RCMP Watch

Halifax, N.S. (Canadian Press) - A lawyer for a disabled former RCMP constable filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the federal government Friday, claiming thousands of injured officers could join the case over clawbacks to their disability awards.

Peter Driscoll said Ottawa could be on the hook for millions if the suit succeeds and it’s forced to compensate officers who have for years had money deducted from their so-called “pain-and-suffering” payments.

“It is incredible the number of psychological and financial effects that this practice has on disabled veterans,” he told reporters while launching the case.

“It’s a practice that’s fundamentally unfair.”

The suit was launched on behalf of Gerry Buote, 50, of Summerside, P.E.I., who said he was forced out of the service in 1993 after being injured on the job four years earlier.

He said he began receiving a disability award shortly after his release from the RCMP, but hundreds of dollars were deducted from each cheque.

Buote, who has been deemed to be permanently physically disabled, estimates he’s owed more than $140,000 and said he’s spoken with many other former officers who’ve seen money cut from their cheques.

Buote wasn’t at the announcement Friday because he said he’s in too much pain from the lower back injury he suffered in 1989 while arresting a drunk driver.

But he said the practice of siphoning off disability benefits under the Pension Act penalizes people who were injured while carrying out their duties.

“It’s put us in financial hardship for a lot of years,” he said from his home in Summerside. “I thought when I got the stars from the force that the force would look after us. I believed that and they didn’t.”

Driscoll said the case mirrors one involving up to 4,500 Canadian Forces veterans who have launched a class-action suit to recover up to $300 million in compensation for clawbacks.

Ottawa has appealed that certification, which could stall any court proceedings.

The RCMP’s payment system is similar to the Canadian military’s, in which injured veterans are entitled to a percentage of their former salaries. But the plan treats monthly pension payments as income and deducts the pension amount from what is paid to former Forces members.

A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day refused to comment, saying that “as this matter will be before the courts imminently, it would be inappropriate for the minister to comment at this time.”

Driscoll said the deductions are unique to the RCMP and military, and that the more someone is disabled or injured, the more they lose on their cheques.

“It’s perverse,” he said. “The more severely disabled you are, the less comparatively your receive as far as benefits.”

Buote had been in the RCMP for 15 years when he was called to arrest a drunk driver in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., in 1989. The man resisted and landed on Buote’s lower back, blowing several discs.

Buote, who has three children, said he’s had four operations on his back and takes OxyContin daily, but still suffers from the pain and is unable to work.

Dennis Manuge, who launched the suit on behalf of the Forces members, urged politicians to resolve the matter outside the courts and end the clawback practice for disabled veterans, many of whom are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We need help,” he said through tears. “There are thousand of people who donned a uniform to serve their country and they’re at home, afraid to leave their house and taking medications.”