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CANADIAN VETERANS EXPOSED TO RADIATION SCOFF AT

PROPOSED SETTLEMENT -- "We have families who have

grown up without fathers because of what happened."

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

Story here... http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/
story.html?id=f5717de2-6da5-44dd-b81c-78a3ee64c97f&k=91691

Story below: 

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Veterans exposed to radiation scoff at proposed settlement

David Pugliese
CanWest News Service

OTTAWA - Veterans exposed to radiation during atomic weapons tests as well as at accidents at Ontario's Chalk River nuclear plant in the 1950s will be each offered up to $24,000 in compensation by the Conservative government.

But the former soldiers say that paltry amount comes no where close to making amends for the medical problems they have faced over the decades.

The veterans, some now dealing with cancer and other ailments, have been fighting for more than 20 years to get the government to acknowledge they were exposed to radiation during atomic blasts and at two major accidents at Chalk River, Ont.

Privately, defence officials say the $20,000 to $24,000 lump sum payments are in line with the compensation offered to veterans exposed to mustard gas and other chemicals during tests in the Second World War as well as those who were exposed to Agent Orange at military bases in Canada.

The atomic veterans were told the government would announce the package on Sept. 15 but that was scrapped after Gordon O'Connor was shuffled out of the defence portfolio and replaced by Peter MacKay. No new date has been set for the announcement.

Jim Huntley of the Canadian Atomic Veterans Association says he has been told by government officials about the proposed payments but calls the compensation package unacceptable. "We have families who have grown up without fathers because of what happened," said Huntley, 68, of Balzac, Alta.

Huntley noted the U.S. government decided in the 1980s to recognize the plight of its veterans who took part in the tests. It grants a $75,000 payment to veterans who have come down with any of more than a dozen types of ailments, mainly cancers. If the veteran is deceased their spouse can apply for the payment.

The Canadian atomic veterans have been fighting for compensation since the 1980s and have been largely ignored by both Conservative and Liberal governments and the Defence Department, Huntley said.

The Ottawa Citizen reported in June the Defence Department had earlier commissioned a report which determined almost 900 Canadian military personnel were exposed to radiation from nuclear weapons tests as well as two serious reactor accidents in Chalk River during the 1950s.

The January 2007 report, produced for O'Connor, did not attempt to determine how many veterans became ill as a result of their exposure. But it did note the levels of protection the men used were at times questionable and some personnel were "exposed to radioactive contamination on the testing grounds where they had to live, sometimes for months at a time."

Donald Bernicky of Smiths Falls, Ont., who served with Huntley, has been trying unsuccessfully to get a disability pension because of back injuries he suffered during training in Canada as well as compensation for his participation during the nuclear tests in 1957. Bernicky, 74, now in a nursing home, has had skin cancer and recently suffered two strokes.

Jay Paxton, a spokesman for MacKay's office, said the government is fully committed to acknowledging the exceptional service of veterans.

"We value the report that was prepared on this important issue," he said. "At this time it is under analysis by the Department of National Defence."

Huntley said the Harper government's plan to give all the veterans the same payment doesn't make sense. Some, such as him and his comrades from the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, were quite near the atomic blasts in Nevada and lived at the test site for up to two months. Canadian radiation detection teams spent six months in Nevada. Others, mainly senior officers, watched the detonations from as far as 50 kilometres away.

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Larry Scott  --

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