CFB Gagetown Class Actions in Jeopardy
 
Ottawa's and their (what I consider) questionable third partied Dow and Pharmacia's win in the New Brunswick class action courts against Spalding, blocking Gagetown victims from even launching a class action law suit in New Brunswick, has embolden them to try the same in Newfoundland, using pretty much the same arguments.
 
In most ways, Dow and Monsanto (Pharmacia) make the same argument about manageability and lack of commonality to each court.  If their appeal is allowed in Newfoundland and certification is dismissed in Saskatchewan, subject to appeals, class members would have to bring their own individual actions or not sue at all.

 

It is hard for me to personally understand how Ottawa and the chemical industry can claim in one court that they believe there should only be one court case and that being in New Brunswick and then they use all means to prevent that very same New Brunswick certification. I am also having trouble with Dow and Monsanto (Paramecia) even being in this case at all. We never sued them and even Ottawa has only brought them in as third parties concerning the 1966 and 67, US chemical use in Gagetown. Both Dow and Pharmacia have denied providing the agent orange that was used in 1966/67, so why are they allowed to argue the remaining 29 years and over 3 million pounds/liters and the Canadian use of toxic pesticides at Base Gagetown?

 

The problem lies in the detail, much of which is under a court order and can not be made public as of yet but basically it boils down to... If the Victims and general public don't start to make their voices and opinions heard, on how both the veterans and civilians are being done by in this case, if we continue to allow our Government to use our own unlimited amounts of Tax dollars to defeat us in court, if we continue to allow Ottawa to choose which and even if they will compensate people for their government mistakes and if we continue to be lead quietly like sheep to the slaughter, Canada is doomed to the dictatorship we ourselves vote in... and what's more, we will deserver it.

 
 
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret)

News in general is not getting out to Canadians.Why??? Because our FedGov is preventing it. Cdns do not even get info on Afganistan, thos they  are spending 10s of Billions of taxpayers dollars.. How can Cdn voters make an informed decision on what they feel about our mission there, when they get very little info.. How you say.. thru the TriLateral Commission ..they control the whole dang world.. how.. because their members...elected by themselves are the owners and CEOs of all the major corporations...Mr Harper , jackass that he is, is merely a puppet.. you and i are allowed to elect.. democrataclly , only to be comntrolled by a group , elected only amongst themselves.. why not check it out on line.. and have a chat with Rona Ambrose , a current MP and Minister .. she was formerly with the Tri Lateral....as a super brain i think... i dont know what we can do.. we yak , we scream.. they dont give a damn.. maybe we need to start excluding the PM etc from the National Remembrance Service.. protocol be damned.. nothing is written in stone...rong

A story about CFB Gagetown and how Ottawa and the chemical companies are trying to get it dismissed before it ever gets started, sighting among other things that there is little if any interest, is I am afraid being born out by the comments and responses so far.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/09/23/nl-agent-orange-923.html

Three days now and so far only 31 comments with the people who agreed at  68. Wile stories of polygamy, Hells Angles, and almost every other story are up in the thousands of comments, leaves even me totally disheartened and depressed. If we can not get along, if the military or veterans issue are different, if we came for different regiments and if we became ill in different years, who cares, but if we can't or won't stand up for ourselves and together, what in the heck makes you think for a minute that others in this country will for us.

Ottawa is depending on the fact that old veterans can't agree on the time of day let alone get organized enough to show a united front and any Veterans issue. Why can they get away with robbing our pension fund, why can the decrease veterans disability pensions under the "one time $250,000 dollar", why can they claw back your CPP when you reach 65 and why are all the other veterans issues on the back burner? Because we let them put them there. We still vote for the A-- holes who vote against veterans issues, we don't speak up and by the looks of the comments on this story, we don't even care.

If the victims of this Gagetown atrocity as well as too many other veterans issues to bother write here are too dammed self centered, too lazy, too fed up and too uncaring to even write a comment which is free to do so, well I can fully understand why the rest of Canada has said to hell with us and why Ottawa has taken the route that they have. All Ottawa has to do is stall a bit more and the problem will go away all on its own.

Stand up for yourselves or stop moaning, bitching and complaining how badly you were treated by Ottawa, DND and the VAC. That no body gives a dammed is the fault of each and every one of the, "let's just sit around and drink beer, bitch and wait and see what happens people," and they have no one to blame but themselves. They can also stop asking why no one gives a dammed and why no body does the right thing. What they can do is look in a mirror and point the finger at where a lot of the blame belongs.

PS: If you don't have your own computer use a friends, but bitch where and when it counts.


Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (ret)

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/09/23/nl-agent-orange-923.html

Dismiss Agent Orange lawsuit, N.L. court urged

September 23, 2009 | 8:30 PM AT

CBC News

The federal government and two chemical companies went to court Wednesday in a bid to stop a class-action lawsuit launched by people who claim they developed cancer after being exposed to Agent Orange at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick.

The suit, brought by more than 1,700 people from across the country as well as 35 from the province, was certified in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador trial division.

On Wednesday, lawyers representing federal Attorney General Rob Nicholson, Minister of National Defence Peter Mackay , the Dow Chemical Company and the Pharmacia Corp. were in a St. John's courtroom seeking to have the certification order overturned.

The plaintiffs say they have been diagnosed with cancers including leukemia, Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma because of their exposure to Agent Orange at Gagetown between 1956 and 2004.

"All the time I was at Gagetown was out in the field training — you're sleeping on the ground, you are eating your hard rations … you're eating with your hands, so basically your ingesting it," said retired soldier John Mallard, who is convinced his cancer stemmed from exposure to the herbicide at Gagetown."You're sleeping in it, you're burning bush to keep warm, so you're inhaling it."

Retired Brig.-Gen. Ed Ring, a Newfoundlander and another of the plaintiffs, was outraged by the bid to stop the suit.

"I am appalled that we have large organizations like the federal government and these chemical companies trying to deny us the opportunity to even have our case heard in court," he said.

The federal government and the companies maintain Agent Orange — a herbicide developed in the United States for use in the Vietnam war — was only one of 23 chemicals sprayed on the base, so there is no way to determine who was exposed to which chemical and for how long.

They also say there's not enough common ground among the ailments suffered by the plaintiffs to justify a class-action suit.

In September of 2007 the federal government announced a $96-million compensation package for people exposed to the herbicide at Gagetown —a $20,000 payout to anyone who qualified for it.

Members of the class-action suit refused to accept the settlement.

Hearings are scheduled to continue in St. John's Thursday.

 

Hope is still there Mike.. i dont think the Liberals now want an election..they have seen the Cdn voter reaction, and it points to a Conservative  majority win.. so they are rethinking their strategy.. keep our fingers crossed.. maybe Mr Stoffer can give us an update as to when the 3rd reading will take place.. once it passes that it goes to the Senate..BUT is clear of the House..so does not just get thrown out by an election.. its that passage of the 3rd reading thats so important to us all now..rong

The CRAP had three years to fix it, brother. Clearly, they have no intention of standing up for us, the new second class veterans of Canada.   

Now more bad news. If the Gov falls any Bills not passed, become fodder, as far as i know.. ahhhhh.. keep our fingers crossed..rong

Looks like Ipperwash, we did'nt have double bunks in Soest 1955/57.

Ernie.

Camp Ipperwash.

Ernie.

Looks like Camp Ipperwash, drill hall in background.

Ernie Wetzel