War veteran in battle to keep benefits
       
      Chris Morris 
      Canadian Press


January 15, 2005


FREDERICTON -- An 83-year-old veteran who earned his disability benefits on the battlefields of Europe is fighting to save them in an emotional court battle with the province of New Brunswick.

The New Brunswick Court of Appeal ruled Friday it will hear the province's arguments against repaying $3,090 it took from 83-year-old Alexandre Doucet for his wife's nursing home care. Margaret Doucet has Alzheimer's disease.

Doucet and his daughter, Veronica Ratchford, shed tears of frustration outside a Fredericton courthouse after hearing they have yet another legal battle to wage.

"I'm really, really disappointed but I'm not going to give up," Ratchford said, her voice shaking with emotion.

"Nowhere else in Canada do they take a veteran's disability pension for nursing home costs. My father is a Canadian and he fought for Canada . . . I cannot believe the province of New Brunswick would sink so low as to take a veteran who has a spouse with Alzheimer's and bring them right to the ground."

Doucet and Ratchford were flanked by about a dozen war veterans, medals emblazoned on their chests, who accompanied them to the court to show support.

"Disability pensions are not taxable, they're not considered income and they're none of the goddamn provincial government's business," said an angry Aurele Ferlatte, a veteran who accompanied Doucet from Bathurst, N.B.

"They're using our money, our tax dollars, to fight us."

Government lawyer William Anderson told the appeal court the issue is whether the judge who ordered repayment of the $3,090 erred in law.

Families in New Brunswick are charged for nursing home care according to income levels.

In May, 2003, Premier Bernard Lord's Conservative government stopped using veterans' disability pension benefits in calculating how much should be paid for a spouse's nursing home care.

But the provincial government has refused to pay back to Doucet the money it took from him prior to that policy change.

The government says the policy change was not retroactive and the lower court had no right to make the policy retroactive.

Ratchford said the province was always wrong in using her father's disability pension because it is not regarded as income. She said the entire amount owed him - $3,090 - should be refunded.

Reg MacDonald, a New Brunswick representative on the federal government's National Advisory Council on Aging, said he was "flabbergasted" by the case.

"The word 'justice' is written over this doorway," he said at the entrance of the Fredericton courthouse.

"But where is the justice in the province of New Brunswick pursuing this? There is none. The government may win in the court of law but it will never win in the court of public opinion."

A date has not been set for the Appeal Court hearing.

Ratchford is representing her father. She said the family does not want to spend a lot of money on a lawyer.

"I can't believe that for $3,090 the province is fighting us to this extent," she said.

"They give money away all the time to businesses and companies."

 

© The Canadian Press 2005