Ombudsman says veterans need to see their health records used in determining disability benefits decisions

1 mess? Gawd that's like 2 where the boatswains were pitching. Holy hell. I was in 11 but the spaghetti would still slide in the main cafe. I loved it, bring on the weather!  Wish I could post my pics.

Back to the topic at hand proper though.

Well, I can speak from experience, that VAC does not consider Tinnitus as service related, unless as consequential to service related hearing loss. I was diagnosed with moderate hearing loss and tinnitus, but VAC denied my claim, because there was no hearing loss indicated on my release medical. Probably because I had ringing in my ears and putting on those sound cancelling headphones only amplified it, so I was pressing the button constantly. In fact, I believe the said that in my 15 year career in the Navy, sitting inside a 3"50 gun while only wearing sound powered headphones, sleeping in 1 mess on a CPF for several years, which is only 10-15 feet from the 57mm while it was firing, and spending thousands of hours wearing headphones only listening to static, that my hearing had actually improved.

Not sure; SDA is political, I think. Listed in law. So gov can tailor it to reduce benefits (jaded, I know☺)

My 1st thought is no to NATO deployment being SDA. I think they are usually missions, like Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan, etc.

BTW, VAC considers a few conditions as deemed in service: PTSD; Depression; tinnitus; bad joints (I think, spitballing but 1st few I recall for sure. Prob is VAC ignores their policy which "deems" those few)

Tx for the short and sweet Lawnboy.

I knew this once but seem to have forgot. Tell me straight. Is a full time reg. force NATO deployment an SDA? Yes or No, period.

My friend was sda korea and fracked over. Another friend got banged up in NATO Cyprus.
Bearing in mind all the individual situations or pimples. But they were not playing badminton while on duty...

Back to topic. My DND health records are missing a bit of stuff. Probably looking to hard, but mir and shipboard doc reports? They are quite on the shy side.

Pinger, the way it works is there are 2 principles:

1. Insurance principle when in Special Duty Area where anything is deemed service related;

2. Compensation principle, any other time. Injury must be in service or related to service.

SISIP covers both on & off duty. It has to be paid no matter what if you are disabled.

VAC only pays for on duty.

Good example of yours there panser. You were on duty period! Nothing gray.

Back to proper topic...

I do believe it is very situational.

I aggravated an injury during PT with the unit, and VAC refused to acknowledge the PT as on duty. However once I had witness statements and the CF98 to back me up they caved and admitted that it was a "recognized form of physical training for the military" and used it as evidence towards my final condition.

Very curious about a gray area to me in the last few posts re: on or off duty.

How does this work  

1. Someone army is active on the ground in Afghanistan.
2. Someone else navy is active in the mid-atlantic.

3. Regardless of moc someone else is landbased 8 - 5 in Canada.

Now then, all 3 examples are off duty when they break a leg including
land based #3 having dinner at home or restaurant with wife and kiddies.

To me, DND should take of care of example 1 and 2.
And private insurance or sisip should take care of number 3.

But their ALL off duty... are they not?
Perhaps it's a fine line bigrex.
Or dependant upon ones location and sit.?

Hope I made sense and did not go off topic.
pinger.

Unfortunately fairly does not mean equal.

Several points:

1. VAC deals with Damages for personal injury;

2. Canada already committed to treating Reservists fairly last year so what we think is fair doesn't matter. I expect Canada to live up to it's promise & pay my Damages based on my rank as Captain.

Well we see it as 24/7, VAC doesn't think that way...
Remember if you leave your work place, and go for lunch at the mess hall, to VAC you are OFF DUTY not working..

I understand where both sides are coming from. I understand that reservists lose both the reserve income and the possible income that any civilian employment offers them. But at the same time, I think that in order to get the full benefits, for those who were not on a full time contract, the injury should have to be something that could not have occurred during their civilian job. So if a reservist is injured during PT, or happens to suffer a heart attack, during their one weekend a month, or one night a week, they should still allowed to apply for provincial WCB benefits. But if they are on an operational exercise, and are injured by enemy action, or when an APC flips over, or a Naval reserve is injured while fighting a fire on board, or injured by a mortar landing too close, etc, then they should be entitled to full compensation from VAC. Because Reg Force and full time reservists, are on call 24/7, and can be sent anywhere, in or out of Canada, with little to no notice and involved with any number of tasks, they deserve a higher degree of assurance, that if they are injured on the job, they will not suffer financial hardships, over someone who only works a few days a month, and can choose whether or not they will be deployed. After all, no reservist ever went to Afghanistan without specifically volunteering to do so.

I agree with what you are saying BinRat.

It needs to take your civilian employment into account.

However I do believe joining the regular force or the reserves requires acceptance of the current compensation packages should you be injured.

Does that mean not to fight for more? Hell no. But a realistic approach should be taken. Every reservist getting 44k/year even if they were doing one Tuesday a month with no civilian job? It would break the system. Might as well join if a person has undisclosed mental health issues and then claim it was the military's fault.

Panser, well yes your right in a way, but with the reserves this is where it gets a little complicated, as for an example..

A weekend exercise playing silly bugger in a wooded area, Jack is 3rd man and while running through the bush at night, the person in front pushes a tree branch forward, and snaps back and hits Jack in the face, Ouch.. now Jack is injured and requires medical assistance, now on Monday Morning after the weekend exercise Jack can't go back to work in his civilian job because of the accident/incident on the weekend exercise.

So whats Jack gonna do, he can't claim Workers Compensation cause it wasn't caused while in his Civilian Job, so WCB are gonna go, Sorry Nothing we can do, so Jack has to go through VAC, cause thats his only recourse to get some financial income since he can no longer work at his civilian Job, be it temporary or long term.

Back when I was in the reserves, I never thought of what if, as in what if I am seriously injured during a training accident, and can't work back in my civilian job, how would I make ends meet.

As a reg force member, well you can go to the MIR and get fixed, but since your full time Military, and you dont depend on a civilian job to make your monthly pay. injured or not you still get paid by the Military.

So ya there has to be some sort of compensation for reserves, heck if I was to know back then if I was injured, and there would be no compensation if injured, and couldn't perform my civilian job, would I still participate on a weekend exercise, or go, no way, cant afford to get injured, and called the BOR saying, Sorry can't work this weekend. Just because I couldn't afford to be injured.

And 2.5K a month might sound alot, but there was a younge 22 year old, burying bell phone line where I am at, and he's getting $30 an hour, so 40 hours, 1200 a week, 4800 a month, would you risk loosing a $30 bucks an hour job, to get 0 from the government by getting injured on a weekend exercise..