Canadian VA denies Agent Orange claim because it was too late?

Wife dies of cancer, man fights for Agent Orange payment

The Canadian Press
Date: Sunday Feb. 12, 2012 3:23 PM ET
HALIFAX — Relatives of a woman who died of a cancer linked to Agent Orange exposure in the 1960s say Ottawa is denying them compensation because she was diagnosed with the lethal disease 12 days after a federal deadline.

Keith Haynes lost his wife, Audrey, on Jan. 31, just a month after the Department of Veterans Affairs issued its final ruling that she would not be eligible for the $20,000 ex gratia payment.

The 54-year-old customer service worker was diagnosed with stage 4 non small cell lung cancer on July 12 after she collapsed at work and was rushed to hospital in Halifax.

Keith Haynes says her cancer was listed on a U.S. medical chart of illnesses the Canadian government recognizes as being linked to the spraying of Agent Orange at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in the 1960s.

But when she applied for the ex gratia payment before her death, Veterans Affairs indicated she didn't qualify because she was diagnosed 12 days after the federally imposed deadline of June 30, 2011, and didn't get her application in until weeks later.

"My wife passed away and, as far as I'm concerned, she was betrayed by her federal government," her husband said from their home on the outskirts of Halifax.
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