Evidence of meeting #47 for Veterans Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vrab.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5 p.m.
Conservative
5 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, gentlemen, for being here.
Mr. Small and Mr. Townsend, we've been trying for many months to get permission to hear from Mr. Leduc, so all my questions are going to be for him. At some point, I would like to talk to you about what the government is doing to your pensions, but that's not the subject of this hearing.
Mr. Leduc, I want to pick up on a couple of points raised by the parliamentary secretary. One of the answers you gave, sir, was that there are some good members on the board. I take it by that qualifier there are some who shouldn't be there.
5 p.m.
As an Individual
They have a different take. Some of them feel that veterans are looking for a handout when they come before the board. They haven't bought into the generosity of the legislation and the intent of the process. They're not bad people.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Can you offer us anything more in terms of what should be done by way of the appointment and selection or training process, such that people with that bias or attitude don't make it through?
5 p.m.
As an Individual
The screening process has to be good at the onset. The questions have to be designed in a way such that you can draw out a person's empathy or understanding of what the system is all about. As far as training goes when they get on the board, we spend three months with our staff, and we don't see other members. I think that from the get-go we should be mentored by other members who are out in the field and actually making the decisions.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
I want to ask you a couple of questions about procedural fairness. There's a couple of things that you said that give me great difficulty.
In one, you indicated that in advance of a hearing you received some sort of a document or an opinion from members of a legal unit or QA unit. Is that right?
5:05 p.m.
As an Individual
That's only on very difficult or very complicated cases. Agent Orange was a case. We received that.
But with the process redesign that's coming, that will be the fact for every case that comes before the board.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
When you receive these documents or briefings, are they also provided to the veteran and their representative?
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
You have information in front of you that will impact on your decision and which the veteran and his representative don't have.
5:05 p.m.
As an Individual
Just like after the fact, if we get legal opinions—those kinds of opinions—I have asked to send them out to the advocate and the applicant, and I've been told no.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
We heard this once before. Mr. Griffis was here. He has 22 years' experience with the judiciary. He was representing a veterans organization. He said that he had a letter from Mr. Larlee last September, which you referred to here, saying that the board had the right to seek medical advice.
My question is the same. When the board exercises that right, is the medical advice given to the veteran and the veteran's representative, and do they have a chance to test it, to cross-examine on it, and to make submissions in relation to it?
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Your opportunity to seek medical advice outside of the hearing, is that something you could do after you've heard from the veteran and received submissions from his counsel?
5:05 p.m.
As an Individual
It comes down to the benefit of the doubt. If you have two equal medical opinions, the way the law is written, the benefit of the doubt goes to the one that's most favourable to the veteran. Oftentimes that's not the case, so people will push for the one that isn't favourable. If we're not clear on the medical information, then we seek an independent medical opinion.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
When you do that, the veteran has an opportunity to attack that medical opinion or to say why you should accept his instead. Do they have that chance?
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Do they have it in front of you or is it something that's done in writing?
5:05 p.m.
As an Individual
No, we send it to them when we get it. Sometimes it takes eight months. They and the advocate will have an opportunity to rebut or agree with it and send it back. Then we'll make our decision.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
