Cliff Chadderton, Chairman of the National Council of Veteran Associations (NCVA), sent a letter to Giuliano Zaccardelli, Commissioner of the RCMP, refuting a charge made in a letter from David Greenaway to the RCMP, that a request for information through Veterans Affairs Canada for the record of a war veteran in any way violated Canada's privacy laws. Chadderton asked only whether the information could be revealed, Veterans Affairs Canada replied that it could not.

Chadderton stated that he had requested the information after noting that the details of the institutionalization of a Mr. George Langen had been revealed by the veteran's son in a letter to the Prime Minister. Also, the information had been made public in an interview with Wendy Kirschner of TVO.

Chadderton pointed out in his letter that he was prompted to make the inquiry because it appeared that, from the information revealed in the letter to the Prime Minister, Veterans Affairs may have failed to provide full pension to the late Mr. George Langen.

The Service Bureau of The War Amps is in daily contact with pension adjudicators and Chadderton required the information in order to determine whether he could assist the veteran's son in obtaining pension on a posthumous basis.

Chadderton categorized the complaint from the Class Action lawyer as "absurd" in that the lawyers had posted lengthy details about the Langen case which were available on its web site.

Attachments:

• Letter From Mr. Roger Langen to Cliff Chadderton via e-mail 
• Letter to Mr. Giuliano Zaccardelli, Chief Commissioner Royal Canadian Mounted Police