The federal government has agreed to overhaul veterans’ benefits regulations 35 years after the Persian Gulf War, granting full disability compensation to Canadian soldiers, sailors, and air crew who served in Operation Desert Storm. Blacklock's Reporter says the move comes after MPs complained that legal technicalities had limited benefits for 4,458 Canadian volunteers.“The government agrees with this recommendation,” Veterans Affairs Minister Jill McKnight told the Commons veterans affairs committee. “It will update the policy to remove all references to ‘wartime service’ and list only those areas of conflict or military operation that qualify for disability compensation.”Previously, the Department of Veterans Affairs classified Gulf War service as “special duty” rather than “wartime service,” meaning affected volunteers were eligible for reduced disability benefits. Officials argued that since Canada’s security or sovereignty was not directly threatened, service in Kuwait did not legally qualify as wartime..Amy Meunier, assistant deputy veterans affairs minister, testified in 2024 that categorizing service was an internal process aimed at ensuring members received the benefits they were entitled to. When Conservative MP Blake Richards asked if the Persian Gulf War was legally a war, Meunier responded, “It’s not defined as a war,” prompting Richards to remark, “That pretty much tells us everything we need to know. It’s the wrong answer frankly, but at least it’s an answer.”A June 20 report from the veterans affairs committee, titled The Persian Gulf War Was A War, criticized the reliance on legal semantics. “The Gulf War was objectively a war by any standard definition of the term,” the report said..“It was also a war in the sense of the subjective experience of all those who participated in it.” The MPs noted that while Canada faced no direct threat, the country actively participated in hostilities in Kuwait.The Gulf War began with Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, and concluded with a ceasefire on April 16, 1991. Canada reported no combat casualties during the operation.With the regulatory update, Gulf War veterans can expect full disability compensation, ending decades of bureaucratic limitations rooted in “legal semantics.”
