HALIFAX — A family's battle to gain entry to a veterans' hospital for a 94-year-old man decorated for his service in the Second World War could have a resolution today.
The son of Petter Blindheim says he's expecting a decision as early as this afternoon on whether Ottawa will relent and let his father receive nursing home care in one of 13 empty beds at the federally funded Camp Hill Veterans' Memorial hospital in Halifax.
Veterans Affairs initially refused to admit Blindheim because his service was as a member of the Royal Norwegian Navy, saying veterans of that force were "resistance" fighters rather than veterans of Allied forces.
Peter Blendheim says the department retreated from that position and is now insisting his father, who has long lived in Canada, meet a fresh hurdle of showing he requires "special care" that isn't provided by a provincially funded nursing home.
Blendheim, who spells his name differently from his father, joined his sister Karen Blendheim-Higgins and veterans' activist Peter Stoffer at a news conference today outside the hospital to urge the federal minister to admit Blindheim.
The siblings said their father performed heroically after his ship was torpedoed and deserves the high quality care available at Veterans' Memorial.
Stoffer, a former NDP veterans affairs critic, says Blindheim's struggle is the latest sign that Ottawa is trying to download the cost of veterans' care onto the provinces by creating bureaucratic entry to the federally funded care.
