Class Action by Disabled Soldiers

[Toedancer]

The Conservative government is forcing a group of disabled Canadian Forces veterans to proceed with their class action lawsuit involving disability pension clawbacks, despite a promise by Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor to resolve the issue.

Filed last March in Halifax, N.S., the class action lawsuit involves deductions from compensation awarded to injured members of the Canadian Forces. Unlike other NATO countries, the first payer for injured Canadian Forces soldiers is a privately-administered insurance plan called Service Income Security Insurance Plan (SISIP) and all active duty soldiers must enroll. Under this plan, 15 per cent is paid by the individual soldier with the government taking up the rest.

However, should an injured veteran be in receipt of a disability pension from the federal government, then that amount will be deducted from any long-term disability benefits that the SISIP may offer.

By contrast, members of the federal civil service, who operate on a similar insurance plan, are not subject to the same clawbacks should they suffer a work-related disability.

"We have been left on the field of battle," said former Corporal Dennis Manuge who initiated the class action lawsuit. "This is a matter of principle and fundamental right for myself, and for all my brothers and sisters who chose to serve this country."

On March 27, when questioned in the House of Commons on the class action law suit by Mr. Manuge's MP, NDP MP Peter Stoffer (Saskville-Eastern Shore, N.S.), Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor (Carleton-Mississippi Mills, Ont.) stated, "we will resolve the issue."

Yet, today all indications appear to be that the government is going to defend itself, forcing Mr. Manuge to proceed with an application to have his case certified as a class action lawsuit.

"The government said that they are going to deal with it, the problem is that they didn't say when they are going to deal with it," said Mr. Stoffer. "I think that what the general attitude of government is you delay, delay, delay and hopefully the people will just give up and go away."

"In my opinion, there is nothing stopping the government from going ahead and negotiating with the lawsuit at any point in the court action," said retired Canadian Air Force captain Sean Bruyea who is currently disabled as a result of his service during the 1990-91 Gulf War. "The government waited this long and I anticipate that they will try to put up an obstacle in the path of resolving this."

Other Canadian Forces veterans are concerned over what sort of message the government is sending out to those in uniform and to those who may be thinking of joining the forces.

"I think the government challenge is sending the wrong message out to the public especially now with what is happening in Afghanistan as well as trying to get people into the Forces," said Tom Hoppe the most highly-decorated post-Korean war veteran in Canada and president of the Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association. "As part of the social contract, soldiers have to know that they are going to be looked after and this kind of stuff shows that the government is not going to look after them."

snip

"These guys served their country, became injured, and the government always says, 'Support the troops,' " he said. "But what happens to that support when the uniform comes off? There, you get nothing but a blank stare."

Apart from providing adequate compensation for an estimated 6,000 disabled Canadian Forces veterans, Mr. Manuge also hopes that the class action lawsuit will help serve as a wake up call to the Canadian public as to how the government actually treats younger disabled veterans.

"Everytime I have explained this case to any lay person the response has been, 'I can't believe it–this is wrong,'" he said.

Others point to the importance of cases like this in maintaining the confidence of the Forces.

"You have to have some good morale to be doing what you are doing in Afghanistan meaning in the back of your mind you have to know that you are going to be looked after," said Mr. Hoppe. "Taking action sets a precedent and is one of the spokes in the wheel when all these very seriously injured guys start leaving the Forces in a short period of time."

The Department of National Defence refused to comment on the Manuge case saying it is now before the courts.

HillTimes

Love to know who is representing Manuge.

[Toedancer]

This has been allowed as a class action. I have not seen it on the newswires yet.

[Toedancer]

Update - The appeal in the Federal Court was lost yesterday. A decision will be made in the next couple of days whether to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Decision/English/pdf

[Toedancer]

Update - The proper resolution in this matter is to stay the action of Manuge until the
determination of the lawfulness or validity of the deductions has been made by the Federal Court
pursuant to a judicial review application

Appeal Hearing scheduled for January 1, 2010

I saw today the Gov is going to kick in a measley $100,00 to try and find homeless vets on the streets of Montreal as a pilot project  Well okay that's a start. But I think each and every city in every province needs at least $100,000 to find them. For Toronto I'd suggest putting Kathy Crowe in charge.

Meantime I can't help but remember what happened to Col. Stogran and then read the comments.
Yep covering asses.

[skdadl]

I'm reading along, Toe, but I have a lot to catch up with. Thanks for assembling this file for us -- it's important to keep it going.

[Croghan27]

crogh is personally familiar with many street people in Toronto and knows some in Ottawa and can attest to the veracity of the two quotes (from the Edmonton Metro News link). It is very much like they are ashamed of their service, time spent in federal gaols is easier to speak of for them then time in the military.  

While veterans and their families have "suffered in silence" in the past, Thompson said Canada is now a world leader in terms of the physical and mental health services it provide its member

and

Pearce said the man started using the shelter's services about two months ago, but has so far refused to talk about his past military service.

Even so they (those that I knew) are fearcely protective of the armed forces. I had the termidity to criticize some aspect of the forces once and was damn near mugged by a couple of people from a Sally Ann shelter who I did not even suspect may have a military background.

(hedge) It may be they were acting out of personal concerns - perhaps their experience was singular, I could not tell as beyond the emotional defence they were mun about their service.)

[Toedancer]

No update as of yet to the appeal hearing, but I just wanted to point out - this is how the CONS support the Troops! The results of Bill C-201 to restore the vets/officers clawback, see how they voted.  Cons Nay.  BOOOOO!
http://www.allwxfighters.ca/new.htm#bill  eta - altho it did pass.

I see in a letter to Harper, he pawned it off to McKay. Imagine the country's Minister of Defense DOES NOT SUPPORT THE TROOPS!

The Letter and Response

BOOOOO!

[skdadl]

Toe, Rosie DiManno actually wrote two good articles in the Star just this past weekend about disabled vets -- sorry, I'm distracted at the moment, but go to the Star site and search DiManno -- they should come up right next to each other, near or at the top. I thought the second one was quite powerful. I've been critical of DiManno before, but credit where credit is due.

[Toedancer]

An update from the Natty.

Supporting the troops @ home Not happening.

And yet nothing has been done. Having been ignored by both Liberal  and   Conservative prime ministers, Manuge is petitioning the Supreme  Court   to continue his class-action lawsuit against the federal  government   (the Crown is asking for a judicial review, instead). As  Manuge told   me, many of these veterans are totally disabled for  life, utterly   dependent on these payments to live with dignity. Some  lose thousands   of dollars a month to the SISIP clawback. Last year,  Manuge returned   his service medals to the Governor-General in  disgust. (Rideau Hall   says he can have them back at any time.)

[Toedancer]

A decision was suppose to be handed down this fall, but nothing as of yet.
Too bad Champ was not involved in this. Meantime it is part of Sean Bryuea's advocacy Now that he's gotten his apology and will get compensation, he can relax and maybe take up where Strogan left off. Or maybe Strogan can be re-instated. Nah, that's too optimistic.

No update at gob site since Fall of 2008

[Toedancer]

Update - Veterans' pension lawsuit OK'd by top court   

[Toedancer]

Dennis Manuge says government officials breached his privacy by unnecessarily going into his medical record hundreds of times, one year after Sean Bruyea settled a similar complaint.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/11/04/pol-veteran-privacy-breach.html

[Toedancer]

A Win on May Day! But will the feds appeal? We're talking millions here.


http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/ottawa-should-stop-clawing-back-disability-benefits-for-veterans-court-rules-149677295.html

Dennis Manuge wiped a tear from his eye upon hearing the decision, which dismissed the federal government's position as harsh, particularly for Canada's most gravely injured veterans.

"Today's ruling provides hope for Canada's disabled veterans," said Manuge, who led a five-year-old class-action lawsuit against the federal government.

"We saw them in court and we won."

[Toedancer]

New Lawsuit by Afghan veterans


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/afghanistan-veterans-sue-over-disability-payments/article4780971/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter


Among the soldiers suing the Attorney General of Canada is Major Mark Douglas Campbell, who lost both of his legs in a bomb attack in June, 2008, and Corporal Bradley Darren Quast, who was severely injured in a December, 2009, blast that killed four soldiers and a Canadian journalist.
Lawyer Don Sorochan says soldiers who go to war expect to be taken care of by the country they serve, and that is not happening.
The lawsuit says the new charter is a breach of the duty of care owed to injured soldiers, and it seeks damages as well as a declaration that the charter is discriminatory.
Earlier this month, Veterans Affairs ended a policy of clawing back benefit payments of disabled veterans after a Federal Court rejected the practice.

[Toedancer]

Veterans Affairs manager who probed massive privacy breach praised by superiors for minimizing impact on staff

Officials warned public would be unhappy with light punishments

http://www.canada.com/news/Veterans%2BAffairs%2Bmanager%2Bprobed%2Bmassive%2Bprivacy%2Bbreach%2Bpraised/7542726/story.html

Bruyea says such statements by the department are ridiculous. “Nothing has changed inside and unfortunately I can see this type of thing happening again to other veterans,” he said. -snip-
“Folks, it’s time to take the gloves off here ... it’s not that this person is spreading misinformation for his own purposes, it is that this must by now be creating grave doubts among soldiers who now need to know their government backs them ... snooze ya lose comes to mind let’s do something here,” Darragh Mogan, then an executive director at the department, wrote in early 2006 after Bruyea questioned veterans benefits.

Wow it looks like a total purge is needed within VA

And in other news (since this is about money) after Flaherty has brainwashed the entire nation with the Economic Action Plan commercials which play thousands of times a day, he's now telling Canadians the economy sucks and is gonna suck for awhile, because of global uncertainties.]http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1287215--walkom-jim-flaherty-misguided-on-economy-but-at-least-he-s-not-nutsI don't know about you, but I think some Canadians are gonna need some deprogramming before they will believe him, the economic action plan campaign was pretty intense   Does this mean they'll finally Stop and it'll be safe to turn the idiot box back on?