‘Sense of relief’: Veteran-led lawsuit against feds could mean multi-million-dollar payout
About 330,000 veterans receiving disability payments from the federal government might soon receive their share of a multi-million-dollar settlement after lawyers identified accounting errors in the Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) payment process.
On Nov. 8, afinal settlement agreement was signed on behalf of the veterans and their estates with VAC for a “miscalculation of benefits”, which dated back about 20 years.
Dennis Manuge, a Canadian Armed Forces veteran living in Ostrea Lake, N.S., said he felt “a sense of relief” when he heard the news.
“I’m one of the few Canadians, I believe, that have brought two class-actions against the Government of Canada to a successful conclusion,” he said, referring to the integral role he played in a previous winning settlement against the federal government in 2013 regarding military pension claw-backs.
The 53-year-old said he’s spent the last decade working to recover from injuries he suffered during his service. He said this recent victory, is “about legacy and standing up for what’s right.”
“They (Veterans Affairs Canada) are incredibly slow learners. I think that’s any government bureaucracy, it’s so big, so cumbersome,” he said.
Daniel Wallace, a Halifax-based lawyer working on the case, said although the total repayment amount is dependent on how many veterans submit a claim. He estimates the total figure could be as much as $817 million.
“People were underpaid for such a long period of time,” he said.
He said the process that resulted in this recent correction began in 2018 when the veteran ombudsman identified a payment error that took place between 2003 and 2007, leading the federal government to make a “corrective payment.”
Following the first payment, Wallace said it was
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