Veterans Affairs committee  So far, the peacekeepers, as we call them, were members of our organization. There was a falling out on a policy question, and we said, “You're free to disestablish yourselves, and more luck to you,” and that's what happened. Now, there are very few.... Mostly, regimental organiz

Veterans Affairs committee  There is no ombudsman employed in any adjudicative system that I know of in the North American milieu—none.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. I just wanted to take a moment to explain why I wore my medals today. I was at the funeral at noon today of a comrade of mine. I don't wear my medals to impress anybody. Normally I would not wear them at a parliamentary committee meeting.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you.

Veterans Affairs committee  Monsieur Perron, if an ombudsman made a mistake, it would be brought to his attention when he submitted his report and somebody said we don't agree. What happens then--and that's I'm sure the big question--if you disagree with the ombudsman?That's where the advice of superior pow

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, as we said, Monsieur, the ombudsman should not do the pension commission's job for it. What it should do is provide advice if the chairman of the commission--he has a new title now--if the chairman of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board does not agree, he has at least gone

Veterans Affairs committee  Because they have different financing, they have different slates of officers, as we'd call it. The Dieppe people are interested only in what happened in Dieppe. The European prisoners of war are interested only in what happens to the veteran who was a prisoner of war in a Europe

Veterans Affairs committee  None of it comes from the government--that's number one--none of it.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, none of it comes from the government. They're very proud of the fact that they're independent of any government financing, and sometimes this leads to some pretty healthy debate at the meetings. I'll be going to one in two weeks' time. What really happened was that there w

Veterans Affairs committee  The answer to that, sir, is that all of them do. It may not be experience in pension matters, but they all have an ombudsman system. Somebody not connected with, let's say, a widow's pension or whatever--outside of the veterans pension thing--can take a referral. Somebody calls h

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, Finland and Greenland. We stopped in Greenland, and I remember seeing how these people operated. So it's really all the Scandinavian countries.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, I would say long enough for it to be ingrained into their system, and in no case would you find an ombudsman.... The man may have changed, but the duties of the office have not changed for 20 years at least.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  The answer to that is yes. We work on the system and let them know what you're proposing. I write to literally 55 different organizations and tell them that the Prime Minister has used the word “ombudsman”, tell them it's liable to come up again, and ask if they are prepared to s

Veterans Affairs committee  The Woods report was commissioned because several members of Parliament were very unhappy with the time the adjudication system required. There were many complaints, so the minister of the day, Mr. Roger Teillet, got the idea that we should have a royal commission. That was turne