Spraying compensation rules 'ridiculous'
Published Friday January 30th, 2009
If documentation is in order, applications for compensation under the federal government's Agent Orange spray program can be processed within a month.
Janice Summerby, a media relations adviser with Veterans Affairs Canada, said that while individual cases may vary, if an application is complete with all supporting documentation, the average turnaround time is two weeks. If approved, another one to two weeks for payment is required.
Figures released earlier this months by Veterans Affairs revealed that 3,000 applications for the ex gratia payment of $20,000 had been received as of Jan. 12. Of those, 1,959 applications were approved, with 1,938 cheques issued to that date.
More than 800 people failed to meet the eligibility criteria.
Applicants must be diagnosed with one or more of the following medical conditions: chronic lymphocytic leukemia, soft tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, chloracne, respiratory cancer (of the lung/bronchus, larynx or trachea), prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, early onset transient peripheral neuropathy, porphyria cutanea tarda, Type 2 diabetes and spina bifida.
Individuals must also have worked or trained at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown or lived in a community any part of which was within five kilometres of the base when the U.S. military sprayed Agent Orange in 1966-67.
Monetary awards are also considered for primary caregivers of qualifying individuals who died on or after Feb. 6, 2006 - the date the Tory government originally took office.
Summerby said each application is adjudicated by a Veterans Affairs employee who's part of a team dedicated to the ex gratia program.
"They have a thorough knowledge of the eligibility criteria," she said.
Those denied have two levels of appeal open to them, Summerby said.
Earlier this week, a Fredericton woman and a Moncton man expressed their frustration over being denied compensation and vowed to continue to fight on.
"What I take issue with is that Veterans Affairs does not (apparently) allow diaries and affidavits," said Barbara Gill of Fredericton, who has been denied compensation three times but is trying again.
Gill said she was at her grandfather's farm in Maugerville when the 1966 spraying occurred.
"I had a lawyer make the final submission," Gill said. "I have not been told that residency is an issue. I was a minor staying with my grandparents at the time."
Not allowing diaries or affidavits to be part of an application is like saying to the applicant, "We don't trust you," Gill said.
"What a ridiculous premise. The argument of 'Where do we stop in terms of payments?' is not valid either. The cancer I had, for instance, is without question approved as one of the cancers allowed. I was there. Period."
The deadline for compensation applications is April 1.
Anyone seeking further information on the compensation program can visit the Veterans Affairs Canada website at www.vac-acc.gc.ca/clients/sub.cfm?source=services/pensions/orange or call 1-888-854-1803.
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To give you another example, a man living near Jemseg applied for compensation and after a long delay was recently rejected. He has Type 2 diabetes so qualified; however, they live just beyond the 5 km pre-requisite distance from the Base.
The irony is that this family was compensated by DND along with other farmers in the area back in 1964 for total crop damage on their farms due to the toxic spray drifting over their land, completely destroying their crops. They too were exposed to these deadly herbicides and weren't too far from the Base then when it came to compensation. Yet, they were denied now?
I do however have a question; we Canadians paid Dr. Furlong and his BGAFFP well over $800,000 dollard to list and record everyone who could have come into contact with toxic Chemicals at CFB Gagetown. They had no other duty then to document and record what took place and who was affected. So why do the ex gratia applicants have to prove what and where when the BGAFFP should have documented proof of?
We need more people like Michael Staples to speak up on this tragedy.
I still can't figure out why hundreds of past Canadian politicians didn't mention these facts as vote-getters to us for the last few decades. And why did they feel it was necessary to hire a company to say Agent Orange will only be harmful if you get dunked in it? Good thing that company, which is owned by a chemical company, was available and not out determining that uranium exposure is good for you, the Sydney Tar Ponds makes a good neighbour, etc.
That we're now in a situation where people living on different sides of the same contaminated street get treated differently makes sense, in light of the above.