Two reports to be released Thursday on the spraying of Agent Orange and other chemical defoliants at a Canadian Forces base in New Brunswick should make clearer what actually happened, the man in charge of the fact-finding mission says.
(CBC)
INDEPTH: Agent Purple and Agent Orange
One report details the history of herbicide spraying at CFB Gagetown. It outlines what was sprayed, when and how much. The second report contains the results of soil and vegetation tests at the base.
Dennis Furlong, the former New Brunswick health minister who took over as co-ordinator of the federal government's inquiry last fall, said the hard facts need to be shown without the emotion that has often been attached to the issue.
"Everybody had a personal impression of what took place but what we needed to know is what actually took place," he said. "That is what these documents are about."
Hundreds of people have come forward to claim their health was affected by the use of herbicide sprays at the base since it opened in the 1950s.
'Everybody had a personal impression of what took place but what we needed to know is what actually took place'— Dennis Furlong
Those sprays contained dioxin until the 1980s, a toxic byproduct now banned. Preliminary results from soil tests have revealed three areas on the base with high levels of dioxin.
More scandalous has been the revelation that in the 1960s, the U.S. military tested a number of defoliants, including Agents Orange, White and Purple at the base.
Widely used during the war in Vietnam, the sprays are blamed for numerous health problems in that country and among veterans of the war.
Some veterans and civilians who worked on the base say the entire fact-finding mission, which could take at least another year to complete its work, is just a stalling tactic.
"I would like to see a compensation package announced today," said Wayne Cardinal, who spent nearly 40 years in the Canadian Forces.
That won't happen today, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said.
"My understanding, by talking to people on the ground there, [is that] it's going to take another year for us to resolve this issue, at which time, if we find people that have ailments linked to the activities there, there will be compensation," he said. "But we have to make that linkage."
Thursday's reports are the first of several, Furlong said. The hardest work is yet to come, such as tracking down all of the people who worked at CFB Gagetown over the past 50 years during spraying. About 50,000 have so far been identified.
A major health study has also to be done, and that could take until the middle of next year to complete.