Veterans Affairs committee  I think there's been a distinct improvement in VRAB. A lot of the feedback we're getting is old. When you look at the new structure of the board, everybody is represented, particularly veterans. The police are represented, legal is represented, and medical is represented. It's a good construct now, as far as I'm concerned.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Before we continue with the presentation, I would like to make an administrative clarification. You have been given our brief, as translated, and our presentation is clearly going to be quite a bit shorter than that. We won't be following that script exactly.

Veterans Affairs committee  Of course we're aware of what the general recommendation was from some of the other veterans organizations, and that was two years. In fact General Gollner and I discussed that last night, and even this morning, and we decided that we would not give any sort of timeframe to it. I think there are people better qualified to make that type of judgment than we are.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I think the entire veterans consultation group has agreed on that. They are behind the Veterans Ombudsman's report. Everything doesn't happen at the same time, and I think most rational people recognize that. However in the veterans community, it's gotten to be a bit of a controversy if you use the word “incremental”.

Veterans Affairs committee  This applies to VAC as well as for VRAB— the same concept.

Veterans Affairs committee  We've heard to solve the problem and work out the details after, a number of times this afternoon. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by “reversing the philosophy”.

Veterans Affairs committee  The Veterans Ombudsman had it all solved in this article in the paper two days ago, and that's what it was. It was reversing that particular “prove beyond reasonable doubt everything”. Of course, in the same vein, that was the problem with VRAB, too. The benefit of doubt was being exercised in a reverse manner in dealing with the case, and, of course, we dealt with that one previously so....

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, could I comment? There was an interesting article, actually a bombshell of an article, by the Veterans Ombudsman in The Hill Times, I think it was yesterday or the day before, where he actually rebutted a previous proposal by Michel Drapeau and a colleague about changing the organizational structure of VAC.

Veterans Affairs committee  We certainly were, the CPVA.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll give a short answer first. The CPVA was one of the organizations that resisted the fast passage of the new Veterans Charter, because it just simply didn't get the scrutiny that we thought it required. Of course, that's all history now. But for the other parts of this question, I'd like to pass it on to General Gollner, who has lived those times too.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I should tell you a little story. My brother calls himself KO-kko-nen, and I use Ko-KKO-nen, so go figure.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, members of this vital committee, good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity to present to you the views of the Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association, or CPVA for short, on the enhanced new Veterans Charter. With me, of course, is Joseph Gollner, our patron.

Veterans Affairs committee  If I could add something, Mr. Chair, one of the big factors here is social media. That one complainer you're talking about will get on Facebook, Twitter, email, and that's the message that goes out. The information we've presented comes.... We had no positive comments, so we don't know how many are out there.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think all of the commentary here and also in the past has been that the benefit of the doubt is being applied incorrectly. It's much too strict and gives no benefit of the doubt to the veteran in very many cases. The former veterans ombudsman made a very big issue of this, did a lot of research into it, and clearly seemed to prove that it was not being done correctly at VRAB.

Veterans Affairs committee  Oh, absolutely. I think it's a mainstay and is really a very critical thing for our veterans going in there. They need that support and expertise in law.