N.S. veteran receives critical injury benefit after trauma from alleged military sex assault

In what may be a Canadian first, a Nova Scotia veteran says she feels validated now that the trauma she experienced following an alleged sexual assault has been recognized as a critical injury, and she has been compensated accordingly.  

Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) first denied Zandra Pinette the critical injury benefit in 2016 — two years after the alleged assault — but last month, the Veterans Appeal and Review Board (VARB) overturned that decision, granting her the tax-free lump sum payment of $84,203. 

"That was validation for me," said Pinette, during a recent interview at her home in New Glasgow, N.S. 

The critical injury benefit is given to members of the Canadian Armed Forces who have experienced a severe and traumatic service-related injury as a result of a sudden, single incident on or after April 1, 2006, that has caused a severe impairment to their quality of life.  

As of Nov. 10, 238 Canadians had received the benefit, which was created in 2015 as an update to the Veterans Well-being Act, which came into force in 2006.

Pinette, 43, joined the Canadian Armed Forces as a social worker in 2011. She wanted to help soldiers process their trauma but says less than three years later she was sexually assaulted and wound up diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder herself. 

She says she attended her first mess dinner at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, N.B., on Feb. 7, 2014. Pinette says there was a lot of alcohol served and the next thing she remembers is waking up with a senior officer. 

"I had no idea where I was, and so I woke up in horror, no clothing on," she said. 

Pinette said she found her clothes scattered around the floor, her pantyhose were torn, and her blouse was missing several buttons.

Within three months of the alleged incident, which Pinette says she reported days after it happened, she was medically released from the military and diagnosed with PTSD. 

"I didn't feel safe to be on Base Gagetown," she said. "I would sit in the living room with a knife beside me, that's how I would sit all day."

A spokesperson for the Department of National Defence declined to answer any questions about whether the man Pinette has accused of assaulting her was ever disciplined, citing the Privacy Act. She did confirm he is an active member of the Canadian Armed Forces. 

CBC news is not naming him because he was never charged. 

CBC News has reviewed what's known as the statement of case, which was assembled by the Veterans Appeal and Review Board, and includes files from Veterans Affairs Canada, the Department of National Defence and Pinette's medical records, including those from her appointment with a sexual assault nurse examiner three days after the alleged assault.