Bill MacKay spent nearly 20 years in the Canadian Navy and says he’s never missed a Remembrance Day ceremony in his life -- until this year.
MacKay, 60, is accusing federal officials of not recognizing a neck injury he says he sustained in 1994 while deployed in Barbados.
He says the injury forced him into early retirement and should be recognized as a disability, and come with the appropriate benefit.
But Veterans Affairs has twice rejected MacKay’s claims. The department acknowledged the incident in Barbados, but said it wasn’t the source of MacKay’s condition.
The department points to the fact that MacKay received surgery for the injury in 1995, one year after the incident in Barbados.
MacKay said he is already struggling to make ends meet on his military pension. He lives in a trailer with his wife, Bonnie, and the couple mostly eats canned food to save on bills. They can’t afford gas for their truck and are forced to decide which medications they can live without.
MacKay says the situation has left him “broken-hearted.”
“These are people that took an oath to serve this country. And it doesn’t seem to matter to them,” he told CTV Atlantic. “I just couldn’t figure out how they could let people go like this.”
MacKay lives with a steel plate and four screws in his body, which he says help keep his vertebrae in place.
He plans to take his case to an appeal hearing in P.E.I.
Veterans Affairs said that there are options available for veterans if they are unsatisfied by the process, and that they have the right to apply for a judicial review of the decision by the Federal Court of Canada.
“Every situation is unique and we work with Veterans and their families on a case-by-case basis,” spokesperson Marc Lescoutre said in a statement.
Bonnie MacKay says her husband deserves better treatment than he’s received so far.
“He saw a lot. He witnessed a lot. And they are not giving him any help at all,” she said.
With a report from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown
