A couple of days ago, I received a document through an Access to Information request that was a briefing note written by Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier to the Minister of National Defence Gordon O’Connor. From that, we have this story:
OTTAWA — The Canadian government will provide compensation to Second World War veterans who volunteered to undergo chemical warfare agent testing done by the British Army.
Documents obtained by CTV News last week under Access to Information laws indicate that the Department of Defence believes that 200 Canadian soldiers volunteered to have mustard gas sprayed on their arms that had been coated with “barrier creams,” concoctions the British Army was trying to develop to protect troops in the field from mustard gas attacks.
The tests took place at the British military facility in Porton Down, England between 1941 and 1945 … [read the rest of the story]
For those who want some more background, I’ve uploaded an electronic version of the briefing note we obtained under which provides some more background on this issue. (You’ll need a PDF viewer like Adobe’s Acrobat Reader to read this document)