| Citation: |
Bradley v. Canada (Attorney General), 2011 FC 309, [2011] 2 F.C.R. D-7 |
T-617-09 |
Veterans
Judicial review of Veterans Review and Appeal Board (Board) decision denying applicant pension entitlement for mechanical lower back pain—Applicant undergoing officer training aboard destroyer escort—Sustaining injuries following slip in shower—Board rejecting causal relationship between fall in shower, lower back pain—Also finding, inter alia, showering activity personal event; specific location on warship more analogous to personal residence, barracks; applicant not on duty at time of injury—Members of armed forces not entitled to pension simply because of injuries sustained while members—Pursuant to Veterans Review and Appeal Board Act, S.C. 1995, c. 18, s. 21(2), injury must “arise out of” military service—Words “arising out of” to be interpreted broadly—Board herein approaching claim in bureaucratic, narrow, parsimonious manner, inconsistent with Act, s. 3—Approach to shipboard life such that decision maker dissecting every activity minutely as to whether activities part of military duties—Showering onboard matter of hygiene, discipline—Parallel with civilian life not entirely satisfactory—Board failing to consider unique nature of shipboard life, confinement, closeness, nature of spaces on board—Focusing on whether applicant performing specific military function, duty when injured, rather than whether applicant’s injury arose from being in military service—Application allowed.
Bradley v. Canada (Attorney General) (T-617-09, 2011 FC 309, Phelan J., judgment dated March 15, 2011, 13 pp.)