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CANADIAN ATOMIC VETERANS SAY GOVERNMENT IS

WITHHOLDING INFORMATION -- The veterans, who have

been fighting for 20 years for compensation for the illnesses

they maintain are linked to the tests, say they have faced

countless roadblocks in trying to obtain information.

For more about atomic veterans, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here... http://www.yourva
benefits.org/sessearch.php?q=atomic&op=and

Story here... http://www.canada.com/topics/news
/national/story.html?id=dbe433a1-d4a7-4045-9f8a-a52984f15390&k=17603

Story below:

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-------------------------

Atomic vets say Defence is withholding information

David Pugliese
CanWest News Service

Veterans exposed to radiation during atomic weapons tests during the Cold War say the Defence department is withholding information from them and keeping records secret that could help their case for financial compensation.

The veterans, who have been fighting for 20 years for compensation for the illnesses they maintain are linked to the tests, say they have faced countless roadblocks in trying to obtain information from the department.

One of the veterans, Jim Huntley, used the Access to Information law last year to request documents concerning the 1957 tests in Nevada and details regarding the health of Canadian soldiers who participated. But he was told the only record in existence in the department was a heavily censored list of names of military personnel who participated in the detonations, codenamed Operation Plumbbob.

However, CanWest News has determined that at the time of Huntley's request the department had in its possession at least three briefing notes regarding the participation of Canadian troops in the atomic tests.

Two of the reports were written last year for then defence minister Gordon O'Connor and one in 2005 for former Liberal minister Bill Graham.

At least one of the records noted that veterans were applying for health care services and disability pensions related to the atomic tests. The briefing note contained information on the health preparations for the soldiers in Operation Plumbbob, including the fact the men were asked for details on the levels of radiation they had been exposed to before being allowed to take part in the tests.

Staff in the department's access to information branch, the military's human resources section and the minister's office were aware of the records.

But the department contends the original access request was only for health information on the troops who took part in Operation Plumbbob. It argues the briefing notes in question do not fall into that category so there was no requirement to release them, according to an e-mail from the department.

Huntley, who is leading the fight for pensions for the soldiers' widows as well as for surviving veterans, said he is not surprised such records were held back.

"I believe the department has all the information we need," said Huntley of the Canadian Atomic Veterans Association. "They know exactly where all (the documents) are."

Among the records the veterans are trying to obtain are details about the badges they wore which showed how much radiation they were exposed to during the atomic blasts.

According to the May 2005 briefing note withheld from the veterans, shortly before the tests the military had also determined the levels of radiation each of the soldiers had been subjected to from other sources.

"Participants were asked for radiation doses they had been exposed to during the previous 12 months before accepting them in the test," the briefing note stated. "This indicates a sensible level of concern about possible radiation."

The note also specifically mentions Huntley's unit, the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada. In addition, it cites other records the Defence department declassified in 1985 but did not go into detail about those records. CanWest obtained the briefing note through a separate access request, not related to the veteran's case.

Earlier this summer the atomic veterans were promised a compensation package by then defence minister Gordon O'Connor but there has been no government action on that since. A spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay said the department is still studying a report on Canadian participation in the atomic tests.

Access to information specialist and Ottawa lawyer Michel Drapeau said it's clear the 2006-05 briefing notes should have been released to the veterans. "The spirit of the law is to give full disclosure, not for someone at the Defence department to be trying to play games with these people," said Drapeau, a former military officer and author of a legal textbook on the access law.

Drapeau, who in the past has handled legal cases for veterans, said the Defence department likely has large amounts of records on the atomic tests as militaries tend to document a great deal of information on many subjects.

Huntley's access request was forwarded to the department by a researcher for a Montreal-based documentary film company Productions de la ruelle.

The firm has produced a film on the atomic veterans and their quest to get help from the government.

Huntley and the researcher have been informed they can file a complaint with the information commissioner if they are not happy how the department handled the access request. Such complaints can take up to two years to be investigated and the information commissioner does not have the power to force the Defence department to release the records.

Huntley said he and other atomic veterans, including Donald Bernicky of Smiths Falls, Ont. had a meeting with O'Connor and Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier in February. The general and the minister, along with another 10 officers and bureaucrats in the room at the time, said they didn't have any information about the atomic tests and Canadian troops, according to Huntley.

By then, however, a 190-page report had already been delivered to O'Connor's office. It concluded that as many as 900 Canadian military personnel had been exposed to radiation during the detonations as well as during reactor accidents at the Chalk River, Ont., nuclear plant. CanWest obtained that report under the access law several months ago.

"I don't know how they could sit there and say to us that they knew nothing when they had a report on the whole matter," Huntley said.

George Clarke, who also took part in Plumbbob, said there is no reason for the department to withhold the records.

The department, he said, could be concerned about whether it might be legally held responsible for some of the illnesses the veterans have endured over the years.

"That could be why things are being kept under wraps," said Clarke of Victoria, BC. "The only way they'll spill the beans is if someone backs them into a corner in a court of law and they have to produce the records."

In the 1980s the U.S. declassified many of its documents regarding the Cold War atomic tests.

Huntley said during the February meeting, defence officials reassured the veterans their case would be dealt with. "We really believed in what Hillier said to us and what O'Connor said to us." Huntley explained. "We were all very high after that meeting. We phoned the widows. Everyone was feeling good."

"Now it's just disappointment."

-------------------------

Larry Scott  --

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