Veterans Affairs committee  On getting the word up the food chain, to use those words, a president of our association in Ontario in one of our smaller divisions had cancer of the bladder. He felt that it might have been from the forensic identification duties he was on, particularly involving fingerprint po

Veterans Affairs committee  I've never actually been at a VRAB meeting myself, but I'm told by other people who have that in order to introduce something new, it has to be new evidence and nothing else. It can't be anything that's been written or brought up in the past, because that's already been considere

Veterans Affairs committee  I have a cellphone number at the office, but then you have to contact me. You can phone that number anywhere in Canada, and it will ring in the office nearest where you're phoning from.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, it's actually the Canadian Forces; I'm on their committee. I would say that they would be faster service—a quicker service by VAC—and also an improvement to the award as far as increasing it is concerned. They're finding that usually the injured person is quite young; tha

Veterans Affairs committee  I wouldn't say those were the top two, but they're close. I'm really not sure what the top two would be.

Veterans Affairs committee  We'd stay with the pension act, as it is now. We would still stay with the pension act.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would say definitely so. I know a lot of improvements are being looked at for the new Veterans Charter, but as it is today, sir, no. We'll stay with the pension act, as we decided in 2006.

Veterans Affairs committee  Part of what's behind it is that lot of times, when you go back in a member's file—a member of my vintage or older—you'll see that a lot of these places where people were stationed were small centres with no doctors. Some of them were hurt—I hope I'm answering the question—and th

Veterans Affairs committee  I just thought I'd mention that.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, it would, because they're on special duty. It would be the same as the Canadian Forces. Even if they're just in training here to go overseas and they get hurt in preparation, the answer is yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  That would be hearing services. Hearing is the most common. The reason is that in my generation, and before that, we used to shoot with no earmuffs, no hearing protection. As a matter of fact, we even used to pick up the empty cartridges and put them in our ears, for goodness'

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. I might just add that the RCMP is 3% of VAC's customers.

Veterans Affairs committee  There are 16,500 retired members, and there are about 4,600 of those who are members of our association. Those 4,600, I would say, have a good chance to reach for information from our executive people. For instance, in the Vancouver division, the Kamloops division, and the Nova S

Veterans Affairs committee  Of the two cases, the first one in Saskatchewan was resolved to everyone's satisfaction. The second one has only come to light recently, coming to me from one of our veterans in Vancouver. He brought it to my attention. What happened was I asked him if he would volunteer to be a

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we have. They were not these cases, but yes, we have in general terms, and specifically as well, with not only Mr. Parent but with Paul Woods as well, who's a former member of the RCMP.