Veterans Affairs committee  The Legion's advocacy program is core to our mission. The Legion provides representation to assist veterans and their families with obtaining their disability benefits from Veterans Affairs Canada. Disability entitlement is key to accessing the various programs and health benefit

Veterans Affairs committee  Very quickly, we're working very closely with the director of military family services in the Canadian Forces, who has responsibility for all of the military family resource centres across the country. We're working to establish an understanding of the resources that are availa

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. There needs to be more work done to stress the work and life balance issues that women face, particularly from the operational taskings and the competition with the support for their own families. In 1983, when I joined the Canadian Forces, there were 10% women in the

Veterans Affairs committee  For the veterans independence program, one of the primary gateways for access is that you must have a disability entitlement. For a World War II veteran or their surviving spouse, there's a huge process to go through to get that access. We typically try to get a hearing loss di

Veterans Affairs committee  We have a very structured training program for all of our service officers at the branch level. Every branch has a service officer. They act as a referral agent because of the complexity and the privacy issues. All of the branches in each province receive training at least on an

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't know how I ended up in the middle of you three. I guess it's a bit of an honour. I did bring copies of my presentations. Unfortunately, due to the untimely death of our translator, they're only available in English. I notice you have copies of thei

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I have given them to the clerk.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. Good afternoon. It is a great pleasure to appear in front of your committee. I am pleased to be able to speak to you this afternoon on behalf of our dominion president of the Royal Canadian Legion, Mr. Gordon Moore, and our over 330,000 members and their families. The

Veterans Affairs committee  Are you addressing the question to me?

Veterans Affairs committee  I just wanted to respond to your first two questions, Peter. Our Legion president meets with John Larlee, the chair of the board, at least annually. I have a once-a-month teleconference with Ms. Dale Sharkey, the director general, and I raise very specific issues. When a vetera

Veterans Affairs committee  As we've said in our presentation, we believe the role of the VRAB is very important as a quasi-judicial organization. However, the benefit of the doubt clause and its interpretation is probably the most misunderstood application. That needs to be revisited from a legal perspecti

Veterans Affairs committee  The Legion has been proactively advocating for many years to have military or RCMP experience on the board to represent those who are appearing in front of the board. It's important to have a balanced board with both military and non-military experience, but if you have the milit

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, that's correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  As I mentioned in my presentation, one of the issues is that the evidence requirements are onerous. The burden is on the veteran. At each level, additional medical evidence is required. That's one of the issues. The other thing is that it's not quite so easy as saying that Vete

Veterans Affairs committee  I think the evidence requirements need to be looked at to see if they're actually too restrictive. That's why I raised the issue of the VRAB adjudicative guidelines, the application of the benefit of the doubt and how that's being applied, and the composition of the board. If you