OTTAWA — Seven “Widows on a Warpath” have travelled to the capital demanding an apology and more compensation for exposure to Agent Orange on CFB Gagetown.

Bette Hudson, who lost her husband in 2004 to lung and bone cancer, said the federal government’s existing compensation program is too narrow and excludes too many victims. She is calling for wider parameters for time periods and the diseases associated with exposure to the deadly defoliant.

“Our family has suffered a devastating blow with his death. I don’t know if we will ever recover because it is an emotional battering which one takes when one loses her life partner,” she said.

Hudson said the $96.5 million allotted so far will help 4,500 victims, when 400,000 could have been exposed. The widows are also demanding a full public inquiry and a minute’s silence in the House of Commons to honour Agent Orange victims.

“For us, there is always hope. We have optimism that we can move somebody to start doing something in honour of our husbands and families,” she said. “This can not go on, because this tragedy will continue for a great many generations.”

The widows will appear at a Senate committee Tuesday.

kathleen.harris@sunmedia.ca