Veterans Affairs committee  It's important to note that the Royal Canadian Legion—

Veterans Affairs committee  I am Andrea Siew. I am the director of the service bureau at the Royal Canadian Legion. In response to the question, which I think is extremely important, we have 23 service officers across the country, who are paid and are full-time, and we have 1,400 volunteers. The Royal C

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely.

Veterans Affairs committee  Are you referring to military veteran health research and looking at the types of injuries that military members have during their service—

Veterans Affairs committee  —and maintaining those database files?

Veterans Affairs committee  No, they're working on it. Just last year the military released a longitudinal health study, and they're working on that. They've done that in conjunction with Statistics Canada, looking at the Canadian population versus the military. It doesn't have everything and it's not compl

Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  No. The VRAB doesn't keep statistics on that type of data.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, to have that type of data, as well as in the decision letters.... If it's turned down at a particular level, why is it turned down, and what information is missing? I know the department and VRAB are working on both of those items.

Veterans Affairs committee  Each case is individual. It depends on what community they're in and whether they have access to an MRI. Here in Ottawa it takes eight months to get an MRI.

Veterans Affairs committee  There are a couple of things. I, with the Legion, have a big issue about the delays, because you have a finite number of opportunities to appeal or redress a decision, and if you use those up, you cannot go back to the board. We always tell the veteran to make sure we have the be

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, because there may be a medical report in the file that doesn't confirm a current diagnosis. For example, when they left the military, they didn't have osteoarthritis of the knees, but five years later, they do have a diagnosis of osteoarthritis of the knees, so they have to

Veterans Affairs committee  As I mentioned in my presentation, the application of the benefit of the doubt is probably the most misunderstood part of the process. It's a concept, and it now has a legal interpretation from the Federal Court, and veterans don't understand it. For advocates and lawyers, it's s

Veterans Affairs committee  I think there might be a lot of misinformation out there about the board. The evidence requirements are so stringent, and I mentioned it. You have to provide all of the evidence and you have to have the specialists' reports to confirm that you have that injury. You have to have t

Veterans Affairs committee  I look at three things. One is the evidence requirements, which are directly linked to the benefit of the doubt. The interpretation of all of the evidence by the board members influences what benefit of the doubt is, but you need to look at all three. You need to look at the