 2009
Subject: Veterans Pension Justice – Bill C-201
Reference: Former Colonels, Generals and Veterans Associations Petition support list. (Attached)
Dear Supporters and Friends,
This afternoon, Mr. Peter Stoffer, MP has informed me that the debate for Bill C-201 has been scheduled for March 25, 2009, at 5.30 PM, Ottawa time, in the House of Commons. The vote will take place the following week or shortly after. The procedures can be viewed on Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC).
Once again supporters are requested to write/phone all Members’ of Parliament to seek their support of Bill C-201. Ask them to sign our Veterans Petition. Be aware that if Mr. Peter Stoffer’s, MP motion is defeated in the House of Commons, the Bill is withdrawn. Of course, the support of our Senior Officers continues to be crucial to our success!
Military/RCMP Personnel are a different Government provider. They must not be forgotten once they take off their uniform. They have gallantly served their Country Canada. In their Golden years they deserve to be treated fairly and justly. Give back to Veterans and their Families their Financial Dignity they have paid for in so many different ways.
During the past three (3) years my spouse has been unable to travel, she is fine now, therefore in mid March we are leaving towards Florida. I will be unable to answer e-mails effective March 20.
Veterans take this opportunity to acknowledge the Valliant efforts demonstrated by Mr. Peter Stoffer, MP and his Staff during the past four (4) years. Mr. Stoffer, MP is a strong advocate of Veterans, RCMP and Force Personnel issues. His efforts are second to none!
A Special Thank you to our Former Colonels and Generals who dare to support and speak on behalf of Veterans issue.
We take this opportunity to say thank you to all Veterans and Friends who have made numerous suggestions and have devoted their time towards this most important Veterans Pension issue. Please distribute far and wide.
Now that we have proof as to why we have been sick for years and why so many have died, none of us will be giving up the fight until Ottawa has admitted to what they did to their own soldiers and the civilians around Gagetown.
The only group of people who have given up on this issue but first let it be said that they gave up the moment that got elected to lead this country are the members of the Conservative Party of Canada.
It must also be noted that although $96 million dollars sounds like a lot, it isn't any more then MP voted themselves and have collected in expense account increases since this story broke.
As for Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson saying that the April 1 date isn't absolute, I have absolutely no faith in anything this person has to say. In my opinion he hasn't even been able to rein in the bureaucrats in his own department to follow the Canadian Veterans Act, so how does he expect any Veteran to listen to his babbling now.
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret) _____________________________
The Daily Gleaner Published Saturday Febriary 28, 2009
Agent Orange deadline looms, but woman vows not to quit
By MICHAEL STAPLES staples.michael@dailygleaner.com
Despite the odds, Bette Hudson says she will never give up her fight for Agent Orange compensation.
The Lincoln woman is a spokeswoman for Military Widows on a War Path. She and about 75 members want to be included in the $95.6-million compensation package announced by the federal government in the fall of 2007, but time is running out.
With an April 1 deadline, the group realizes its battle won't be easy.
Hudson said there's no reason why she and others should be left out since only about half of the money has been issued in the form of $20,000 ex gratia payments.
Figures released this week by Veterans Affairs Canada reveal that as of Monday, 3,119 applications had been received for the ex gratia payment. Of that figure, 2,075 applications have been approved, amounting to $41.5-million.
More than 800 individuals failed to meet the eligibility criteria.
"It makes me feel terrible," Hudson said about the money not being used. "Many people are deserving, but they have made so many restrictions that are almost impossible to meet."
The federal government announced the compensation package in 2007 for veterans and civilians affected by the U.S. military's spraying of Agent Orange at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in 1966-67.
To qualify, applicants must be diagnosed with specific medical conditions and must have worked or trained at CFB Gagetown, or lived in a community any part of which was within five kilometres of the base when the spraying occurred.
Payments are also considered for primary caregivers of qualifying individuals who died on or after Feb. 6, 2006 - the date the Tory government took office.
Hudson's husband Sgt. Ralph Hudson, an artillery officer, was at Gagetown from 1964-66. He died of lung cancer in 2004 at the age of 64 and didn't fall within the parameters identified by the Tory government.
"I feel that April 1 doesn't make any difference," Hudson said. "It is not going to stop me from continuing to fight this, because it is very unfair."
Barbara Gill of Fredericton, who has had her application turned down three times, is also pledging to continue the battle. She said she was at her grandfather's farm in Maugerville when the 1966 spraying occurred.
"Prove to me, government of Canada, that the foot-long tumour in my right leg was not associated with the spraying."
Agent Orange Alert activist Art Connolly of London, Ont., said too many people have been left out of the process.
"I was shocked to see that the cutoff date for applying for the compensation package is April 1," he said. "Someone in Ottawa must find that quite funny to use April Fool's Day. What message are they trying to send?"
Connolly, whose group wants a public inquiry, said the government thinks it's fooled everyone with the compensation package, but too many people are waiting for the truth and it will eventually come out.
Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson said the April 1 date isn't absolute and if a late application is received, it will be considered.
"If there are legitimate reasons or extenuating circumstances as to why they didn't apply within that deadline, all those considerations will be taken in - in terms of accommodating people," he said.
Thompson said the fact money will be left over tells him enough was set aside to ensure the job got done.
"I believe what we did was very fair and very generous," Thompson said. Leftover funds will go back into general revenues because they never belonged to Veterans Affairs, Thompson said.
For more information on eligibility criteria and how to apply, visit www.vac-acc.gc.ca or call 1-866-522-2122.
Agent Orange Veterans Affairs has given out less than half the promised $96M compensation
Rob Linke Telegraph-Journal
Published Thursday February 26th, 2009
OTTAWA - The federal government has approved $20,000 compensation payments to fewer than half the Agent Orange spraying victims it predicted would qualify, and is on course to spend less than half the $96 million it announced.
When Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson and Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced the payments in Fredericton in September 2007, the government estimated there would be 4,400 eligible recipients.
Paying them would cost $95.5 million, said the Veterans Affairs department.
Now, with just a month to go before the April 1 deadline to apply for payments, Veterans Affairs has approved 2,075 applicants whose payouts will total $41.5 million. That's about 43 per cent of the 2007 estimate.
Seeing the program roll out on a much smaller scale is "no surprise to me at all," said NDP veterans affairs critic Peter Stoffer. "They sounded like big numbers when they were announced but the restrictions they imposed were designed to ensure they never met those numbers.
"And now the proof is in the pudding."
Class-action lawyer Tony Merchant's Saskatchewan firm is pursuing lawsuits against the federal government over the spraying.
Merchant had predicted in an interview the day the compensation package was unveiled that the $20,000 payments would never total $96 million.
Wednesday, he accused the government of inflating the 2007 estimates "to make it look like they were addressing the problem in a meaningful way.
"The higher the figure, the better it looked."
Thompson countered Wednesday that "no consideration was ever given to trying to make it look bigger than it was."
"At the end, the number is going to be what it is and we all understood that." Veterans Affairs said the original estimate was based on census and military records for the Gagetown area in 1966 and 1967, when the defoliant Agent Orange was sprayed in tests conducted for the U.S. military.
Officials also weighed incidence rates for the diseases and conditions the government concedes Agent Orange can cause, based on research by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine.
The 12 conditions include several cancers, type 2 diabetes and spina bifida.
"Given the passage of time and missing information, I think we did the very best we could," said Thompson. "It was fair and it was generous and we did our best to calculate what it would be."
Thompson said he purposely went to cabinet to get approval for enough funding that he wouldn't have to return for more.
Spending less "was something we understood could happen," he said. "I never felt we would have to spend all the $96 million."
But critics say so few people applied because the $20,000 was such a low amount, and so few became eligible because the criteria were so restrictive.
Said Merchant, "If they've had cancers and other diseases from what the government did wrong, it is a pittance."
Some 3,100 people have applied.
Ken Dobbie, a founder and president of the Agent Orange Association of Canada, has been ill for 30 years, beginning with liver trouble, and disabled for 19.
He is often in and out of hospital.
The Kingston, Ont. man, who had a summer job clearing brush at Gagetown in 1966, applied for a $20,000 payment last February by sending his 645-page affidavit, part of the class-action lawsuit, to Veterans Affairs.
He got his cheque within days - far quicker than what he was told is the average turnaround.
"I was actually embarrassed it came so quickly for me when so many guys were turned down or had to wait much longer," said Dobbie. "It was like they were waiting for my application because I've been outspoken."
He maintains the payment package "was wholly unacceptable" given the decades of spraying of several herbicides at Gagetown, well beyond Agent Orange.
"They built the whole thing around seven days and 400 litres of spraying in 1966 and 1967," ignoring other herbicides sprayed from 1956 to 1984.
Merchant's lawsuits continue to win rulings in advance of a full trial. He said a judge has agreed 440,000 individuals could potentially belong to the affected class.
More than 4,000 clients have signed up with his firm.
Stoffer argued for an independent investigation of the spraying, while Liberal veterans affairs critic Judy Sgro pointed to the lawsuit as a sign the issue won't be resolved for years - and as a lesson for governments.
"Any time we expose our citizens to health hazards, we should be paying attention to all of them," she said.
Thompson said the package was something other governments over 40 years "failed to do, and some told us we couldn't do.
"I'm proud of what we have done."
__________________________
February 21, 2009
From: Kenneth Young
It seems that many newspapers and E-media new outlets have finally decided to let Canadians in on the Ottawa well kept secret that there is a $20,000 ex-gratia payment for adverse medical conditions arising from the 1966 & 67 spraying of toxic chemicals at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick one whole month before the deadline for filing runs out.
How nice it is of them to now finally let the people of Canada know that Ottawa not only allowed the Canadian and visiting soldiers to be sprayed with deadly toxic chemicals but invited in yet another countries military to try out their own deadly chemicals on Canadian soldiers also.
The facts or I should say the truth of the story doesn't seem to be important enough to report on here, as many news outlets continue to regurgitate Ottawa's, "it's not our fault, they were registered chemicals, we accept no responsibility or guilt and the problem is now done with," spoon feed malarkey.
They say things tend to improve with age but I am afraid that the news media isn't one of them. I guess the last Conservative government really did put them in their place, into the beds and arms of the Ottawa propaganda machine.
Feb 20, 2009 13:23 ET Agent Orange Ex Gratia Payment Applications-April 1, 2009, Deadline Approaching
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Feb. 20, 2009) - April 1, 2009, is the deadline to apply for the Government of Canada's $20,000 Agent Orange ex gratia payment. The one-time, tax-free payment is related to the testing of unregistered U.S. military herbicides, including Agent Orange, at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in 1966 and 1967.
You may qualify for the Agent Orange ex gratia payment if, between June 1 and September 30, 1966, or between June 1 and September 30, 1967, you:
- were posted to or training at CFB Gagetown
OR
- worked at CFB Gagetown
OR
- lived in a community any portion of which lay within 5 kilometres of CFB Gagetown
AND
- have an illness associated with exposure to Agent Orange, as determined by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine (2004 update).
For more information on eligibility criteria and how to apply, visit www.vac-acc.gc.ca or call 1-866-522-2122.
FOR BROADCAST USE:
April 1st, 2009, is the deadline to apply for the Government's twenty-thousand dollar Agent Orange ex gratia payment.
To be eligible, individuals must have been diagnosed with a condition associated with Agent Orange and must have lived or worked at or near CFB Gagetown when Agent Orange was tested in 1966 and 1967.
For more information on eligibility criteria and how to apply, visit www.vac-acc.gc.a or call 1-866-522-2122.
For more information, please contact Veterans Affairs Canada Janice Summerby Media Relations Advisor 613-992-7468
or
Office of the Minister of Veterans Affairs Richard Roik Director of Communications 613-996-4649
The public has spoken and it is clear there is overwhelming support in New Brunswick for a ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides and the provincial government must put such a ban in place before spring and the advent of the lawn-spraying.
______________________
February 17, 2009
Chris Arsenault, author of Blowback -A Canadian History of Agent Orange and the War at Home will be a guest on the Tom Young show February 18, 2008 at 2:30 PM Atlantic Time
After two years of research and writing, Blowback: A Canadian History of Agent Orange will finally be released by Fernwood press in March, 2009. Compiled though original interviews with Agent Orange survivors, archival research, freedom of information requests and buttressed by the broader historical literature on Canadian military policy and chemical defoliation,
Blowback is the first book dedicated to examining the history of Agent Orange at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, New Brunswick. You can find out more, with some early reviews at: http://www.fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/365
Also, there is a short video to accompany the book available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EaqwRtjVEM(it is similar to a piece Chris did awhile back for the national film board, but some minor adjustments have been made and it’s finally on youtube) Fernwood is a small independent press based in Nova Scotia and often has trouble getting large numbers of copies into major stores like Chapters. In terms of generating support for people affected by this tragedy-- and yes partially out of a desire for people to buy the book-- it would be excellent of we could turn this into a bestseller. A strong reception would undoubtedly build momentum for the cause of veterans, civilians and other poisoned people. Here is what folks can do to help 1) Call you local bookstore (or the chain in your area) and tell them you want to buy Blowback: A Canadian History of Agent Orange went it comes out and they should order copies. Tell them to order copies now. Talking to bookstores is by far the most helpful thing anyone can do at this point. This is super crucial, especially outside of Atlantic Canada. While printing will finish in February, the books will just sit in a warehouse in Winnipeg if stores don’t order them. Chapters may be a virtual monopoly, but if people want to buy a book and they make their voices know, the company will stock and promote it. 2) Participate in a launch. Chris Arsenault will be on the road promoting the book from mid-March (British Columbia) through April (Halifax is on April 17th, the rest are still eing booked).
Come to a launch in your community to discuss the issue. If there is not anything happening in your neck of the woods, organize something! Chris is happy to speak to groups between Nova Scotia and Southern Ontario and Western Europe through April and hope to do more events in the west through the summer and September. 3) Tell people you know Word of mouth and personal networks are the best ways to make connections. Through coffee meetings, facebook, websites, letters to the editor, or whatever, mention the book.
Of all these things, calling bookstores and having them stock Bllowback is, by far, the most important. People are far less likely to learn about the Gagetown tragedy if they don’t read the book
The village of Enniskillen, a sleepy cluster of a few dozen houses in New Brunswick’s QueensCounty, has never been invaded by a foreign power. But during the 1950s to 1970s, the village was ground zero for a different kind of offensive, this one launched by the American and Canadian military against its own people with the deadly dioxin Agent Orange. Between 1956 and 1984 the Canadian military and its private subcontractors sprayed more than 1 million litres of rainbow herbicides around New Brunswick. The American military was invited to test Agent Purple and other toxins on Canadian soil after the chemicals had been banned by the U.S. Congress.
This is the story of a war coming home; a story of the military and economic currents that allowed Agent Orange to blow through trees and into rivers in New Brunswick. More than anything, it’s a story of soldiers, civilians and local residents who blew back against the government and companies who poisoned them.
“Chris Arsenault’s tenacious reporting uncovers an important, and untold, chapter in Canada’s history. This book shows how Agent Orange and its toxic friends continue to poison people and ecosystems around the world —and frequently, in our own back yard. In telling this story, Arsenault has shown the diligence of a historian, the righteousness of a crusader, and best of all, the legwork of a private eye. It’s a humane and engaging combination.” — Graham F. Scott, Editor This Magazine
“Chris Arsenault is a crack young Canadian investigative journalist who in his very brief career has already broken several important stories. This book is an impeccably researched study of a little known tragedy about the use of Agent Orange of Vietnam infamy at the Canadian Forces Base at Gagetown, New Brunswick. This is investigative journalism at its best.” — Cy Gonick, publisher Canadian Dimension, Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Manitoba
“In Blowback Arsenault lifts the curtain on a shocking and shameful period in Canada’s history. Exploring the intersection of militarism, imperialism, and the subversion of democracy in favour of corporate interests, Blowback is also the story of ordinary people challenging elite interests, told in their own voices. A powerful example of the promise of investigative journalism, Blowback is a people’s story of resistance to a war machine both at home and abroad.” — Alex Khasnabish, Assistant Professor, MountSaint VincentUniversity
Contents
·Acknowledgements
·Chapter One: Bringing the War Home
·Chapter Two: Agent Orange in Canada
·Chapter Three: U.S. Spraying in Canada
·Chapter Four: How It All Comes Out
·Chapter Five: The Legal Front
·Postscript
·Timeline of Events
About the Author
Chris Arsenault holds the 2008/09 Phil Lind Fellowship at the University of British Columbia’s Dept of History. A former contributor to CBC Radio, the Halifax Chronicle Herald, and numerous other publications, Arsenault is currently Canadian correspondent for Inter Press Service, a United Nations affiliate based in New York. Arsenault has reported from Cuba, Colombia, Vietnam, northern Alberta and Chiapas, Mexico and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto, Queen’s University, York University, Laurentian, St. Fx. and the Universidad Anáhuac in Mexico City.
_________________________
February 13, 2009
Saskatchewan / Gagetown class Action delayed once more.
On January 30, 2009, Justice Zarzeczny' s handed down his written decision there by dismissing the applications to stay court proceedings in reference to the CFB Gagetown Toxic Chemical Defoliant, class action law suit proceedings in Saskatchewan, sought by Ottawa, Pharmacia and Dow. This would seem to have meant that the court dates would proceed on schedule for March 9-13 but alas not so.
Pharmacia served a notice of constitutional question respecting the class actions act of Saskatchewan, and the government is moving to cross-examine some of our affidavit deponents which without a doubt will be opposed by the Merchant law Group, leaving the court (justice Zarzeczny) little other choice then to choose alternative dates where there would be more time for the parties in questions to present their submissions and/ or arguments. The last week in April and first week in March were set aside to deal with this because it was the first date when all counsel and the court would be available.
Now I have never been one of the people who put all that much strength in the old wives tale that if you leave the scene of a crime that it indicates guilt but if a party, in this case the Government of Canada, Pharmacia and Dow, has nothing to hide, if they have done nothing wrong and if the soldiers from CFB Gagetown didn't die needlessly due to Political and the Chemical Industries' neglect and bungling of chemical formulas or the registration process, why are all defendants trying every trick in the book and some that will have to be added to it later, to prevent this case from ever coming to trial? Why is there a gag order on most of the evidence? And why are most of the news media staying away from this both National and International story as if it were the plague?
Seems to me if I were innocent that I would want to get it over with as soon and inexpensively as possible, yet here were are some 4 years with Class actions pending in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador and we the victims (Plaintiffs') still do not even have leave to file a class action law suit with respect to CFB Gagetown. There is little doubt that combined legal fees may be approaching if they haven't already surpassed the amounts paid out in the ex gratia so called compensation package.
But what is so bad, what secrete is so awfulthat none of the defendants wish it to be brought to trial, or brought to the eyes and ears of the Canadian public and dealt with once and for all, before all of the plaintive are dead? I sometimes wonder if there is not more to it then just the Rainbow Chemicals, some dark and dirty secret which the parties in question fear might be brought to light if this did go to trial.
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret) ________________________
Gagetown is a documentary film currently in production. The purpose of the film is to shine a light on the story of CFB Gagetown, the second largest military training facility in Canada. Located in New Brunswick, 80 miles from the Maine border, the base was sprayed with over 3,000,000 liters of Agent Orange, Agent Purple, and Agent White over a 28 year period from 1956 to 1984. These chemicals have caused sickness and death in thousands of people, but the Canadian government has systematically denied any responsibility for its actions, blaming the American military, and shamefully abandoned her veterans and citizens. This film will tell the personal story of the warriors who continue to fight today for justice and acceptance in the face of bureaucratic lies, deception, and denials.
____________________________
Thursday, February 05, 2009
NATIONAL POST (NATIONAL) LETTERS ( Page A15)
'Often in life, small gestures mean the most'
Lynn Jones, National Post
Re: 'A Very Popular Young Man,' Feb. 2.
This past November, my three brothers escorted our 85-year-old father to France and Belgium to attend Remembrance Day ceremonies. For five days they toured the battlefields at The Somme, Vimy, Ypres, Passchendaele, Dieppe and Normandy. They also visited memorials and cemeteries; it was a very emotional trip, especially for my dad who served in the Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. They returned home with heartwarming tales of the people in France and Belgium, who when they saw my dad proudly wearing a Canadian flag and a ribbon of medals over his heart, stopped and took a moment to thank him and all the other Canadians who fought so that they could be free. I will forever regret that I did not make that trip with them.
Yesterday, the body of Sapper Sean David Greenfield, a soldier killed in Afghanistan, arrived at CFB Trenton. I wanted to be on the Highway of Heroes -- the stretch of the 401 between Trenton and Toronto -- to honour and support the fallen soldier and his loved ones. My husband and I joined a quiet crowd on one of the overpasses in Port Hope and waited for the procession to reach our town. Before long we saw the flashing lights of the OPP escorts in the distance, and then the sad sight of a hearse trailed by several limousines filled with the devastated family members and Armed Forces dignitaries.
It was a quiet, sombre moment on the overpass, the only sound that of dozens of Canadian flags held high by grateful citizens, flapping in the cold wind. And just as it meant the world to me to hear that the French and Belgian people honoured my father, I wanted the family of this young man to know that we were there to pay tribute to their loved one. But were they aware of our presence? As the last limousine approached, a window rolled down and an arm waved in thanks.
Often in life it is the small gesture that means the most. On Cranberry Road no speeches were made, there was no fanfare and no one took charge. Only moments after the motorcade passed beneath, the supporters furled their flags, walked quietly to their cars and returned to the warmth and comfort of their homes and loved ones.
When I got home I called my dad. He made me promise to let him know the next time that a fallen soldier is to be honoured on the Highway of Heroes --he wants to be there.
Re- Pesticide opponents confident ban coming soon.
The Liberal government of New Brunswick says that it now knows that its citizens want a "full ban" on the use of cosmetic pesticides in residential areas, and the option of giving more power to municipal governments to make their own pesticide bylaws.
It will be worth noting if that same Liberal government will finally make a comment on the spraying of herbicides at CFB Gagetown.
So far this and the previous provincial government have been noticeably silent about the spraying of 1.3 million litres and 1 million kgs of dry deadly chemicals sprayed at CFB Gagetown from 1956 to 1984.
Of course the provincial politicians are going to say that since CFB Gagetown is on federal land any such provincial ban will not apply to the base. Perhaps the provincial politicians can reveal how much the New Brunswick taxpayers pay in health-care costs due to the sprayings at CFB Gagetown?
QUEBEC — Marie-Paule Spieser lost her best friend to a rare form of liver cancer in September of 2000. As an experienced nurse in her mid-40s, Ms. Spieser knew something had to be wrong.
From: Marilynn Kirchgessner http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/556331 Our resolution is to fight
Re: Agent Orange compensation This is a New Year's resolution to the federal government.
We, the military and civilian Widows on a Warpath group, did not stop our fight for compensation for our husbands who died due to the spraying of pesticides, including Agent Orange, at CFB Gagetown over the years when Dec. 31 rolled around. We have made a resolution to continue our fight to have the Conservative government change the cut-off date of Feb. 6, 2006.
They claim the government is only responsible for those brave men and women who died after the Conservatives took office. This is not a political fight. This is a compassionate fight for the faithful service and unknown dangers these men and women faced every day in the fields of CFB Gagetown.
FREDERICTON - The Liberal government set out to gauge what New Brunswickers think of local pesticide use, and according to government documents, the answer was clear...........
Of course you just know that since CFB Gagetown is federal land any pesticide/herbicide ban will not apply. -Art
________________
January 22, 2009
An Agent Orange Poem by: Paul L. Norton, USMC 68-69 Vietnam Combat Veteran The Agent I am the reminder. I am a herald of sorrow and anguish.. Pain and misery precede me on my appointed rounds. I collect on debts owed. I am the keeper of receipts. My list of diagnosis grows. I grow. I am the Agent. Through the years my disguises are many. The result is the same. I am irresistible, unstoppable, though once preventable, now terminal. Final. Look here to the dark angel of a generation misguided and mismanaged. I am the way to this inglorious and undeserved end. I have the last word. I am the Agent. I am the instrument of early demise ongoing. I am a corrupter of men's ideal and intentions. I am the Agent. Some will escape me. Not many. All will know of me. I know whom I have gotten and who yet remains. I have the last word. I am the Agent. I am dioxin. I am Agent Orange.
~In Memory of~ John L. Norton US Army 9/1941 to 3/2006 A.O. Victim
Yet another case of the Chemical Industry gone wild and the Farm Feed Industry listening to the Chemical Industries highly paid experts. There is no (zero) accountability placed on the Chemical Industry by Ottawa, as is well demonstrated at CFB Gagetown and the DND 's use of Agent Orange and White identical chemicals. I found out yesterday that there may be as many as 400 products for sale in Canada which may still contain 2,4,5-T a major and reported Dioxin contaminated culprit of Agent Orange.
Ottawa and the Chemical industry seem to want praise for the control intestinal parasites in the chickens but you can bet they will take no responsibility for the Arsenic poisoning. In my opinion you may even have a Chemical Industry sponsored company like, "Cantox Environmental", come in at Ottawa's request and to tell you that there is no medical problems in your area.
Likewise Gagetown Victims were supposed to thank their superiors for less forested areas to crawl through while ingesting, breathing and absorbing two of the most toxic substances known to man, (TCDD & HCB,) and now dying like flies.
But Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson says the New Veterans Charter represents 'sweeping changes.'
By Bea Vongdouangchanh
When Parliament returns, the House Veterans Affairs Committee should conduct a thorough review of the department to see how effective its programs are, says a disabled veteran who believes that the department is not living up to its mandate "to provide exemplary, client-centred services and benefits that respond to the needs of veterans." ....
One of the many problems with the Agent Orange compensation package is that the ex-gratia payment only covers exposure to Agent Orange sprayed by the Americans for four days in 1966 and three days in 1967.
It doesn't address the deadly chemicals including Agent Orange, Agent White and Agent Purple (which is more deadly than Agent Orange) that the Department of National Defence sprayed over Canadian Forces base Gagetown for 28 years from 1958-1984.........
One of the many problems with this compensation package is that the ex-gratia payment only covers exposure to Agent Orange sprayed by the Americans for four days in 1966 and three days in 1967.It does not address the deadly chemicals including Agent Orange, Agent White and Agent Purple (which is more deadly than Agent Orange) that DND sprayed over Gagetown for 28 years from 1958 – 1984.PM Harper promised in Woodstock just before he was elected to compensate all exposed to the spraying during those 28 years.He broke that promise.This is not an American issue.The most damage and harm to the people, both military and civilian, came from their exposure to what DND sprayed over Gagetown during 28 years.
What angers and hurts the majority of families who lost a loved one is DND’s stipulation that in order to qualify for this payment, they had to have died after February 6, 2006, the date the Harper government took office and had one of the diseases on their list.My brother did qualify as his disease was on their list but he had the misfortune of dying in February, 2003 at the age of 53 before Harper’s political cut-off date. Because of this, DND is telling us that his life is worth nothing yet had he after February 2006, it would have been worth $20,0000? How compassionate and just is this?It doesn’t even make sense.
Mr. Thompson stood up in the House of Commons when in Opposition and demanded at least five times that the Liberals call for a Public Inquiry. Now he closes the door on it? This is far from over. A class action lawsuit is underway that will do the job that Harper promised and didn’t and see that the families of all who have lost loved ones are compensated despite any political cut off death date imposed by DND.
Mairlynn Kirchgessner
__________________________
January 17, 2009
From: Kenneth Young CD
Again Mike Staples hits the nail on the head with this story but has anyone sat down and done the math?
Almost 2000 cheques already handed out to what we were by Ottawa, Greg Thompson and DND assured was a maximum of 4000 victims for the seven days of US Military spraying.Are we now after we were dictated to by Ottawa that only the direct handling and contact with these chemicals could be considered dangerous and that the rest of us were just bystanders, now expected to believe that over 2000 Canadian soldiers were involved with the direct handling of these chemicals for the 200 acres sprayed, resulted in causality rates as high as 50% (like Ottawa not counting the already dead) for anyone near Gagetown for those seven days?
Has anyone even tried to add the military and civilian deaths to the 2000 to get a more accurate picture and the true percentage of causalities from this stuff?
So Ottawa compensates 2000 out of a possible 430,000 victims and now I guess we are supposed to believe that this is all that can be done for the Victims. The Canadian Government was willing to spray chemicals with a 5 0% + the already dead - kill ratio on their own troupes and civilians in Gagetown but for only seven days and that the identical chemicals which DND under the orders of Ottawa sprayed for almost 29 years were in fact harmless to human health and as they told us back when it was being sprayed as safe as apple juice. The only thing missing here is "Many, many years ago, in a land far, far away" and " they lived happily ever after."
Times and Transcript - Moncton,New Brunswick,Canada
... in the fall of 2007 for veterans and civilians affected by the US military's spraying of Agent Orange at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown during the 1960s. ...
The following letter was sent to the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence
Published Friday January 16th, 2009
Dear Minister MacKay,
I am writing to request that in your capacity as Minister of National Defence that you initiate a public inquiry into the spraying of defoliants that occurred at CFB Gagetown N.B. from 1956 to 1984.
Riverview man not happy with findings of herbicide use at CFB Chatham
By Corinna Yates
MIRAMICHI - Richard Trevor's grew up in the lower end of Douglasfield about a mile and a half from Canadian Forces Base Chatham. Now living in Riverview he is not happy with the findings from the National Defence Department concerning herbicide use at CFB Chatham from 1959 to 1988.
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January 11, 2009
From: Len Aldis
Art,
Thanks for this email and good luck in the campaign. You have been in the struggle for justice many years, and you have to try all avenues. Hopefully this one will work out.
All best and a Very Happy New Year.
Len
Len Aldis. Secretary Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society
Press Release Public Inquiry request submitted to Defence Minister Agent Orange Alert (www.agentorangealert.com) activist Art Connolly has written to the Honourable Peter McKay Minister of National Defence requesting a public inquiry into the spraying of deadly defoliants at CFB Gagetown New Brunswick. Connolly of London Ontario says that “The request has been made directly to Mr. McKay due to the fact that the National Defence Act confers the power to call a public inquiry to the Minister of Defence. Since 2005 when the media released this story of defoliants being sprayed at CFB Gagetown various advocacy groups have asked the government for a public inquiry and have been ignored. It is now time to ask those individuals who have the authority to initiate an inquiry and gauge their response.” “It is my understanding that Peter McKay is well aware of the suffering that veterans have experienced because of their exposure to the spraying of over 1 million litres of liquid defoliants and 1 million kilograms of dry chemicals from 1956 to 1984. Some of those veterans affected are his own constituents. It is time for Mr. McKay to show what he can and will do for his constituents”. “The Conservative government has made a concentrated effort to minimize this tragedy and make it all go away.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised medical testing and compensation for “all victims” of defoliant spraying at Gagetown when he spoke during an election campaign rally in Woodstock N.B. prior to the 2006 federal election. That did not happen” Connolly said. Connolly also stated that “Most victims have lost faith in the politicians and believe that only a public inquiry will bring forth the truth and allow closure for victims and their survivors. It certainly explains why there are over 3000 people in a class action lawsuit against the government.” -30- 287 Words Please see attached letter to email CONTACT INFO: Art Connolly artconnolly@rogers.com
With 2009 upon us, it is an appropriate time to remind people that the deadline to submit an application for the CFB Gagetown Agent Orange ex-gratia payment will soon be here.
To qualify for the ex gratia payment, individuals must have an illness associated with exposure to contaminants in Agent Orange, as determined by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, and must have worked at, trained at, been posted to, or lived within five kilometres of CFB Gagetown, when Agent Orange was tested in 1966 and 1967 by the U.S. military.
Documents obtained via the Access to Information Act shows that the federal government is ignoring the 28 years of deadly defoliant spraying committed by the Department of National Defence at CFB Gagetown.
The irony of the April 1, 2009 deadline date has not gone unnoticed. It will be the meanest April fool's joke ever played by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson.
In total, as of August 1, 2008, there has been 2,524 applications received with 1,586 cheques issued. Close to 8,000 applications were distributed as of this date for the ex gratia payment.
For war veterans backed by BU study, symptoms all too real
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December 15, 2008
Posted by Eileen Beauchamp
The Night Before Christmas
T'was the night before Christmas, He lived all alone, In a one bedroom house, Made of plaster and stone. I had come down the chimney, With presents to give, And to see just who, In this home did live. I looked all about, A strange sight I did see, No tinsel, no presents, Not even a tree. No stocking by the mantle, Just boots filled with sand, On the wall hung pictures, Of far distant lands. With medals and badges, Awards of all kinds, A sober thought, Came through my mind. For this house was different, It was dark and dreary, I found the home of a soldier, Once I could see clearly. The soldier lay sleeping, Silent, alone, Curled up on the floor, In this one bedroom home. The face was so gentle, The room in such disorder, Not how I pictured, A Canadian soldier. Was this the hero, Of whom I'd just read?, Curled up on a poncho, The floor for a bed? I realized the families, That I saw this night, Owed their lives to these soldiers, Who were willing to fight. Soon round the world, The children would play, And grownups would celebrate, A bright Christmas Day. They all enjoyed freedom, Each month of the year, Because of the soldiers, Like the one lying here. I couldn't help wonder, How many lay alone, On a cold Christmas Eve, In a land far from home. The very thought brought A tear to my eye, I dropped to my knees, And started to cry. The soldier awakened, And I heard a rough voice, 'Santa, don't cry. This life is my choice. I fight for freedom, I don't ask for more, My life is my God, My country, my corps.' The soldier rolled over, And drifted to sleep, I couldn't control it, I continued to weep. I kept watch for hours, So silent and still, And we both shivered, From the cold night's chill. I didn't want to leave, On that cold, dark night, This guardian of honor, So willing to fight. Then the soldier rolled over, With a voice, soft and pure, Whispered, 'Carry on Santa, It's Christmas Day, all is secure.' One look at my watch, And I knew he was right, 'Merry Christmas my friend, And to all a good night.' This poem was written by a peace keeping soldier stationed overseas. The following is his request. I think it is reasonable. PLEASE. Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many People as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our Canadian service men and women for our being able to celebrate these Festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make People stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves. FOR US.
Please, do your small part to plant this small seed.
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December 01, 2008
From: David Palmer
Re: Coalition Government
If this proposed coalition government of which the NDP will be part of happens, lets see if they still have the same view of our situation that they have said they have in the past!
