Agent Orange widows vow to keep fighting for federal compensation

OTTAWA — Margaret Hogan of Tracy, N.B., lost a brother to cancer and a father to a combination of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

Her elder son was born with a deformed testicle and her younger son with an ear infection and stomach problems.

Her niece had difficulty conceiving children and has gone into early menopause, and her aunt died of ovarian cancer.

Her relatives have suffered and died from a series of ailments, Hogan believes, because of toxic chemicals sprayed on Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick between 1956 and 1984.

"I have lost quite a few family members and I'm sure I will lose more," said Hogan, who has chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

Hogan, part of a group that calls itself Widows on a War Path, was in Ottawa Tuesday to testify at the standing committee on veterans affairs and to demand on apology from the federal government for spraying the chemicals, including Agent Orange. They are also pushing the government to conduct a comprehensive public inquiry.

Agent Orange is a toxic herbicide used mainly by American forces during the Vietnam War, but also was sprayed on Gagetown to clear brush as a part of a testing program. It has been linked to several health problems, including cancer, birth defects and mental and physical disabilities.

Two years ago, the federal government announced it would provide $20,000 ex-gratia payments to people who could prove they had an illness related to chemicals sprayed in Gagetown in 1966 and 1967. But the recipients had to be alive on Feb. 6, 2006 in order to qualify for the one-time payment.

Ex-gratia refers to a sum of money paid when there was no obligation or liability to pay it.

Widows such as Bette Hudson from Lincoln, N.B., say the payments aren't good enough, especially if their husbands who served at Gagetown died before 2006, as hers did.

The list of ailments is also not comprehensive, she told the committee, and the two-year time period doesn't take into account people affected by spraying at other times.

"We stood no chance of receiving this payment, because of a date," she said. "This is a broken promise."

The process of applying for the payment is long and arduous, Hudson said, and many people who deserve the money have been denied.

There is a mistaken belief that only military personnel were affected by the chemicals, Hogan said, but families like hers, who lived in nearby communities, such as Tracy, and occasionally worked on the base, also were exposed to the chemicals.

"We are sick and we are dying and we didn't ask to be a poisoned population," she testified.

Last week, Liberal deputy House leader Marlene Jennings introduced a motion that called on the Conservative government to launch an inquiry into the use of Agent Orange and other chemicals on Gagetown.

"Approximately 315,000 Canadian soldiers trained at CFB Gagetown during this period of time," said the Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal critic for national defence, in a news release. "Hundreds of thousands of civilians, who used this training area for recreation, may also have also been exposed to these chemicals."

Widows on a War Path also called for the resignation of Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson but committee member Greg Kerr, a Conservative Nova Scotia MP, said it was only fair to remember that Thompson took action on the issue, while past governments did not.

"We're pleased with how it went," said Hudson, after the committee meeting. "They listened to us and we're not going to stop."

The women who testified to the committee were followed by New York filmmaker Danny Feighery, who has been working on a documentary about toxic spraying on Gagetown for the past two years.