Bad Decision-Making = Responsibility

It's kind of hard to square certain things, like the sense of responsibility of an independent individual making use of free will to arrive at decisions that might not represent as wholly prudent given prevailing circumstances, then howling that someone else is responsible for the misfortune that befalls him when his plans go awry.

Here's a man living in Cap-Pele, New Brunswick, petitioning Veterans Affairs Canada, in Charlottetown, P.E.I., and resorting to a hunger strike because, he claims, he is owed "justice". It would appear that Veterans Affairs somehow failed to follow through as they should have, in ensuring that this man's pension came through on time and as expected.

Instead, what transpired is that a clerical error that occurred somewhere deep in their bureaucracy was responsible for five months' worth of waiting to no avail. The cheque definitely wasn't in the mail. Nor did it end up as it should have, in his bank account. And without that funding that he was entitled to, his best-laid plans went phhht!

Fabien Melanson is 40 years of age. He served with the Canadian Forces for fifteen years, doing a stint in Bosnia and Croatia during the Balkans War. He was discharged, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2004. While waiting to be transitioned out of the Forces he decided to engage contractors to renovate his house.

When it came to his notice that his pension wasn't appearing in his bank account, and he was unable to pay the contractors he had hired, work was stopped on the house, he was unable to pay his mortgage and credit card bills, and gave up his 3 cats to a shelter knowing "they were going to be put down". He claims to have attempted suicide.

His repeated calls upon Veterans Affairs weren't immediately answered. After five months of back-and-forth he convinced Veterans Affairs to give him the bank number of the account where his pension payments had been deposited. Obviously a miscommunication, one his bank helped with when they communicated with Veterans Affairs and within a week the owing $3000 was deposited to his account.

However, he now insists that because the renovation work on his elderly house had to be stopped, mould developed in the interim because the house had been left sans heat and insulation through winter and he was forced to declare bankruptcy. Which is why he is exerting pressure on Veterans Affairs for an apology and a commitment to fully fund the renovations on his house.

Mr. Melanson made some impetuous, imprudent decisions when he proceeded to hire contractors without the firm assurance that he was in possession of the funding he required to go ahead with his plans. Due to an inadvertency, Veterans Affairs was five months in arrears of his pension; surely that hiatus wasn't sufficient to drive a man into bankruptcy?

And if it was, perhaps he should find himself responsible for the fall-out of poor planning, and not call upon the taxpayer to haul him out of a situation he himself created?