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CANADIAN GOVERNMENT TO REVIEW AGENT ORANGE
COMPENSATION
FOR GAGETOWN -- "Guys are getting older and
they're dying off faster.
We've got to get something for them."
Story here...
http://www.news1130.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n101333A
Story below:
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Federal government to review Agent Orange
compensation package for N.B. base
By: CHRIS MORRIS
OROMOCTO, N.B. (CP) - Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson says he
hopes to take a compensation package to federal cabinet this fall for
people who say they were harmed by defoliant spraying at Canadian Forces
Base Gagetown.
Thompson said he expects the proposed compensation to be around $20,000
per person, but cabinet ultimately will approve the amount.
The money could be handed out next year to people who say they are
suffering because of the chemical sprays applied liberally to the
sprawling training base in southern New Brunswick from the 1950s to the
1980s.
The spray programs included U.S. military tests of such powerful
defoliants as Agent Orange and Agent Purple in the 1960s. The sprays
were used along with a host of other agents to clear jungles during the
Vietnam War.
"I expect to take a proposal to cabinet very soon," Thompson said Friday
during a visit to Oromocto, near CFB Gagetown.
"We're on track for the fall."
Hundreds of people who worked on the base or lived near it when the
aerial sprays were used say their health was harmed by them.
Thompson said compensation will be limited to people who can prove they
are suffering from illnesses linked to exposure to toxins in the
chemical sprays.
He said the government will rely on research put together by the U.S.
Institute of Medicine, which has listed five conditions linked to Agent
Orange exposure, including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, a
type of leukemia and soft tissue sarcomas.
The institute has also identified several other diseases which may be
associated with dioxin exposure, including prostate cancer, diabetes and
spina bifida in the children of veterans.
"Most of it will hinge on existing medical information which has been
established by the U.S. Institute of Medicine, where most of the
research has been done on Agent Orange," Thompson said when asked about
the compensation process.
"That is where the consideration for compensation will have to fall, on
that body of medicine."
John Chisholm, a Gagetown veteran who is battling prostate cancer which
he believes was triggered by Agent Orange exposure, said the
compensation is somewhat disappointing.
But he said people are dying and will take what they can get.
"The sooner the better," said Chisholm, who lives in the Oromocto area.
"Guys are getting older and they're dying off faster. We've got to get
something for them."
In addition to the compensation process, a class action suit against the
federal government will be heard in Manitoba involving about 1,500
people who say they were harmed by the Gagetown spraying programs.
Lawyers working on the suit say they believe some of the people involved
are entitled to settlements of more than $1 million each.
Art Connolly of the Agent Orange Association, which is involved in the
suit, said the compensation being considered by Ottawa is just part of a
public relations exercise to get rid of the issue.
"It's hush money," Connolly said.
"A compensation package in the neighbourhood of $20,000 to $25,000 would
just about cover Greg Thompson's travel budget for three months."
The federal government began accepting applications for disability
pensions linked to Agent Orange in 1995, but only a few have been
granted.
A federal fact-finding mission is still investigating the Agent Orange
controversy at the base.
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Larry Scott
