Transcript from The Larry Updike Show 

 May 24, 2005

Larry Updike: Well the Class Action lawsuit seeking up to $5.8 billion for war veterans goes to the Ontario Superior Court today, accusing the Federal Government of mismanaging the money of Canada 's mentally incapacitated war heroes. The head of the National Veterans Council is Cliff Chadderton and also with The War Amps as well, and he is with us here. Cliff, good morning to you.

HCC: Yes, good morning.

Larry: Maybe you could square this circle because we've talked about this before. That's a heck of a lot of money that you don't think is deserved and back in 1990 there was a law that eliminated the Federal Government's responsibility for paying it, then the Supreme Court upheld it, so why is the Ontario Superior Court hearing this at all today?

HCC:  Well it's just a loophole. The last time it was before the Federal Courts, they said that the veterans rights had not been infringed upon but the Judge did, as a throwaway, in my opinion, the Judge did say "However, maybe the Ontario Courts could look at it, and decide how much the Federal Government saved by not investing this money." That's all that this hearing is about today and, of course, the lawyers for the class action who've been real bulldogs in the thing, they say it would be as much as $5.8 billion because the claims would go back to 1917, but even the lawyers today for the class action frankly admit that if there is a judgment that says "OK, you're right it is $5.8 billion," the lawyers are saying that, however, they wouldn't be surprised if it came back to the Supreme Court of Canada. Certainly anybody who has followed it from the legal point of view agrees with that. The other thing is, why are we so interested? Well, there is $5.8 billion and we are pressing the Government everyday for more bed space for veterans, they probably are short something like 10,000 beds, and the money could be better spent. This way it would only go mostly to 52 nd degree cousins because most of the guys are dead. They say there are 1,000 still alive but I keep a pretty close, sort of, check on the figures of veterans and I would say if there was 400 or 500 would still be alive, fine and they would be well into their 80's or 90's.

Larry: Okay so then, just by way of background for the audience, the Federal Government managed the assets and benefits of veterans who came home from the two world wars and the Korean war who were unable to manage their affairs because of mental injury or illness and the class action suit goes to this and that instead of investing the veterans money, the Government deposited the cash into its general revenues but paid out only the principle to the veterans families, not the interest. That's the core of it, but what you're saying is that it is a bunch of potentially greedy relatives and that's just an opinion, relatives not veterans themselves who are really going after this money.

HCC: Absolutely. This is not a veterans issue, it's an issue where 52 nd degree cousins have had their eyes with dollar signs in them and they have fallen for this bill of goods that the class action lawyers are pushing and it would be a tragedy, travesty is a better word, if this ever went through, but mind you, regardless of all the legal pratfalls along the way, the Federal Government has said there never was a responsibility to pay any interest, they were doing these veterans a favour by looking after their money and there was no provision in any legislation that the Government could have paid interest anyway, so it's hindsight alright, but without any basis.

Larry: Okay, so why did they go to court in the first place if there was never any obligation on the part of the Federal Government to pay interest?

HCC: Well, like all these cases, Larry, it started off with one case and this guy by the name of Authorson said... well, he was lying kind of a vegetable in Parkwood Hospital in London, and then one of his relatives got looking at it and she got to a lawyer and she said "Hey, they've had my uncle's money all these years, they never paid any interest." The lawyer who took the case said "Oh, boy, this is a red hot class action case." So he began to spread it and send information out and whatnot but it still boils down to a case and in Authorson's, he had his money well looked after by the Federal Government and there was never any provision under which the Federal Government could have acted as a trust company and could have invested his money. You see the lawyers who are pushing it, they keep using the term veterans, they keep trying to create the idea that the Federal Government is somehow sticking it to the veterans, that's not true, if it were I think people know me well enough, they know what side of this argument I would be on.

Larry: Okay, I'm going to have to leave it there, Cliff. As always thank you for your comments, we appreciate them. Bye, bye. Cliff Chadderton of the National Council of Veteran Associations and The War Amps of Canada.