Veterans Affairs committee  I didn't answer the question. I'm sorry. There is a difference, as I indicated earlier on, sir, between the traditional veteran in World War II and the Korean veteran, and their training, background, and issues, compared to the modern-day veteran. Remember, for the modern-day vet

Veterans Affairs committee  I return the compliment, sir, because it was an honour. I didn't know what to expect, coming to this committee. It was an honour and, to be quite frank, an enlightening experience. Some of the questions, as you may have gathered, were difficult for me to answer. But that's what t

Veterans Affairs committee  Record keeping.... In the army, we used to have what we called an ITR, an individual training record. It had a pay book. Heaven forbid if the company lost your ITR because that detailed all your courses and so forth. Yes, there'd be a hard copy of course reports, and yes, you cou

Veterans Affairs committee  The selection of the individual is key, and there's a great deal of integrity. You said he's going to bite the hand that feeds him. If he doesn't like what the minister is saying, he can resign. I'd like to think he's not going to do that. If the minister doesn't like it, he can

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't know.

Veterans Affairs committee  I understand that, but it's not my place to say.

Veterans Affairs committee  To what?

Veterans Affairs committee  If she's 23 and good looking, what's wrong?

Veterans Affairs committee  No, once again, that was an inappropriate remark on my part. How many cases are we going to have of that?

Veterans Affairs committee  And once again, you have to give the minister some latitude here. I think the minister should be in a position to say, to put it bluntly, yes or no: “Present a case to me of this and I will make a decision based on the recommendation from my senior staff”, and so forth. That's on

Veterans Affairs committee  Case by case...halfway between. Give the minister the authority to make the decision.

Veterans Affairs committee  So when do I start my job as the ombudsman?

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll go back to when our battalion was in Germany, along with a very heavy brigade, from 1960 to 1963. This was a time when the Berlin Wall was going up, not down. It was during the Cuba crisis, when the world came the closest it has ever come to nuclear war. We were deployed, m

Veterans Affairs committee  I think that may be right. It may drop off, but on the other side of the coin, as Ms. Hinton indicated and as somebody else indicated, the new Veterans Charter is a living document. It's a living document in which there will have to be improvements. As I indicated, if VAC had kno

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, and I say that knowing that there are, what, 134,000 out there--who hopefully will be addressed with regard to VIP and so forth--who have fallen through the cracks. Once again, it's a personal opinion. Some of these things can be transferrable from the individual to the sp