As RCI reported earlier this week, relations between Ottawa and many of Canada’s veterans are deteriorating at a rapid rate.
Things appeared to get worse Thursday morning.
Canada’s leading journalist on most things military, CBC News’s Murray Brewster reported the federal government is now facing four proposed class-action law suits over a $165 million accounting error that left more than a quarter of a million soldiers shortchanged.
Brewster reports that the latest claim was filed this week by an Ottawa law firm and is similar to claims already filed in Toronto, Halifax and Kelowna, B.C.
The Liberal government has promised to pay the veterans back, beginning next year, but as RCI reported yesterday (see link above), trust between the government and veterans continues to erode.
Canadian Veterans Ombudsman Guy Parent said in Novermber many of the veterans short-changed by Ottawa are — or were — living on low incomes. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
That’s confirmed by former soldier Dennis Manuge, who initiated the first class-action claim in January, who told Brewster the number of cases is a sign of frustration felt by affected veterans.
“The trust level just isn’t there, and I think that’s regardless of the party in office,” says Manuge, who notes that the former Conservative government fought a class-action lawsuit stemming from a clawback of veteran’s disability payments.
Manuge, was injured in 2003, and won a six-year battle in 2013 to get money for veterans disabled in a conflict zone or at home. (CBC)
At least 170,000 veterans affected by the error have died since it was first discovered in 2002.
With files from CBC, CP
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