A Real Canadian Conspiracy/Coverup (Agent Orange)

It was announced a last week that the Federal Government of Canada would compensate victims of agent Orange spraying on Base Gagetown in New Brunswick, Canada, $20000 each. Most of these victims are/were former Military personell who worked at the base during the spraying period and who were sprayed directly or were in the fields were it was sprayed.

Sounds good, doesn't it. Think again.

Although the Canadian Military sprayed toxic defoliants over the base and surrounding areas of the village of Gagetown for almost 28 years....

Between 1956-1984, the Canadian military sprayed 1,328,767 litres of chemical defoliants on 181,038 acres (an acre is slightly smaller than a football field) of Base Gagetown, including Agent Orange, Agent White and Agent Purple, according to a 1985 declassified briefing to the New Brunswick provincial government obtained by The Dominion through Canada's Access to Information Act.

source

the Government of Canada, in it's infinite wisdom, decided only to compensate for the spraying of Agent Orange done by the American Military for 7 days in total in 1966-67.

To add insult to injury in the purest way, the veterans have to prove that they suffer from illness's related to Agent Orange.

Now lets look at how the Americans handled the vets that were sprayed...

Years ago, in an act of compassionate politics, American legislators wisely concluded that ailing Vietnam vets could never conclusively prove a causal link between Agent Orange and an illnesses appearing decades later.

Instead, compensation was paid to more than 10,000 U.S. vets on the assumption that anyone who served in Vietnam was exposed to Agent Orange, and anyone suffering from diseases associated with the chemical had indeed been poisoned by it.

source

I don't know a lot about how the Americans dealt with this or how much the vets had to fight for this recognition, I am only beginning to research that, but I know that Dow Chemical settled a class action suit against them on behalf of the Vietnam Vets for $180 million dollars back in 1985. Nevermind I found this...

www.agent-orange-lawsuit.com...

It appears that the Vietnam Vets got the same shaft as our Canadian Vets are.

The Agent Orange class action lawsuit settlement only allowed payment to the members able to demonstrate “total disability” for each year between 1971-1995. By 1994, just 50,000 members of the 2.4 million exposed received money from the $180 million fund. Funds depleted, the Vietnam veterans unaware of the Agent Orange class action lawsuit settlement, as well as those people that had not yet developed Agent Orange related illnesses received nothing.

note this sentence...

Even though the Vietnam War ended decades ago, the illnesses associated to Agent Orange can take 20-30 years to develop.

and this....

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced in 2003 that the link to chronic lymphocytic leukemia to Agent Orange exposed Vietnam veterans is so strong that benefits would automatically be given to any new diagnoses of it. There are as many as 1,000 new patients for chronic lymphocytic leukemia alone expected amongst Vietnam veterans. Recently, the April 2003 study performed by Columbia University that sought to re-examine military records of the Vietnam War found that about 21 million gallons of herbicides were sprayed from 1961-1971, adding up to 1.84 million gallons.

But here in Canada....

The latest report on the use of Agent Orange and other herbicides at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick says there is almost no risk to human health from the contentious spray programs.

Cantox Environmental of Ontario, the company hired by the federal government to look into the Agent Orange controversy, said Thursday the vast majority of people who live and work near the sprawling base don't have to worry about long-term health effects from active ingredients in the herbicide sprays.

The company said potential, long-term health risks were identified only for individuals directly involved with applying some of the defoliants, or clearing treated brush soon after applications.

"The science right now is basically telling us there is a negligible risk, somewhat augmented for those who handled it, managed it and manipulated it in a direct way - but still minimal, if not immeasurable," said Dr. Dennis Furlong, head of Ottawa's fact-finding mission on the Gagetown spray programs.

So the findings in the States and in Canada seem to conflict each other.

cnews.canoe.ca...

When this story first came to light two years ago, the Liberal Defence Minister said that they would compensate all victims from Gagetown. To date only NINE CLAIMS have been approved for these people. A total of 41 claims have been accepted but 32 of them were Vietnam Vets.

Here's a little snippet about Cantox, the company hired by the Canadian Government to do the Gagetown study.

We protect client interests while helping our clients achieve milestones and bring products to market. Our clients benefit from successful outcomes, reduced time to market, and decreased costs. That is why so many clients return to Cantox when they have new challenges to overcome.

www.cantox.com...

They certainly did a bang up job of protecting there clients in this case.


[edit on 26-9-2007 by GAOTU789]
mod edit: to add space

[edit on Mon Feb 8 2010 by DontTreadOnMe]

UPDATE


Veteran's Win Court Battle With The Federal Government

The Manitoba Court of Appeal has ruled the case can proceed in Manitoba, even though the defoliants were sprayed at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick.

The court rejected an appeal by the federal government, saying many of those affected now live in different provinces, including Manitoba.

Veterans and civilians who lived on or near Gagetown are suing the government, claiming they were wrongly exposed to toxic spraying in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

The government has offered to compensate only people who were exposed to Agent Orange in 1966 and 1967.

Good.The past 2 governments of Canada have done nothing for these people after publicly stating that they would compensate them for it. I am sure that the Feds will appeal this to the Supreme Court of Canada and prolong these vets suffering. Some of these people are old men suffering from a myriad of disease's caused by this.

Why doesn't our Government just give these people their money. We are taxed to death, we have surpluses coming out the wazoo and we can't find the cash to pay our vet's. How can any one say that these guys care about our soldiers.

[edit on 24-10-2007 by GAOTU789]

Well the pay(off)ment's have started this week. Firts round of 20,000 dollar payment's hit the mail. And the Fed's are trying to make themselves sound like freakin' Santa Claus.

telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com...

Veterans Affairs met its goal of getting the first payments out by mid-October, a month after Thompson and Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced the compensation package at a news conference in Fredericton.

Thompson said he emphasized that Veterans Affairs will help people apply for the money "even if it means we have to drive to their home.

"We want them to know we're accessible."

www.edmontonsun.com...

My gut tells me that $20,000 is a modest figure," said Maj.-Gen. Lewis Mackenzie.

Edmontonian Anthony Ferguson spent six months as a peacekeeper in Vietnam and was exposed to high levels of Agent Orange.

The Canadian government recently compensated him with $38,000 for diabetes and 5% of his pension - or about $140 per month - for prostate cancer, conditions he developed as a result of his exposure to the toxic defoliant.

What is the difference!!!!! One of our vet's gets exposed in Vietnam, he get's $38,000 plus a little every month.

The vet's from Gagetown get sprayed by a FOREIGN country on OUR SOIL and they only get $20,000. Can anyone explain this logic? Anyone?

This is a travesty. Our current (and they aren't the only ones to blame) government is spitting on our vet's. This has to stop. They want our family member's to go to Afghanistan and fight yet they treat our former soldiers with absolute disdain. Oh and here is what they think of the current members of our Armed Forces, fighting and dying overseas right now.

Auditor General's Report October 2007

When surveyed by the Department, mental health services in places such as CFB Petawawa and CFB Gagetown—bases with large numbers of members returning from deployment in Afghanistan—said they were unable to extend member care to include family support because of resource shortages.

There aren't even enough Doctor's to properly treat diagnose and treat the returning soldier's

National Defence cannot assure that its military medical practitioners are all licensed, certified, or trained

Only 68% of Doctor's and and 75% of nurse's that responded to an AG survey provided up to date credentials.

The new Canadian Forces Health Information System is still under development

In 1999, the DOD recoginized a need to update their system's. They ordered in 2000 that all CF health info be stored on computer's. This job will be done in 2011. Could you imagine in the private sector, taking 11 years to finish updating your files? How long would you have your job?

While we recognize that military members are satisfied with their health care, National Defence was unable to demonstrate how it assured itself that it was providing its members with quality medical care. Because of a lack of information from which to monitor the delivery of health care, the Department was unable to provide assurance that it was meeting standards and expectations of practice that are indicators of quality health care.

Hug a soldier if you know one, they may need it. The thought of the Government playing this game with our soldiers just makes me angry. I have been told I am anti military for wanting to bring our troops home from Afghanistan. Far from it. I support the men and women that chose to serve our country and respect them immensely. They are doing a very tough job in some very adverse condition's.
What I don't support is our Government's playing with there lives and this is what they can expect when they return home or when they retire.

[edit on 2-11-2007 by GAOTU789]

It's terrible what we do to people to gain an understanding of something that is designed to do harm. Doesn't make sense to me. I have a good friend who builds race motors and turbos for a living and had to sell his company and stop working because 30 years ago he would have massive organ failure and multiple cancers because he was told to "just wipe that # up! It's not gonna hurt ya!" during Vietnam.

What is wrong with people?

Dow chemical and monsanto are indeed killing us with our food. This is an important subject that we need to all be aware of.

Thanks for all the good info.