Widows seek changes for Agent Orange compensation rules, deadline

A group of military widows is trying to havethe deadline extended for people seeking compensation for illness and death from Agent Orange spraying at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in the 1960s.

The deadline to apply for the federal government's compensation package is April 1, but an organization is pushing to have that date moved and for a change to the qualifying date to cover when their husbands died.

Calling themselves Widows on the Warpath, the group has about 80 members across the country, said founder Bette Hudson.

"I wasn't eligible because he didn't die on or after Feb. 6, 2006. He was to have died on or after that date. And he died in 2004," Hudson said.

All members of Hudson's group haveseen their claimsrejected by the compensation package, which offers payments of up to $20,000 to veterans with specific diseases linked to the spraying of the herbicide Agent Orange in 1966 and '67.

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

The federal government's compensation offer is subject to tight restrictions, with payments only available to veterans and civilians who worked on or lived within five kilometres of the base between 1966 and 1967, and only those who have illnesses associated with Agent Orange exposure.

Those illnesses include Hodgkin's disease, lymphoma, respiratory cancers, prostate cancer and type 2 diabetes, as determined by the U.S. Institute of Medicine.

It is anticipated roughly 4,500 people will be eligible for the payment.

Hudson's claim is one of 878 denied by the Department of Veterans Affairs, while 2,153 have been approved.

Widows on the Warpath will be pressing federal politicians to open up the compensation package with public meetings and protests planned before the April 1 deadline.

"As far as we know and as far as our feeling is, they were eliminated before it was ever announced in 2007. And that wasn't right and it's not fair to these widows," Hudson said.

The widows' fight has caught the attention of a documentary film crew from New York.

"A lot of people think the compensation package addressed the issues. In actuality, only about 2,000 people have gotten the compensation package and over 315,000 travelled on the base during the times of the chemical defoliation period," said director Danny Feighery.