Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Chairman Galipeau and honourable members of the committee. I bring you greetings from all our members from across Canada: the Métis nation veterans of Canada, the first nations veterans of Canada, and Inuit veterans of Canada. Thank you for your time and interest.

Veterans Affairs committee  Good evening. I'm Richard Blackwolf, the national president of Canadian Aboriginal Veterans and Serving Members Association. I'm honoured to have with me tonight, Mr. Joseph Burke, the Canadian Aboriginal Veterans national representative from Ottawa, who has an extensive medical background from his service in the military.

Veterans Affairs committee  It could be a change in era. The policy may have changed. Your age might have a lot to do with it.

Veterans Affairs committee  The CAV's position on that is that the reserve force is a strategic force. It tends to be larger in peacetime. The regular force is smaller in peacetime. Right now there are three regiments of each type: infantry, artillery, and armoured. That's the peacetime dividend. We have a much larger reserve force.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll defer to him. Just to restate your question again, please.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, it should be when the applications are made. If it takes 16 weeks, then they still go back to an application made or a...actually, they've introduced a second thing, right? You have to get all your paperwork in and then it starts?

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. I personally experienced this, because it was brought to my attention. If you went onto to the Veterans Affairs site with the intention of signing in, on the left there was a choice. When you clicked on that you ended up in an area with banks: CIBC, Bank of Nova Scotia—everything was there except my Royal Bank.

Veterans Affairs committee  Most certainly.

Veterans Affairs committee  I agree 100% with Chairman Forbes. We were a part of the original committee and this Royal Canadian Legion committee. We've set three, and at the minister's meeting on October 2 we put those suggestions to him, he accepted them, and nothing's happened.

Veterans Affairs committee  F.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, honourable Chairman. Yes, I was in the courtroom for those three days. I watched the expression of the judge. I watched the expressions of the people there. I saw Justice Canada present their case. Mind you, they're trying to block an action. Their whole point of being there is to dismiss that action, so they're going to be saying things like that.

Veterans Affairs committee  Our organization at the time was a member of the NCVA. As Chairman Forbes has brought it out, that was our position in those days. Concerning what we have today, I can remember that when I was young, at the end of World War II, there were gratuities. People, including our family members, the ones who survived the war, came home in 1947, and they had options—the Veterans' Land Act and that kind of thing.

Veterans Affairs committee  In the same regard, we believe the same thing as Chairman Forbes...all the studies that have gone on over these years.... The most important thing is that what's being said here is being said time and time again, so everything that's wrong is known. It's been fixable since 2010, and it's been long overdue, and we consider this another...I wouldn't say it's a waste of time, but it's an unnecessary time to review a review, and to review again.

Veterans Affairs committee  I believe our question was regarding the family and in particular the parents whose son or daughter was killed in action or severely maimed. But just to refer to the committee's question regarding support to family, family to us, particularly to aboriginal people, is everybody. We don't discriminate between fathers and parents and other children.

Veterans Affairs committee  Honourable Chairman and honourable members, in closing, because the Canadian Forces Members and Veterans Re-establishment and Compensation Act legislation was signed off by all political parties, Canadian aboriginal veterans feel that the honour of Parliament rests on the replacement of this flawed legislation.