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Veterans Demand Easier Access to Exposure Illness Claims
A new House of Commons report recommends the federal government make it easier for veterans to access information when filing medical claims tied to contaminated military sites.
Canadian veterans and their families are calling on the federal government to overhaul how it handles medical claims tied to toxic exposure at military sites, following a new report from the House of Commons national defence committee released in October 2026.
The report identifies 2,750 contaminated Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces sites across Canada as of June 2026. Among its 11 recommendations, it urges Ottawa to proactively tell current and former personnel about environmental risks at the bases, wings, and sites where they lived or worked.
A Pilot's Fight, and His Wife's
Hakan Haytaoglu flew secret missions for the Canadian Armed Forces over a 35-year career. At 55, just months from retirement, he was diagnosed with neuroendocrine carcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. Veterans Affairs Canada denied his initial medical claim.
His wife, Maura-Jo Haytaoglu, spent months gathering the evidence needed to link his illness to his military service, researching from his bedside while he underwent treatment.
"I dug and I dug while he was sick in bed," she said. "I sat beside him and I researched and I dug and I put the proper people in my corner that fought for us."
Hakan, known to friends and family as Hawk, died in July 2025, just weeks before his appeal was scheduled before the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. His wife ultimately won the case on his behalf.
"It was the hardest day of my entire life, beyond watching my husband die in my arms," she said. "It shouldn't be this hard for those who served their country."
A Shared Struggle
Hakan's case is not isolated. Erin Zimmerman, a 48-year-old mother of four and former civil servant, was diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Parkinson's disease. She worked at CFB Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan, including during one of her pregnancies, in sections that are now classified as active contamination sites.
Zimmerman has since used her research background to help more than two dozen veterans and their families build evidence for medical claim appeals, including the Haytaoglu case. Her testimony before the national defence committee made it into the final report.
She calls the committee's transparency recommendations a step forward, particularly the push to inform personnel proactively rather than leaving families to hunt down records on their own.
What the Report Recommends
The committee's key asks include:
- Proactively notifying current and former personnel about environmental risks at DND and CAF sites
- Improving access to information veterans need when filing medical claims
- Strengthening federal accountability for contaminated military properties
Veterans Affairs Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces had not responded to requests for comment at the time the report was released.
The Burden Shouldn't Fall on Families
The pattern across these cases is consistent: veterans or their surviving family members are left to assemble medical and environmental evidence largely on their own, often while managing serious illness or grief. The committee's report acknowledges that gap directly.
For families like the Haytaoglu's, the recommendations come too late to change their outcome. But veterans' advocates say getting the federal government to act on them could spare future families the same exhausting fight.
The ball is now in Ottawa's court.