Stoffer seeks review of veterans' files. Request follows minister's decision to award former soldier disability benefits
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Stoffer seeks review of veterans' files. Request follows minister's decision to award former soldier disability benefits
By GORDON DELANEY Valley Bureau Fri, Mar 25 - 4:54 AM
VVi 25 Mar 2011 db
Steven Dornan and wife Roseann say Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn intervened in their case and granted a partial pension and medical benefits for his cancer.
GORDON DELANEY / Valley Bureau) Veterans affairs critic Peter Stoffer wants a review of the files of veterans who have been turned down for disability benefits, in light of the Dornan decision.
"We would like now for the minister to look at all the files that were denied and review all of them," Stoffer said Thursday in an interview from Ottawa.
"I am pleased that the minister and his department has finally granted Steve Dornan of Nova Scotia a disability pension by overturning multiple denials by the Veterans Review and Appeal Board," said the Sackville-Eastern Shore MP.
Dornan, a 25-year veteran of the Canadian Forces, is battling cancer that doctors say resulted from exposure to depleted uranium dust while he served as a weapons inspector for the NATO multinational force in Bosnia in 1996. Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn granted him a partial pension and health benefits earlier this week. Dornan and his wife, Roseann, fought for nine years for a disability pension and health-care coverage.
"What this shows is that the minister himself does not have confidence in the (Veterans Review and Appeal Board's) decisions," said Stoffer. "It also means that the Department should undertake a review of all veterans' files who have been repeatedly denied disability benefits by" the board.
He called for the disbanding of the board. "Why do we have to have it? If an individual has medical evidence that has been peer-reviewed by other medical people, that should be suffice.
"I have always had a problem when you put political appointees in a quasi-judicial board like that who have no military, medical or RCMP experience and they adjudicate on behalf of people who have served our country."
The Dornan decision is rare, Stoffer said. "God love them for not giving up. I can't tell you enough how proud I am of the two of them," he said, referring to the couple. "We have had letter after letter from the minister saying he cannot interfere in a VRAB decision.
"At the end of the day, these are our heroes," Stoffer said, referring to members of the military. "They're the ones we ask to do some pretty horrific things.
"When they come back, we need to serve them and not put them through this bureaucratic washing machine that they have to go through, and then be adjudicated by people who have no idea what they went through."
Dornan also served in Afghanistan in 2002 while undergoing cancer treatment and is now being treated with drugs and chemotherapy. But doctors say the treatments will eventually stop working. When diagnosed, he was given 15 years to live.
The board, which acts as an adjudicator in such disputes, repeatedly denied his claim for a disability pension, even after the Federal Court, along with five doctors and two scientists, upheld it.
In a last-ditch effort, Dornan applied under paragraph 85 of the Pension Act to have his file sent directly to the minister of veterans affairs. The minister agreed last week to review his case. His lawyers believe he is the first veteran to succeed under that section.
Dornan's wife staged a four-week sit-in at the Wilmot, Annapolis County, office of West Nova Conservative MP Greg Kerr to draw attention to her husband's case. That ended Tuesday, with the minister's decision.
"We're tired. This has been a nine-year battle for us . . . but in the end, they did attribute my cancer to my service, and they are going to honour that commitment," Dornan, 45, said Wednesday. He advised other veterans not to give up their fight.