Dennis Manuge

by Tazzer Sat 30 Mar 2019, 10:41 am

Dennis Manuge Facebook Page Posted March 30, 2019

Dennis Manuge is feeling annoyed.

Blog: Veterans Affairs Canada's Roll out of Pension For Life and the psychological harm it is doing to Canadian Forces Veterans and our families'

There is a great deal of stress and anxiety among the Canadian Veterans’ Community right now due to the role out of the Pension For Life (PFL) by Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC). All the changes to benefits, names, taxation status, and the discontinuing of some benefits are making many of us very nervous because none of us know what our financial situation will look like at the end of April 2019, as compared to today. Social Media is very busy with concerned veterans weighing in. We have no idea what to expect despite VAC’s pitiful attempts at educating us. We received phone calls from staff who could not answer even the most basic of questions, a cookie cutter approach, if you will, and letters that did nothing further to explain anything. We (Canadian Veterans) have no idea what will be deposited into our bank accounts next month. We have no new financial benefits calculations sheets yet showing our new numbers (income) starting next month.

This is really feeling like government-inflicted harm to me. VAC has done nothing to alleviate my bewilderment, confusion, doubts, and anxiety about my and my families’ financial well-being. Talk about a stress grenade lobbed into the lives of disabled veterans. Many of us suffer from PTSD, depression and anxiety. Of note, our caregivers and spouses are also directly impacted by this callus and insensitive rollout; possibly more so, as they have to watch us veterans try to cope with this mess while managing their own feelings and concerns.

Section 7 - Life, liberty and security of person

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.
“ …There is the right to security of the person, which consists of rights to privacy of the body and its health[9] and of the right protecting the "psychological integrity" of an individual. That is, the right protects against significant government-inflicted harm (stress) to the mental state of the individual. (Blencoe v British Columbia (Human Rights Commission), 2000) "

This PFL fiasco makes the roll out of New Veterans Charter in 2006 look like a walk in the park. In my opinion, VAC has compromised my psychological integrity and breached my charter-protected rights. I hope to we don’t lose people to suicide over this PFL rollout and the stress it has caused many of us.

-Dennis Manuge
Disabled Canadian Forces Veteran (Former Yugoslavia)
Representative Plaintiff, Manuge Vs Her Majesty The Queen x2
Musquodoboit Harbour, NS

References:

1. Government of Canada; guide the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
2. Wikipedia

by Thunder Sat 25 Jan 2020, 9:46 am

From Banished facebook...Dennis Manuge shared a post...Jan 25. 2020

Minister MacAulay (Veterans Affairs Canada)

Thank you for the reimbursement of my incorrectly calculated Pension Act disability payments. When can I, and the approximate other 270 000 veterans and our estates, expect damages and interest payments in relation to this “accounting error”?

Why did it take from 2010/2011 until now to get this situation sorted out and why did VAC cover this error up? Why have damages and interest not been included in this payment and notification?

Who is responsible for the error and what corrective action has been taken as well as who and in what department were disciplined for this mistake and cover-up?

As I understand this issue with the information made available by the department, this would have gone unreported to Canadian taxpayers and uncorrected had it not been Murray Brewster, CBC news reporting on it after the OVO (Veterans ombudsman) discovered it.

https://www.ombudsman-veterans.gc.ca/…/news-releases/post/54

https://www.cbc.ca/…/veterans-affairs-accounting-error-clas…

https://www.cbc.ca/…/veterans-pensions-tax-credit-error-1.4…

I look forward to an accurate, transparent, and timely account from you on this issue to help me in understanding how this incompetence was covered up by successive Canadian Governments (Conservative & Liberal) and of course to receiving damages and interest on the principal.

Warm & Respectful Regards

Dennis Manuge ( Canadian Forces Veteran)
Representative Plaintiff (Manuge V Her Majesty The Queen x2)
Musquodoboit Harbour, NS

by **Wolfman** Fri 14 Feb 2020, 7:44 pm

February 14 2020

Veteran responds to Desmond inquiry

testimony

A trauma therapist gave emotional testimony at the Desmond inquiry that revealed his highly critical medical information was not properly shared. As Jesse Thomas reports, one veteran says he’s not surprised.

https://globalnews.ca/video/6554010/veteran-responds-to-desmond-inquiry-testimony

by Lionfield Thu 08 Dec 2022, 8:04 pm

Local veterans – and one of their long-time champions – gathered in the pouring rain to send a message.

Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022

CTV News

by Riverway Fri 13 Jan 2023, 7:45 pm

Researchers investigating head trauma in the Canadian military want veterans to 'pledge their brain'

Published Jan. 13, 2023

Canadian Forces veteran Dennis Manuge has been thinking a lot about his brain health lately, and the impact of repeated concussive incidents from his time in the military and beyond.

“I had multiple concussions, probably double-digit between military service and athletics,” says Manuge.

He recalls one incident while in forces training, in which we went down on his head hard.

“I didn’t know who anybody was around me, for almost an hour,” he says. “And then I was back to work.”

Best known for leading a successful legal class action against Veterans Affairs over disability payments, Manuge is now in a battle to recover from his military injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

He says it was NHL star Sidney Crosby’s openness about his concussions on the ice that led him to think about the hard knocks he suffered in his own lifetime.

So, when the 53-year-old heard about Project Enlist Canada, which is recruiting veterans to donate their brain tissue to science after death, he signed up.

“The first thing I did was let my wife know, because you never know. When your time's up, your time's up,” he says.

Project Enlist Canada is an awareness initiative working in partnership with concussion and brain researchers to create a better understanding of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) - a degeneration of the brain due to repeated head traumas, like those suffered by professional athletes such as football players.

Right now, CTE can only be accurately diagnosed by autopsy, but its symptoms are very similar to PTSD.

“We've got a lot of veterans who are misdiagnosed with PTSD, when in fact, they have a brain injury or also have a brain injury,” says Michael Terry, a Nova Scotia veteran living in Ontario and the project’s outreach coordinator.

“CTE is basically an accumulation of small hits over time, of micro-concussive events, [and] when you look at our service… firing the 84mm recoilless rifle, which is a shoulder-fired heavy weapon, firing the 81mm mortar, you’re right there next to it,” says the infantry veteran. “Even Navy, Air Force, we all take these ‘knocks in the head’ over our career."

“You need to start asking these questions, have you had these head impacts in your life,” says Ryan Carey, Project Enlist Canada’s director of military engagement.

The former CFL player and 14-year CAF veteran is passionate about the effort to create a bank of post-mortem brain tissue from Canadian men and women who served in the military.

“Doctors, therapists, they may not be looking for head injury, [they say] 'Well, you were in Afghanistan so you must have trauma from that,'” he says. “Absolutely, that’s all valid. But understand the amount of head injury that veterans face during their careers, not only in combat, on ranges, in ships, in planes, there’s a lot of these things that happen in training as well.”

For Carey, it’s about helping veterans now, but also about helping with CTE prevention for everyone.

“These things are very serious, there’s a movement across all sports… to limit head impacts with young kids, and my emotional response to that is, ‘It’s not happening fast enough.’”

Project Enlist is working in conjunction with the Concussion Legacy Foundation to support researchers at the Boston University CTE Center and the CAMH Brain Health Imaging Centre to investigate the causes and effects of repetitive brain trauma.

At CAMH, Chief Radiochemist Neil Vasdev is leading the effort to enable the diagnosis of CTE in a living patient via brain scan.

“Researching veterans’ brains will give us insights on how to stop the injuries in their tracks and treat them,” says Vasdev.

“I'm hopeful that we will be doing this in the next three to five years. We already have new imaging agents that we plan to advance to human studies this year,” he adds.

If successful, it would be a scientific first.

It would also offer hope, says Terry, to anyone living with the often devastating effects of repeated brain trauma.

“Treatment protocols are going to come from that, reporting protocols are going to come from that, and prevention is going to come from that,” he says. “We’re really trying to hit it from all angles.”

Veterans who want to donate their brain tissue after their passing can fill out of a form on Project Enlist Canada's website.

CTV News Atlantic

by Fascinator Tue 14 Mar 2023, 7:47 pm

Nova Scotia veterans’ advocates want new government contract for rehab services cancelled

By Skye Bryden-Blom . Global News
Posted March 14, 2023

Advocates of veterans in Nova Scotia are sounding the alarm over a new rehabilitation program in Canada.

The contract between Ottawa and a private company recently came into effect and was aimed at easing the administrative burden, but advocates say it’s not keeping up with the demand and complex needs of veterans.

Dennis Manuge, a Canadian Forces veteran and advocate, sent a letter to Central Nova MP Sean Fraser on Monday calling for an end to the agreement.

He says veterans and case managers are reporting significant delays in getting access to services and assessments completed.

“We’ve got to cancel that program, stop it in its tracks, revert back to the public service, the union, and the Veterans Affairs Canada staff,” Manuge says.

“Why would we not invest in more case managers and more qualified people that work for the organization, an entity to come in and manage the cases and the files and the people?”

The federal government awarded the $570-million contract to Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services (PCVRS) in June 2021, but it came into effect last November. PCVRS is a partnership between private health care company Lifemark Health Group, a division of Loblaws, and WCG services.

Manuge wants the federal government to invest in more case managers instead of private companies. He says they understand the veterans’ complex health needs and should continue to coordinate their rehab and track progress.

“Lifemark has only been given 3,000 of the least complex cases and it’s completely imploded their system, their staff, they’re woefully unprepared,” Manuge says.

In a statement to Global News, Veterans Legal Assistance Foundation Chair Peter Stoffer says what the government has done with the contract is “wrong” and he would like to see it cancelled and put back into the hands of Veterans Affairs Canada employees.

The national president of the Union of Veterans’ Affairs Employees says they stand in solidarity with veterans and their advocates in calling for the cancellation of the new rehab contract.

In a statement, Virginia Vaillancourt says union members, case managers, and others have been raising concerns for months now with the Department of Veterans Affairs Canada, but she says they’ve gone ignored.

“In the first phase of implementation, veterans are being delayed, deferred and forced to undergo three-hour-long interviews to prove their already existing entitlement,” Vaillancourt says.

“No one at the department or with the contractor can answer questions from veterans or case managers. Everyone is being left in the dark and veterans are already falling through the cracks.”

She adds there wasn’t enough consultation with veterans or staff at Veterans Affairs Canada ahead of the contract being introduced.

“The case managers always coordinated these therapies (medical/psychosocial) for the veterans as part of their rehab plan,” she explains, “so that the veterans did not have to and so that the case managers could monitor the veterans’ progress in treatment. Now the veterans are being juggled around.”

Global News reached out to a media contact with Lifemark Health Group for a response and was directed to make the request to Veterans Affairs Canada.

Steven Harris, the assistant deputy minister of service delivery for Veterans Affairs Canada, says case managers remain the decision makers with the contract helping to cut down on their administrative work.

“The role of the contract and additional supports and services is to make sure we have the expertise,” Harris says. “We’re not a front-line service.”

He says the second phase of the program is being rolled out this week to transition thousands more veterans over to the new contract.

But Harris cautions it will be staggered over the next several months to ensure it’s manageable. He adds they’ve also learned from the first phase of the rollout.

Manuge says he just wants to ensure veterans receive the best care.

“All we’re asking for is when we get out the other end — whether it’s 10 years, a full career, two years,18 years — just look after us appropriately,” he says.

Global News

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