A discrimination case involving the family of a fallen soldier from Wingham is being thrown out in Ottawa.
Veterans Affairs abruptly declared Corporal Matthew Dinning had an unrecognized common-law spouse and child.
Dinning’s parents and brother were challenging the federal government’s policy of paying a 250-thousand dollar lump-sum death benefit only to the families of married soldiers.
Lincoln Dinning, Matthew’s father, says he never would have launched the complaint alleging the government discriminates against single soldiers if he had known about a spouse.
Lawyers for Veterans Affairs argued that Dinning was no longer a single soldier so there was no basis for the complaint.
The decision came down last week, on Friday.
