Agent Orange - USA vets , Vietnamese, Canadians are victims

[Karlin]

http://tinyurl.com/7t3f7

More than 30 years after the end of the war that killed more than 58,000 U.S. soldiers and three million Vietnamese, U.S. veterans are demanding compensation for their Vietnamese counterparts.

In 2004, Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange filed a new federal lawsuit against 36 U.S. chemical companies that manufactured and supplied the herbicide.

K - Not just USA vets, but the Vietnamese who were right in the spray a lot of times, are sick and asking for compensation.

I would hope that the corporations that profited will pay out, but they will say its been sold to another corporation who can't be held responsible. Thats what happened with Bhopal [Dow, etc.]

- This is interesting to Canada, as our own citizens are in a battle to have their Agent Orange injuries compensated for spraying it at Gagetown NB.

There may have been other areas, even municipal areas, that "tried it out", tested Agent Orange for getting rid of unwanted foliage. Those have not been made public yet.

Personally, I remember that our family garden was wiped out one year when the "Town Crews" sprayed a neighboring vacant lot. I used to play in that garden, and I have health problems consistent with Agent Orange neurotoxiciity. I don't ask for compensation, its just a curiousity to wonder how much of Canada's health problems, esp "new and emgerging" illnesses, come from these "corporate favoured toxins".

------Canada's Agent Orange experience:

"Ottawa allowed the U.S. military to test Agent Orange on the base in the spring and summer of 1966.

"At the time, the Americans were looking for a relatively easy way to defoliate large tracts of jungle in Vietnam. For its part, CFB Gagetown, was looking for a way to clear brush and trees from some of its training areas.

"Defence Minister Bill Graham said this week that former soldiers whose health had suffered from exposure to the herbicide would qualify for disability pensions.

Most of them served at CFB Gagetown during the 1960s, when Agent Orange was being tested. "

Ottawa to aid Agent Orange victims :
http://www.cbc.ca/nb/story/nb-orange20050517.html


"Chemical used on base deadlier than Agent Orange "
-Agent Purple-
http://www.cbc.ca/nb/story/nb-purple20050613.html

 

[Durgan]

Re: Agent Orange - USA vets , Vietnamese, Canadians are vict

Agent orange read 2-4-D still being used by urbanites because of dandelions.

In Ontario the side roadsds used to be sprayed with "agent orange" as where all hydro right- of- ways. I supect most of the people who were involved are dead. God it was an ugly sight.

In Fort St. John on the mega farms planted from the air, spraying to kill broad leaf weeds is still practiced. My Mother was sprayed and spend three months in the Hospital. Her garden was all shrivelled-up. The factory farm PR people denied they had anything to do with the health and garden damage. Unfortunately, we don't have the ambulance chasing class action lawyers yet.

Drive through Southern Saskatchewan (Highway 13?)in the summer and all you see is crops with not a broad-leafed plant in sight, and hardly a bird alive. Truly a silent spring country-side.

Once I was at the U of M and a graduate student was reporting on the effectiveness of weed spray on a field trip through area crops. He reported that the fields were full of dead birds. This is till going on in the pristine west.

Agrent Orange indeed.
Durgan.

 

[CamTheCat]

Re: Agent Orange - USA vets , Vietnamese, Canadians are vict

The following is a green Party media release on this subject...

Media Releases
2005-12-05
Compensate Agent Orange victims, Green Party says.
The Liberal government continues to drag its feet on the issue of compensation, says Jim Harris
(MONTREAL, Monday, 5 December 2005) - It is a national disgrace that the Liberal government has continued to drag its feet on the issue of compensation for Canadian soldiers exposed to Agent Orange and Agent Purple in the 1960s at CFB Gagetown, said Green Party of Canada leader Jim Harris today after a meeting with veterans in Oromocto, New Brunswick.

It is a reminder that government accountability doesn't stop at the sponsorship scandal that has tarred this government; it also means protecting the very lives of Canadians.

"There are people living in New Brunswick and beyond today who were exposed to these cancer-causing agents at the behest of the American military who have yet to see a single cent of compensation," Mr. Harris said. "Canadians have been used against their will as test subjects for American chemical warfare tests. What else will it take to get this government to act on their behalf?"

The history of Agent Orange (and the more potent Agent Purple) at Gagetown is as long as it is sordid. In conjunction with the American military, Canadian Armed Forces performed tests of the herbicides and defoliants there in the 1960s. Though the current government will only admit to a three-day testing period in 1966 and four days in 1967, media reports have suggested repeated experiments as early as 1956 and 1964 as well.

These tests - and there may have been more - exposed Canadian military personnel to the effects of the chemicals. Thousands of American military troops and an untold number of Vietnamese were exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, and the high instances of health problems and birth defects among them are well documented. Despite this, the Canadian government in a recent report states that "the health effects of Agents Orange and Purple exposure remain unclear."

Successive Canadian governments, including the most recent Liberal government, have hampered the compensation process for Canadian military. Some 40 years after CFB Gagetown was sprayed, Defense Minister Bill Graham admitted in June this year that his ministry still didn't have a comprehensive list of those who may have been exposed.

Even more insidious is that the testing of Agent Orange and Purple was done at the behest of the Americans - much like the testing of unwitting Canadian citizens at Montreal's Allan Memorial Institute by the CIA in the 1960s. "It's shameful that Canadians were used as Guinea Pigs by the U.S. government. Even worse is that in the case of CFB Gagetown, the government still has yet to own up to it and accept responsibility for it."

For more information: Van Ferrier, Derek Pinto
Media Relations Officers media@greenparty.ca

 

[Durgan]

Re: Agent Orange - USA vets , Vietnamese, Canadians are vict

Quote by CamTheCat
The history of Agent Orange (and the more potent Agent Purple) at Gagetown is as long as it is sordid. In conjunction with the American military, Canadian Armed Forces performed tests of the herbicides and defoliants there in the 1960s. Though the current government will only admit to a three-day testing period in 1966 and four days in 1967, media reports have suggested repeated experiments as early as 1956 and 1964 as well.

I was a Sgt in the Signal Corps attached to the 3 RCHA in Gagetown in 1962 or 1963. I was in Gagetown from 1960 to 1964. One day I saw this orange stuff falling out of an airplane inside the camp at Gagetown, while we were on summer training. The sight was rather spectular. Eventually I heard it was a herbicide being tested by the Americans to determine the effect of defoliating trees. Monkeys usually don't debate about such "going on's" in the military. It is simply accepted.

I personally never knew anybody upon whom the stuff was dropped. I was far enough away that none fell on my group. As far as I know the area was cleared of personnel prior to any dropping of the orange stuff. Rumours has it that it was harmful to people. Imagine the devastation on wildlife?

I read somewhere where some high ranking officer got compensation from the effects. I was amused at the idea. because one would never find a high ranking officer anywhere near the stuff. It would more than likey be lineman or others working in the area.

My thought at the time was don't they have any forests in the USA? The rank and file were never briefed on this action. It was sort of known to be hush, hush, more by the military grape-vine than official orders.

Compensation is rather late, since if and I doubt it, anyone was sprayed they are probably long dead.

Durgan.

 

[Karlin]

Re: Agent Orange - USA vets , Vietnamese, Canadians are vict

Whoa, Durgan, you were CLOSE!!

Recently, I wrote the govt of Canada and got this reply in my e-mail box about Agent orange:

Defoliants and desiccants were utilized in a small-scale testing at
CFB Gagetown (New-Brunswick) for 3 to 4 days in June 1966 and June 1967.
No other base or area were tested. For more information, please see the following web site address:
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/Reports/defoliant/index_e.asp

Thank you for writing and visiting our Defence web site.

Paul Villeneuve
General Inquiries Desk
National Defence Headquarters - Ottawa
Telephone: (613) 995-2534

So they say "no other site was used" for testing AO.

But there is this:
"...like the testing of unwitting Canadian citizens at Montreal's Allan Memorial Institute by the CIA in the 1960s"


--------PS
I have just written Paul Villeneuve at Defence Dept. , giving him the update from this thread on where else AO was tested in Canada .

Who says we posters are not having actual effects on the real world? You guys helped me report to the govt where "else" AO was tested, and that just might get them to realise it will be found out eventually, so they might open up sooner with more info.