Ottawa, ON & SYDNEY, NSW - November 25, 2005: British Columbia resident Bernard Jackson today filed an anti-discrimination lawsuit against the UK Government with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Jackson, WWII veteran and vice chair of the Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners (CABP), is heading an international group of a dozen other applicants named in the lawsuit. They are seeking cost-of-living indexation of British state pensions for the 50% of expatriate pensioners who are selected for exclusion from such annual upgrades.

The lead applicants reside in Canada, Australia and South Africa, which are among the hardest hit of the countries the UK has singled out for pension freezing. With the exception of Mr. Jackson, their identities will remain confidential, in deference to the frailty and advanced age of some. There are 520,000 frozen pensioners around the world, some 150,000 of them in Canada, 240,000 in Australia and 38,000 in South Africa.

In May 2005, Britain's Law Lords rejected the Carson Case in a majority decision, clearing the way for the pension issue to proceed to the ECHR.

The lawsuit is being managed by CABP, with the support of the British Pensioners Association of Western Canada, British Pensions in Australia [BPiA] and the South African Alliance of British Pensioners. The Canadian law firm McCarthy Tetrault is providing pro bono legal services and UK human rights barristers Timothy Otty and Ben Olbourne, of 20 Essex Street Barristers, have been retained to represent the plaintiffs at the ECHR.