When the minister advised us in writing in July about the ex gratia, I did reply to the minister in August saying that I still have strong concerns about the perceived resolution, one being the ex gratia, because it will not give full satisfaction to any grievance, and the other one being the retroactivity of it.
When the minister replied to my August letter, he did mention that the limitation was a bit unexpected and that this is an initial basis to move forward from. This was decided in 2003 by a former chief justice of the Supreme Court of this land, followed in 2012 by a provincial chief justice, who both said that this should be giving full authority to the Chief of the Defence Staff. I do not believe that an ex gratia will achieve that, with the Chief of the Defence Staff being the final authority for a grievance. In fact, he doesn't have final authority if he's not able to compensate fully for what has been wrong.