Veterans Affairs committee  It's a difficult one, and I don't know if I can answer this in 30 seconds. In a nutshell, the benefit of the doubt provision comes, essentially, from section 39 of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board Act, where it says, essentially that the board shall draw “every reasonable inference in favour of the applicant...; accept any uncontradicted evidence” that it “considers to be credible” and “resolve in favour of the applicant...any doubt in the weighing of evidence, as to whether the applicant...has established a case”.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, in the end we're all human beings and that happens, not very often, but once in a while it might happen. It might happen because there's a difference of opinion between what the lawyer believes is the best strategy and what the client wants to do. Sometimes there are issues of people presenting with psychological issues, and it may be more difficult for them to establish a relationship with a particular advocate, so we will, without hesitation, change the advocate for them to make sure they find the right fit.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. Generally most people who are advised that their claim isn't very strong will take the advice. In some cases, they don't take the advice and they instruct us to proceed and, generally, they are still satisfied with their lawyer. If an issue does arise, though, it will spark us into action to perhaps get them a new lawyer.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a good question. Sometimes I'm asked by people why we have to deal with 10,000 files a year, because that's a lot. They ask why the department gets it so wrong. In fact, it's not that the department is getting it wrong. The department is adjudicating based on the information the client is able to provide, and then it makes its ruling based on that.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. We have about 60% at review, and about 35% or 40% at appeal.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sorry?

Veterans Affairs committee  Essentially, what happens is that, after review or appeal hearings take place, we then present clients with the survey and they fill it out at that point. At that point they're simply rating the advocate in terms of the relationship they had with their personal advocate. They're not rating on whether or not they got what they were looking for from the board.

Veterans Affairs committee  That is correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's almost right. They all are members of a provincial bar. Because they're working for the Government of Canada, they don't have to necessarily be a member of the bar in the jurisdiction in which they're practising, but yes, they are all members of their respective law societies and subject to that law society's rules and regulations and values and ethics.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's exactly right and, in fact, that's in the legislation itself. The law says we must do that, and certainly for advocates to be lawyers with the Bureau of Pensions Advocates, they must be licensed. They can only be licensed by their respective bar societies if they are following the rules and regulations laid out by that bar society.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, that's correct. There's a firewall between us and the department, and the department has no access to our files. In fact, based on how we work and register claims that come in, the department doesn't even know that a particular veteran is a client of the Bureau of Pensions Advocates.