Stalling Agent Orange suit costs Ottawa $7.8M

The federal government has now spent $7.8 million fighting a legal challenge from people claiming they were exposed to Agent Orange at CFB Gagetown.

'Victims should be infuriated that the government spends money, not on helping them or compensating them, but instead fighting even having the issue go to court.' Tony Merchant, lawyer

The federal government is facing a class-action lawsuit from veterans, their families and civilians whoallege their health has been affected by the use of chemical herbicides, such as Agent Orange, between 1956 and 1984 at the military training facility in New Brunswick.

Tony Merchant, the lawyer spearheading the lawsuit, said Ottawa appears to be spending money in order to delay the legal process.

Merchant said it appears the federal government hopes the victims will give up and it "can get away with their wrongdoing."

"Victims should be infuriated that the government spends money, not on helping them or compensating them, but instead fighting even having the issue go to court," he said.

Before coming to power, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he wouldfight for full compensation for those exposed to the defoliants in Gagetown between 1956 and 1984.

Minister unaware

Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said in an interview on Wednesday that he didn't know why the federal government had spent almost $8 million to fight the lawsuit.

But Blackburn said he would investigate it within his department.

The veterans affairs minister said the federal government has attempted to help some of the affected citizens.

"We decided that we will give $20,000 as an ex-gratia payment for the health problems they may have," Blackburn said.

But that flat payment, announced in 2007, applies only to persons affected by spraying in 1966 and 1967 and it is separatefrom the class action.

The U.S. military tested Agent Orange, Agent Purple and several other powerful defoliants on a small section of CFB Gagetown over seven days in 1966 and 1967.

To be eligible for the one-time federal compensation package, people had to show they have an illness approved by the U.S. Institute of Medicine as being associated with Agent Orange exposure and had worked at, trained at or been posted at CFBGagetown, or lived within five kilometres of the base, during the seven days of testing.

Eligible illnesses include Hodgkin's disease, lymphoma, respiratory cancers, prostate cancer and type 2 diabetes.

Other victims

However, many people who lived on or near the base believe the spraying of herbicides between 1956 and 1984 may have made them sick.

Maureen Zelmer, who is a part of the class action, spent two years at CFB Gagetown when her father served there in the 1960s.

For the past14 years, she has been living with a condition that doctors have been unable to diagnose.

"I have a rash that migrates all over my body. It looks like leprosy. It opens and weeps," she said.