The Agent Orange and Its Repercussions Thread

[Doreen]

Thanks for the info and quick response.  I have given him other information and it would make it so much easier if he would learn to use the computer.  He has one but doesn't use it.  I have printed off the info.  Thanks again. 

 

[Sandy Skipton]

http://www.legionmagazine.com/features/militarymatters/06-09.asp#2

Our stories are becoming known as media have begun to pick up information and present it to the public. The url above is for a report printed in the LegionMagazine this month and hopefully more veterans will now gain understanding as to why they might be ill. It also seems that doctors are becoming more aware as well.

I see all this as being SUPER positive because if my husband and his doctors had the understanding that is now being felt.... his life may have been extended and of better quality during the last few years.  I sure hope that some of the noise that I have made in the last 2 years will help others and perhaps prevent them from being ignored by DVA and medical services.

Even though I have positive feelings, for the first time in a long time, this black mark on history is far from being over. much more to come....

 

[Sandy Skipton]

The president of AOAC (AgentOrangeAssociation of Canada) announced the following on Sept 25th.

Justice J Scurfield of the Court of Queen's Bench Manitoba ruled that leave is granted for the plaintiff to proceed to a certification hearing in the civil action suit regarding defoliant spraying at CFB Gagetown.
   
The benefits of the Manitoba decision are:
   
1. Now there will be just one action for all of Canada which will speed up the process.
   
2. If the matter were to go to court in New Brunswick, the Representative Plaintiffs are at risk of paying costs while no costs can be ordered in Manitoba.
     
3. Manitoba has class action legislation and New Brunswick does not so the process can move more quickly in Manitoba.

 

[Sandy Skipton]

The below is a test video and sound clip arranged by Art Connolly, VP of the Agent Orange Association of Canada (AOAC), to place a face on some of the Victims of the Gagetown Atrocity. This is the first of many videos in the works.... We expect to have professionally produced advertisement clips completed in the new year and we know of about 3 documentaries that are under production to retain the history of this black mark on our Canadian and Military past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jCfwHAJTSA

Comments are welcomed... Thank you for watching

 

[3rd Horseman]

Thankyou armyvern for the clarification.

To date I believe about 950 claims, it would appear only a handful (11 rings a bell) have been granted  a pension. But I caution all on the meaning of that, since pensions are private we don't know that they were granted for, could be AO could be something else, we only know they were granted. It would be nice to see the DVA wording on the BG Sellers pension, it may not be for AO in Gagetown it could be for AO in Vietnam during the observer mission of the early 70s. Or it could be for something associated with AO in Gagetown. Possibly it is for something completely different but aggravated by field time in Gagetown....? I would suggest printing it, then if it is valid, let all the soldiers of the Black Watch get it because if a CO got it for I would suggest never being near a blade of grass in the area other than to have tea and a sherry while watching the troops exercise then they all should get it.

  What I do know for fact is that my local neighbours who worked on the spray program are sick, it would appear that illness is associated with long term exposure to the spraying. They worked as mixers and nozzle holders during the project for years. They deserve a close look and IMHO compensation, but the soldiers who drove by the area or walked through it that is a stretch. More of a stretch is those that spent a day visiting from away up on base proper not even in the field making a claim.
  Heres to a resolution of this issue and people who don't know the details calling myself and my friends creators of a cover up and lier's to hide the truth. Instead in time they may say thankyou for always telling the truth about the issue and not covering anything up...{sorry we were wrong} it woud be nice to hear one day.

I thought it was time to counter the one sided propaganda of the AOAC. Now with the latest results showing no issue for soldiers it only rings louder what has been said in the past. The highlighted area is for Miksam.

Edit typos

 

[Cloud Cover]

... Victims of the Gagetown Atrocity. ..

Interesting noun. As far as I can tell from the AOAC website, there were no intentional acts of cruelty against humans [an "atrocity"] involved in the spraying of any chemicals at CFB Gagetown. The use of the word is inflammatory and inaccurate and if you are using it to describe the actions of particular persons at DND then it is also defamatory .... so ... not here please.

Good luck and God bless with all the rest ...

W601

     

 

[francois]

Hi everyone
My name is Mimi and im doing this for my husband as he is unable to write or walk.He was exposed to Agent Orange in gagetown in 1963 and has left him
with many chronic diseases.
Recently the court in Manitoba has authorised a collectif to pursue a law suit
against the government.
If anyone can help in getting contact information about their lawyer or a
collective member i would greatly appreciate it.
I can be reached by e-mail at....francoisblais51@sympatico.ca
Any help would be greatly appreciated.Thank you all.

Awife in distress
Mimi

 

[Young KH]

The word Atrocity is not being used to describe anyone in the Military. It is however being used to describe the outcome of poorly thought out Government defoliation program that took place at CFB Gagetown.

There may not have been and intent on anybodies part when the spraying first took place but keeping it a secrete for 50 years after they did know of the affects and continuing to spray chemicals up to and including this year, was done with the knowledge that Canadian personal could be hurt by the use of this stuff, meeting your definition of “intentional acts of cruelty against humans “.

We understand that the Military was doing what they were told and were given false information about this stuff. We also know that it is not the Army’s place to inform the public but it is the responsibility of the Government of Canada to do so.

The Government of Canada didn’t have the right to contaminate as much as 315,000 soldiers and then deny that it ever took place and that Sir. is an ATROCITY and it is also a travesty as well as an affront on Democracy

 

[Young KH]

Hi everyone
My name is Mimi and im doing this for my husband as he is unable to write or walk.He was exposed to Agent Orange in gagetown in 1963 and has left him
with many chronic diseases.
Recently the court in Manitoba has authorised a collectif to pursue a law suit
against the government.
If anyone can help in getting contact information about their lawyer or a
collective member i would greatly appreciate it.
I can be reached by e-mail at....francoisblais51@sympatico.ca
Any help would be greatly appreciated.Thank you all.

Awife in distress
*****************************
Hello Mimi,



The law firm involved is at , email The Merchant Group at www.merchantlaw.com <http://www.merchantlaw.com/>  or call Tony Merchant or Casey Churko at 1-888-567-7777.



But you can also join using www.agentorangealert.com <http://www.agentorangealert.com/>  web site. The exact page is http://www.agentorangealert.com/classactionlawsuit.html



Ken Young.

Mimi

 

[GUNS]

This Agent Orange thing has been around for awhile, I believe it was brought to light in 1984( I stand to be corrected on that). As with many people on this site, I was in Gagetown when this spraying took place. Was I exposed to chemical spraying? Most likely. Will it eventually harm me? I don't know. I have read news items about former soldiers that claim their illness is the result of AO, who am I to say otherwise.
You may call me a "Cold War" soldier as back in those days there were no battles to fight or real peacekeeping missions that would occupy our time. We spent much of our time in the field training and as such were exposed to chemically treated soil. Does anyone remember the fog truck going through the PMQ's in the summer time and the children running in its wake, playing in the mist.
Horsemen said that there are people claiming to be ill from AO even though they may have only passed through the area briefly. I am not a Dr. so I can not comment on how much of this stuff you need to come in contact with to be affected by it.
God forbid I ever find myself in the position of having contracted one of the 11 known medical conditions which are known to be caused by AO. I would like to know that a policy is in place to look after me and my family.
If AOAC's intent is to bring this about for former and present day soldiers I have no problem with that. As for how they word their news releases, it isn't my concern, Freedom of Expression. I can chose to read it or ignore it.
I personally would not criticize any organization who's main purpose is to assist former soldiers to have a better way of life.
This is my opinion on this subject.

Just a footnote: it must be of interest to some people because there are close to 14,000 hits to the site.

 

[Cloud Cover]

For the record, nobody is criticizing what the AOAC are attempting to accomplish for the sick and the dying, the intentions are clearly honorable, but the fact remains that no "atrocity" was committed. The use of AO and the alleged "cover up" may well constitute a travesty several orders of magnitude beyond the pale of "tragic", but it is no 'atrocity" in the ordinary sense. Only the facts relating to the government response will confirm or deny that label.

If you wish to sustain the accuracy of your claim to an atrocity, then please point to some authoritative endorsement of such a claim in the present case, otherwise leave it alone.  The point is this - go ahead on your own web site and use all the words you wish to use - that is your choice, your right and at your own risk. I'm a busy guy, and when you come to this web site and say these things you bring risk to an innocent third party and that just makes work for me.  So I will ask one more time to please grant this request - just post your information and leave the rhetoric at the door.   

Best of luck, and say hi to Casey at Merchant for me.

Cheers

W601

 

[GUNS]

Interesting news item on today's CBC Newsworld.

England has agreed to provide a pension to a former British soldier that trained in Gagetown during the spray program. It is suggested that this move will open the gates for more British soldiers to seek a pension as a result of the Gagetown spraying.

This does not bode well for our own government who have ignored soldiers calls for compension as a result of having medical conditions associated with the Gagetown spray program.

Harper's and Thompson's pre-election promise to look after these soldiers if elected has totally been ignored. The present government has to immediately announce a plan to deal with this situation and not wait for the next election so they can use the sick and dying soldiers from the Gagetown spray program as a election ploy.

What excuse will the ineffective VA Minister come up with now? It took England less than a year to offer a pension and it has been twenty-three years(1984) since the spray program can to light and only one soldier(Brig. Gen. Seller) was given a pension.

Shame,shame

 

[Sandy Skipton]

CBC "The Current" will be covering the story of 'Canada and its connection to AgentOrange' on Monday April 30.

The guests are expected to be:
Tom Boivin who is with the Hatfield Group who were involved with cleanup efforts in Vietnam, Keith Pilmoor the UK Veteran who recently received a UK VA pension for exposure at Gagetown,
Art Connolly who is the Vice-President of AOAC (AgentOrange Association of Canada.

"The Current" can be heard at your convenience since they store their program online
Broadcast time:  Weekdays at 8:30 a.m. (9:00 NT) on CBC Radio One
http://www.cbc.ca/listen/index.html
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/

 

[GUNS]

I never noticed a Representative from VA as being in on the interview. Would be nice to hear their side of the story.

We will only hear one side of this Agent Orange issue.

 

[Young KH]

The VAC were contacted by CBC and somewhat like the past two years have decided to remain closed mouthed on this subject. I believe (and I am paraphrasing here from someone else’s second hand knowledge) The VAC stated that “this topic was too political for them to participate”.

But in my opinion I find it kind of strange that the VAC finds Veterans and their pensions too political to comment on.

 

[GUNS]

" to political for them to participate"- sounds like VA know they have a very serious issue here and have not formed a plan to address it.

As someone who served in Gagetown, it would be nice to know that in the event I develop a medical condition as a result of the Gagetown spraying. VA will have a policy in place to look after me and others that find themselves in the same situation.

The term, " forgotten veterans" comes to mind

 

[GUNS]

Read an article recently about the British soldier that received a pension due to being in Canada during the spraying of Agent Orange.
The British Legion are supporting  21 veterans that have a medical condition that can be attributed to Agent Orange and being in Canada.
One section of the article mentioned that the British Service Personnel and  Veterans Agency, the equivalent to our Veteran Affairs, has a 53 working day policy in processing claims. I am curious to know what the average processing time is for our Veteran Affairs.

 

[Sandy Skipton]

A person may get a response within a reasonable time but the whole process can take up to several years... (example, response might be that more information is required or a specialist must be seen to submit further information and it can take months to arrange an appointment for this) I have no idea what the timeline should be for any claim since I can not find any information that DVA has shared with the public on that type of statistic. I expect that if everything goes smooth, and DVA is not working on backlogs, some claims could be completed within the same timeframe as UK say they do... If Canada Post is also moving things along smoothy....

I personnally know of 4 claims
2 have taken about 3 years and are still within the system
1 has taken about 5 years and has just been approved for pension
1 took about 3 months and was approved for pension

Veterans Affairs :  2005-2006 Performance Report

http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/dpr-rmr/0506/VAC-ACC/VAC-ACC_e.pdf

a couple of quotes from the report:

To assist with management of the pension backlog and to facilitate processing
of the high volume of incoming applications, a number of streamlining
initiatives were introduced. In spite of the higher than projected work intake
and the significant reduction in production time, due to pension staff
involvement and training in the new programs and the Table of Disabilities,
staff processed 25% more pension applications than anticipated (approximately
35,000 pension applications were processed in 2005-2006) and reduced the
pension backlog by 18% resulting in a national pending of 12,137 applications
as of April 1, 2006. The most notable reduction was in Head Office Pension
Adjudication where pendings reduced from 4,701 on April 1, 2005 to 2,139 on
April 2, 2006 (55% reduction in pendings during 2005-2006).

For the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, 90% of 4,870 Reviews were
finalized within 31 calendar days, and 90% of 1,532 Appeals were finalized
within 29.1 calendar days. The Board’s service standard is to provide a written
decision within 30 days from the hearing date. A total of 388 claims were not
finalized within 60 days. Of this number, 79 written communications were
sent to appellants to advise them that the decision would be delayed.
Decisions on 117 cases were issued shortly after the 60-day time frame.

 

[Sandy Skipton]

AOAC (Agent Orange Association of Canada) have released their May NewsLetter to the internet and it can be found at
http://www.agentorangealert.com/images/May07NewsFinal.pdf

This edition includes a story concerning the UK Veterans affairs awarding a 'war pension' to Keith Pilmoor, a British soldier, for health problems due to the spraying of chemicals at CFB Gagetown

 

[formerarmybrat23]

http://www.canadaeast.com/ce2/docroot/article.php?articleID=11823
Pressure building to compensate spraying victims
By CHRIS MORRIS
The Canadian Press
Published Thursday June 14th, 2007
Appeared on page A3

Pressure is building on the federal Conservatives to make good on a promise to compensate people who say they were harmed by defoliant sprays at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown.

Federal Liberal Albina Guarnieri said Wednesday that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his government are deliberately stalling on a commitment to compensate those affected by the testing of defoliants such as Agent Orange and Agent Purple in the 1960s.

Guarnieri, the party's veterans affairs critic, has raised the issue in the House of Commons, pointing out that both Harper and Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson pledged speedy cash settlements in the controversy surrounding the testing of combat defoliants, as well as other powerful herbicides used at the base over the years.

She said it appears the federal Conservatives are renegging on yet another promise they made in Atlantic Canada during the last election, referring to the fight over the Atlantic Accord and equalization.

"They raised expectations with a promise they have failed to fulfil," she said in an interview. "It's shameful."

The federal government hasn't explained why it is taking so long to produce an Agent Orange compensation package.

Thompson said he'll get the job done and he has talked about compensation of $20,000 to $24,000 per individual claimant.

But his original prediction of an announcement by early 2007 has passed and he isn't saying when a package will be presented.

"This file has been around for 40 years," Thompson said in Parliament in response to a question this week from Guarnieri.

"The Liberals fell asleep on it. We will get it done."

Guarnieri said it's suspicious that Thompson has been unable to keep a deadline on the issue.

"The question is whether Thompson has really failed to deliver a plan or whether the prime minister has rejected that plan," she said.

Over several days in 1966 and 1967, the U.S. military carried out tests at Gagetown of a number of defoliating agents, including Agents Orange, White and Purple.

The chemicals were widely applied during the Vietnam War to clear jungles and have since been linked to a number of human health problems, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia, soft-tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and chloracne.

U.S. studies also suggest that exposure to the chemical defoliants could be related to a number of forms of cancers as well as diabetes.