Battles best not fought

Greg Weston points out that after promising to end the Libs' record of delaying any compensation for past military exposure to Agent Orange, the Cons have instead followed the existing pattern of neglect:

After more than 40 years of government lying and coverups, most of the sad parade of witnesses who gathered in the Commons hearing room last year simply could not believe the Liberal scheme was anything more than another stalling tactic, another attempt to avoid compensating victims until they are all dead.

One of the more vocal skeptics in the room was Conservative MP Greg Thompson from New Brunswick, now the minister of veterans affairs responsible for the Agent Orange file.

“I am absolutely convinced (the study) is nothing more than a public relations exercise for the Government of Canada,” he said last year while still in his opposition days. “There will never be compensation.”

Two months after that, in the midst of the last federal election, Stephen Harper promised to do better, vowing his Conservative government would “stand up for full compensation for persons exposed to defoliant spraying from 1956 to 1984.”

But first there would be more studies.

Indeed, it has now been almost a year since Harper made his promise, and nothing much has changed but the party in power, and the death toll of Gagetown grads...

New Zealand joins the U.S. and Australia as governments that have finally come to their senses and taken the only responsible and humane decision to help the victims of this horrible health tragedy.

All three countries realized they could go on forever studying the effects of Agent Orange, and forcing sick vets and their families to try to prove the impossible — namely, that their medical condition today was caused by chemical spraying 40 years ago.

Instead, they recognized a tragedy and offered compensation to all vets exposed to the deadly herbicides...

At last year’s Commons committee hearing, the now Veterans Affairs Minister Thompson claimed the Liberals’ study of the Agent Orange issue was “simply an exercise to get the government through to the next election without offering these people compensation.”

It still is.

Unfortunately, this government predictably hasn't proven any more willing than the last one to offer any reprieve to the bulk of veterans exposed to toxic chemicals by their own country. And the Cons' inaction not only makes matters yet more difficult for the survivors of Agent Orange, but also hints at a future unwillingness to acknowledge any harms being inflicted on Canada's current troops. Which should leave even less doubt as to whether or not the Cons are interested in supporting Canada's troops when it counts.