OTTAWA, ON, March 13, 2002 - Cliff Chadderton, Chairman of the National Council of Veteran Associations (NCVA), today renewed a request to the Minister of Veterans Affairs to set up an immediate review committee to deal with payment of interest on cases prior to the existing January 1, 1990 deadline, before which the Department would not pay interest on administered trust accounts for disabled veterans who were unable to handle their own affairs.

The Chairman of the 40-member National Council referred to an earlier request to the previous Minister, Ron Duhamel, suggesting the Department should not wait for a court decision.

In a letter sent to the new Veterans Affairs Minister, Rey Pagtakhan, Chadderton suggested that the matter may still be held up in appellate courts and stated, "It would appear to me that, without waiting for further examination of this matter by the courts, with the inevitable delay, it would be appropriate for your Department to establish a review committee."

That committee would be empowered to make payments going back to at least 1970 -- the first date upon which, according to today's judgement of the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Department identified the possibility that it was responsible for payment of interest on these trust accounts.

Chadderton, basing his comments on the Ontario Court of Appeal's judgement, accused Departmental officials of serious mismanagement and suggested that the failure of the Department to act was sufficient justification to commence an immediate review of cases.

The Supreme Court decision quoted the original trial judge as finding "from the 1970s onward, group after group of Federal bureaucrats looked at the 'problem' of non-payment of interest on the funds being administered for veterans by DVA."

Obviously, the Court of Appeal considered that because DVA took no action, the veteran had been deprived of interest on his own funds.

In fact, Chadderton stated, the 45-page judgement is laced with suggestions that the Department of Veterans Affairs was guilty of negligence with the result that the claims for past interest had merit.

The judgement contained further comment critical of the Department. For example, the judgement states: "while we do not know from the materials gathered to date just who the people were at these various meetings (at DVA), and while they certainly have not been subjected to cross-examination to test what they had to say, the repetition over and over by one bureaucrat after another and one study group after another (indicated) that there was a problem and there could be liability for it."

The comment suggested that the evidence "gives credence to the view that the senior levels of DVA must have felt there was a problem, and that there was a potential of liability arising from it."

The judgement quoted further correspondence between the Deputy Ministers of Veterans Affairs and Justice asking that the Privy Council be "invited to designate a senior official to participate in a working group directed to find an acceptable solution of the problem of the non-payment of interest." That correspondence was identified as taking place in 1986 and 1987, but no action was taken.

In a further condemnation of the lack of action by Veterans Affairs, the judgement referred to an "interior Departmental" document and stated "this document . . . is perhaps indicative of the state of mind within the various Government Departments at that time."

The judgement made reference to the 1986 Auditor General's report and stated "my reading of many pages of comments by one bureaucrat to another on 'the problem' leads me to feel that, for many of them, 'law' meant only Federal statutes and regulations. Indeed one of them, in a report, described 'equity' as 'mysterious."

Chadderton stated that he had no wish to condemn the Department, but it was impossible to ignore some of the statements in the judgement. In this regard, he noted from the judgement a further statement:

The Crown was well aware of those potential claims, both from its own studies and from the blunt reports of the Auditor General. 

"The Ontario Supreme Court findings indicate clearly that, for the past 30 years, the Department knew of the situation. It is our feeling now that, without waiting for any possible legal wrangles, the Minister should use his authority to review legitimate cases and authorize payments, where the Department should accept the responsibility for withholding action until the Ontario Supreme Court has apparently forced the issue," Chadderton concluded.

In a late development, Chadderton stated that his office had been receiving numerous complaints indicating that the public was aroused by the colossal $5 billion which might be going to distant relatives. The judgement indicated that there were only about 1,000 veterans still alive who could benefit.