OTTAWA, ON, October 21, 2005 - Cliff Chadderton, Chairman of the National Council of Veteran Associations, today stated that the question of 14,100 former members of the Armed Forces being declared as "never to have served" was the result of a major screw up by the Government. The Veterans Affairs Department confused the intent of an Order in Council with the purpose of a Review Committee.

The timeline showed that as of January 1, 1945, the War Service Grants Act established a Review Committee to consider the nature of service and its relationship to a dishonourable discharge. No reference was made in the original documentation or subsequent amendments granting powers of declaring former members of the military as "deemed never to have been enlisted or enrolled in or appointed to or to have served with the Naval, Military or Air Forces of Canada during World War II."

The activities of this committee were to review dishonourable discharges to determine if such could be expunged and be replaced with an honourable discharge thus entitling the member to rehabilitation benefits.

An Order in Council dated August 14, 1945, and numbered PC 3264, dealt specifically with persons who were absent without leave or in a state of desertion (8,100 under National Resources Mobilization Act ie. conscripts, 6,000 under general service).

The effect of the Review Committee (1945) and PC 3264 were applied "in tandem."

This was done because the Review Committee was unable to contact a large number of veterans with dishonourable discharges. PC 3264 was therefore invoked and such persons were deemed not to have served.

This developed into a complicated process which seemed to have been solved to the satisfaction of the then Minister of Veterans Affairs by simply deeming persons who could not be contacted as never to have served. This was done under the authority of PC 3264 and later superseded in 1950 by an amendment to the National Defence Act.

Chadderton stated: "The activities of the committee of review were considered as draconian. When they were looking for a member who had been discharged for misconduct, and could not be found, his service record was expunged."

"It has been the feeling of NCVA for a number of years that the committee of review far exceeded its intent and purpose," he continued.

"We attempted to bring this to the attention of the late Gerald Merrithew in 1991 when he was Minister of Veterans Affairs. He stated simply that such persons were deemed not to have served and thus no action could be taken regarding any loss of benefits," Chadderton concluded.

Rescinding of the Order in Council would have no effect on the failure of the Government to provide rehabilitation benefits if it could be determined that the veteran could have been given an honourable discharge.