Are you the kind of person who responds "How can I help?" when you see wrongs needing righting in this world? Join the outrage, and help us do just that: donate one week's coffee budget! The proponents of the EQUITAS Disabled Soldiers Funding Society ["EQUITAS"] are dedicated to the Cause of disadvantaged, disabled veterans. Our fundamental goal is to raise the funds needed to backstop legal action determined to reverse the Government of Canada's position on the New Veterans Charter [NVC]. We are working to get the system changed to correct glaring deficiencies that are causing hardship to many injured 'New' veterans, because their lump-sum compensation is so low. Many such settlements are significantly lower than the standard in modern life applicable in Civil Court awards and workers' compensation, or compared with life-long pensions formerly applicable to Canadian military combatants.
Reservist Dan Scott of Vancouver was severely injured by a claymore mine explosion in 2010, an accident that killed one soldier and injured several other Canadian militiamen in his platoon serving in Afghanistan. Dan is pictured here in intensive care fighting for his life, being evacuated on an air ambulance from Kandahar to a hospital in Germany for treatment. Happily he survived, in the process losing a kidney, his spleen and part of his pancreas. He also endured some lung damage, all of which got him, instead of a pension, an award of only $41,500. as a so-called lump-sum settlement. [© Michael Yon - photographer]
Please consider making common cause with EQUITAS. Assist us by making a donation in support of the many disabled Canadian veterans who are hurting. Your financial contribution can help the prosecution of a Class Action lawsuit that is seeking a better deal for veterans with both physical and mental disabilities than what the NVC provides. Our campaign would be fully funded if you, and only 5 thousand others, were to donate the equivalent of what your favourite daily Frappuccino or Timmy’s costs for just one week!
Major Mark Campbell a double-amputee career soldier from Edmonton, Alberta,, speaks out about the need for Canadians to lobby their Federal Government to overhaul the New Veterans Charter and, in particular, to provide greater, more fair, financial security for injured and disabled veterans. Observing Major Campbell is Kevin Barry (a PTSD sufferer from Vancouver). Together with Mark Campbell, Dan Scott, Aaron Bedard, Gavin Flett and Brad Quast, he is a representative plaintiff in the lawsuit currently underway before the B.C. Supreme Court. That legal action, now also before the B.C. Court of Appeal (because the Government of Canada has applied to overturn a ruling favourable to the representative plaintiffs), once successful will certify 'class-action' proceedings that will seek to invalidate the New Veterans Charter's seriously deficient lump-sum compensation payment system, in order to improve the benefits for Canadian veterans from coast to coast to coast.
[Photo by Larry Jenkins]
EQUITAS means fairness. Our Society seeks fairness for New Veterans (average age under 30, most of them injured in Afghanistan), who have received a bad deal from the Canadian Government. We were founded to help make right what is so wrong in the treatment of too many soldiers whom Canada sent into battle, only to let them down with financial settlements that are insufficient and unjust - instead of lifelong pensions - on their return home disabled.
When they hear this story about disabled veterans being
disadvantaged, fair-minded Canadians like you feel outrage. Rightly
so, from coast-to-coast people believe it unacceptable how our
country is treating many who became casualties after volunteering
for military service to protect our democratic values. By any
objective measure the compensation awarded since 2006 under the NVC
to numerous soldiers with permanent injuries is much too low -
especially when compared with accepted standards in contemporary
society applied to workers compensation and Court settlements. Most
disabled veterans' settlements under the NVC are an average of 50%
less than what past veterans received under the Pension Act. Since
too many of these recent settlements are neither fair nor reasonable
by any objective measure, EQUITAS advocated for a political solution
in Ottawa since 2011. Rebuffed by political decision-makers in the
current Conservative Government, EQUITAS therefore had no choice
than to encourage frustrated veteran recipients feeling
short-changed to pursue their only alternative, seeking legal
redress in Court.
The money EQUITAS is now raising will cover the essential disbursement costs in connection with litigation currently before the British Columbia Court of Appeal - which will be taken all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, if necessary. The monies EQUITAS is raising to underwrite expenses is essential to back up the legal counsel being provided 'pro bono' to disabled veteran claimants by national law firm Miller Thomson LLP, led by Don Sorochan, Q.C.
Thank you for making a contribution, however large or small, towards helping the worthy Cause of struggling veterans' legal recourse. And for telling your family and friends about our EQUITAS campaign to right a serious wrong.
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A video profile on 'New" veteran Dan Scott. [By permission of Matthew Hunt, Director]
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For further information about this Cause, please go to: www.equitassociety.ca and 'like' us on the EQUITAS page on Facebook. We also urge you to tune in to CKNW-Radio (AM-980 - The Corus Radio Network: or, www.cknw.com) in Vancouver daily from 4-6pm for "The World Today" with Jon McComb, to join the "Fight Back For Wounded Veterans" Movement launched on October 4, 2013.
