Canadian Soldiers have to be ready to fight any battle – but one they don’t expect to fight is one against their own government.
Veteran Basil McAllister spoke at the Royal Canadian legion in Moncton yesterday about his 10 year battle with the Department of Veterans Affairs to get compensation for his health problems.
He says he was exposed to numerous chemicals like the now infamous Agent Orange and has suffered from that exposure ever since, “I have prostate cancer, I have type 2 diabetes, I have skin cancer, I have a pacemaker defibrillator keeping my heart going and I had kidney failure which was brought on by cancer treatment, so I’m not in very good health.”
McAllister says the upside is it’s a relatively simple, but lengthy process – he even represented himself in Court for both of his court cases and encourages everyone else in the same situation to follow his example.