Duration: 57 minutes, 30 seconds ($12.00)   • Order DVD
First Released: 1993 • Read Script (PDF)

News of the atrocities carried out under the direction of the Japanese government in the Second World War prompted The War Amps to argue a claim for compensation for former Hong Kong Prisoners of War before the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations in Geneva, beginning in 1987. Japan stonewalled the claim and the Human Rights Commission was reluctant to proceed without the support of the Canadian government.

Canada's Department of Justice stated that the Peace Treaty signed between Japan and Canada in 1952 extinguished the claim. However, The War Amps pointed out that international law states no government can waive the right of its citizens for claims under the Geneva Convention.

Canada's Hong Kong Veterans: The Compensation Story is hosted by Cliff Chadderton, Patron of the Hong Kong Veterans Association of Canada. It was Chadderton who started the claim, marshalling the strength of six Allied nations and the Human Rights Community in Geneva.

On December 11, 1998, the Canadian government granted compensation of $24,000 to each surviving Far East PoW or to their widow for the forced labour that the Canadian servicemen endured while prisoners of the Japanese during the Second World War.

In this documentary, we hear from: the late Roger Cyr, of the Royal Rifles of Quebec, who was subjected to daily atrocities as a PoW in Japan; the late Professor John Humphrey, former Director of the Human Rights division of the United Nations, who delivers a scathing denunciation on the failure of Canada to protect the Hong Kong Veterans; the late Dr. Gustave Gingras, one of Canada's most prominent physicians, who documented the disastrous medical after-effects on these young Canadians; and Brian Forbes, an Ottawa lawyer with an international reputation, who steered the case through the cumbersome machinery of the United Nations in Geneva.

Of the 1,300 survivors, approximately 350 were alive at the time of the compensation claim win, as well as 500 widows.

• Best Documentary (Feature Length) - 1994 Television Movie Awards (New Jersey)
• Silver Award - 1995 Worldfest-Charleston (South Carolina)
• Silver Award - 1994 Worldfest-Houston (Texas)