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 military or the RCMP experience in front of the board, the requirement to have such stringent evidence may not be required. You would have somebody who has had the same experience, who has been deployed and has an army, navy, or air force background.
There are no female veterans on the board, yet a number of female veterans go in front of the board. Nobody has experienced what a female veteran has experienced; I've said to this committee on several occasions that what women experience in the Canadian Forces is different from what men experience, but there is no female military or RCMP representation on the board.
It's to have a very balanced board and a larger makeup of relevant operational military experience. The Veterans Review and Appeal Board will show that right now 86% of the veterans coming in front of the board under the new Veterans Charter have peacetime service, and so the experience should be there.