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Deadline extended for Agent Orange payment applications
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The Canadian Press
Date: Wednesday Dec. 22, 2010 1:32 PM ET
FREDERICTON — Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn is extending the deadline for people applying for the government's Agent Orange payments.
Blackburn announced in Fredericton today that people have until the end of June to submit their applications.
The minister is also expanding the eligibility criteria, which he says will allow just over 1,100 people to qualify for the $20,000 lump-sum payment.
As well, the government is removing a controversial condition that required people to be alive on Feb. 6, 2006 -- the date the federal Conservatives came to power.
Blackburn says that will allow more caregivers and widowers to apply on behalf of someone who died before the ex gratia payment came into place.
In 2007, Ottawa made the payments available to people whose health may have been harmed by the spraying of Agent Orange at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick.
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I feel that if certain organs were in demand, less effort would be made to revive people. Am I being silly? Not really. I had a bad experience in hospital when my heart stopped, the doctors tried to revive me and failed. They stopped and said I was gone. I came around on my own when the nurse was giving a final BP reading of 'zero'. I heard her declare me dead! It was all I could do to shake my head but they never caught on til I was able to open my eyes. You should have seen them scramble then! I thought the nurse was going to faint. The thing is, I think we may write people off too soon when there is something of value to be gained from them.
