PING!
Posted on 07/25/2006 2:07:00 PM PDT by GMMAC
Justice is served
WWII hero awarded $1.1M
Toronto Sun
Tue, July 25, 2006
By PETER WORTHINGTON
An injustice committed 45 years ago to a wartime air force hero was finally corrected on Friday.
Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor phoned highly decorated World War II bomber pilot Cliff Wenzel of Brampton and told him $1,136,000 was to be awarded to him, to atone for denying him a reduced pension in 1961 because it was "not in the public interest."
For 40 years Wenzel's appeals were ignored or overruled, until retired Col. Michel Drapeau, now a lawyer with the Ottawa law firm of Barrick Poulsen, took his case.
Military ombudsman Yves Cote also sided with Wenzel and his investigation found a great injustice had been done to Wenzel.
As a 20-year RCAF veteran, Wenzel won a Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Force Cross in WWII.
In 1961, after 14 years in the same rank (flight lieutenant), Wenzel felt his career was going nowhere and applied for retirement on reduced pension.
A COSTLY MISTAKE
Usually a routine award, but a subordinate desk officer who didn't like him refused to okay the application and made the defamatory ruling.
For 40 years Wenzel appealed, but DND bureaucrats and a succession of defence ministers rubber stamped the original decision -- until Drapeau and Cote got into the act.
O'Connor agreed that the decision was wrong and that an injustice had to be corrected.
"I'm enormously grateful to Gordon O'Connor," Wenzel said. "I suppose it helped that he was once a career soldier (an Armoured Corps brigadier-general) and knows the system. He acted, and in four months corrected something that for 40 years no one did anything."
Wenzel also praised Drapeau and ombudsman Cote. The settlement also takes care of Wenzel's legal fees, and has awarded him $99,000 to be invested in an annuity in lieu of pension. Wenzel is 84 and must pay taxes on the $1.1-million settlement.
When asked about the award, Drapeau noted that O'Connor "played a significant role in crystallizing this settlement, which augurs well for other cases and this government's attitude towards the military." Drapeau added: "It's another indication that the minister is a man of his word -- as he was in the settlement for former Warrant Officer Matt Stopford, whom he personally went to bat for."
Stopford got a settlement after his own men in Croatia had tried to poison him in 1993 and the army withheld this information from Stopford for seven years -- and then sought to deny his right to appeal or sue.
Stopford is blind in one eye and has chronic, irreparable internal ailments related to his service in the Balkans but not necessarily to the poison attempts. The settlement to Wenzel is without precedence in the Canadian military. A significant factor was ombudsman Cote's work behind the scenes -- quietly, persistently, effectively, to the point where if Wenzel's case had again been rejected, it would have a signal that DND doesn't give a damn about correcting wrongs done to servicemen.
In their respective ways, had not Drapeau and Cote pushed as hard as they did, the DND bureaucracy -- which always opposed settlement to Wenzel -- would have prevailed and O'Connor's efforts would have failed. In Ottawa, bureaucracy is close to invincible.
As well as winning a DFC as a bomber pilot and an AFC during the Berlin Airlift, Wenzel flew in the Malayan insurgency and during the Korean War.
Even after being refused a reduced pension in 1961, he served in the RCAF reserve until mandatory retirement around 1969, and today is one of Canada's legendary wartime pilots. In private life he continued work in the aircraft industry.
Personally, Wenzel is without bitterness. A man of principle, he hopes his example will be reflected in greater awareness of what today's servicemen are going through, and a will result in a better attitude from government towards those in uniform.
PING!
great.
That's excellent.
I love our new government.
I find this amazing considering the guys war record.
What in the heck was going on in the military up there?
I love the new government.
UN forces?
War veterens deserve generous pensions! Especially when you consider the fact that politicians award themselves generous pensions they don't deserve! ;)
That sounds like the Irish Government's approach to the Irish Defence Forces! It's amazing how liberals suddenly believe in spending cuts when it comes to defence!
They need to name the prick who did this to him.
I wrote an e mail to the Prime Minister last week, to thank him for making it possible for me to be proud of my country again..
Cheers!
Keep in mind that since Trudeau in the late 60's, the bureaucracy has been made up of French from Quebec. Once we became officially bilingual, almost all of the government hires had to speck fluent French. That would explain their position.
There was a poll released the other day.......More than half of Canadians support Harper on Israel, however if you take Quebec out of the equation, it's more like 70% agree.
:-) That's pretty big for up here, and possibly the first thing so many Canadians have agreed on since we voted in the Conservatives.
Thanks
Anytime FRiend!
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