Commission to Investigate Complaints Made By Walter H. Kirchner, M.C., D.C.M., Secretary, Canadian Combats Veterans Association, Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia, Regarding Pension and Treatment Services with Respect to Certain Cases Concerning which Mr. Kirchner Has Made Representations (Canada) : The Commission to Investigate Complaints made by Walter H. Kirchner, M.C., D.C.M., Secretary, Canadian Combats Veterans Association, Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia, Regarding Pension and Treatment Services with Respect to Certain Cases Concerning which Mr. Kirchner has made Representations was established under Order in Council P.C. 4980, 4 December 1947, under Part I of the Inquiries Act (R.S.C., 1927, c.99) and on the recommendation of the Minister of Veterans Affairs. Amended by Order in Council P.C. 75, 8 January 1948. The Commission was mandated to inquire into and report upon complaints made by Walter H. Kirchner, Esq., M.C., D.C.M., Secretary, Canadian Combat Veterans Association, Inc., Vancouver, B.C., regarding pension and treatment services, with particular reference to: (1) the adequacy of the treatment provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs with respect to the cases concerning which Mr. Kirchner has made representations; (2) the qualifications and competence of Departmental doctors treating these cases; and (3) the adequacy of pension consideration given to the cases concerning which Mr. Kirchner has made representations. The commissioners were James Joseph McCann, Chairman; Moses Elijah McGarry, Vice Chairman, John Oliver Probe, William Gourlay Blair and Robert Henry Winters. Winters was appointed a Commissioner on 8 January 1948 in place of McCann, who was unable to accompany the Commissioners to Vancouver (Order in Council P.C. 75, 8 January 1948). The secretary was F.L. Barrow.
In 1947, Mr. Walter H. Kirchner, Secretary, Canadian Combat Veterans Association, Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia, sent a circular letter to Members of Parliament in which he charged the Canadian Pension Commission with maladministration in its assessment of disabilities of war veterans. Kirchner also questioned the adequacy of treatment services for disabled veterans especially at the Shaughnessy Hospital in Vancouver.
Kirchner's charges, concerning the cases of 63 veterans, were of such a serious nature that a number of Members of Parliament wanted the Government of Canada to investigate them.
After a debate in the House of Commons on 16 July 1947, Ian MacKenzie, the Minister of Veterans Affairs, suggested that a committee composed of three Members of Parliament, who were also medical doctors, meet before the next session to investigate and report on Kirchner's charges. Further, Tom Bentley, Member of Parliament for Swift Current, recommended that an additional member be named to the proposed committee from the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (the C.C.F. Party).
As a result of Kitchener's allegations, on 4 December, the Government of Canada formally established a public inquiry to investigate them (See House of Commons, Debates, 16 July 1947, p. 5769 and National Archives of Canada, Records of Royal Commissions, RG 33/85, Vol. 1, summaries of cases of disabled veterans about whom Kirchner made representations and related records).
Hearings of the commission were held in Ottawa, Vancouver and while the commissioners were travelling from Ottawa to Vancouver, from 4 December 1947 to 9 March 1948. RG33-85 General Inventory