Veterans Affairs committee  One would be impartiality. Restore the members' impartiality and get the members and staff to buy into the generous nature of the legislation, the non-adversarial part of it. You can't make it any clearer than what's written in there.

Veterans Affairs committee  I thought that was two. Impartiality, as in leave us alone to make our decisions. The second one was to get everybody at the board bought into the generous....

Veterans Affairs committee  It would take some intensive training from people outside the board.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't typically concern myself with that. Look, we're on the road five days a week every week, in a different city.

Veterans Affairs committee  There should be no changes made at the board until the problems of impartiality and bias are fixed. Absolutely no changes. There are big changes coming. Video conference hearings would be one example. Every other tribunal in Canada will use a video conference as a last resort. VR

Veterans Affairs committee  There is no better job in this country than serving the people who have served our country and have been disabled in the service of that country. Although I share it, I have taken this as an absolute privilege to be able to hear cases. They are very special people. The Government

Veterans Affairs committee  I would just like to say that my family has been in the service since 1691 in Canada, so I understand all about it.

Veterans Affairs committee  Consistency is absolutely important, but we need to have consistency by everybody's singing from the same song sheet and understanding the legislation and our guiding values. Right now, they're trying to achieve consistency by forcing us, through favourability rates and other t

Veterans Affairs committee  I think I mentioned it earlier. When I first joined the board, we only needed a doctor's letter that said the person had a certain diagnosis and it's on for more than six months. That establishes a disability under the Pension Act. All we did from that was hold a hearing, look at

Veterans Affairs committee  It's a very secret thing. At first, when I joined the board in 2005, the favourability rate was done by region, and it changed around 2007 or 2008 to favourability rates being aimed at a person. You can't do it. If you and I were sitting on a panel and you agreed and I didn't,

Veterans Affairs committee  We have that, but the ones who are questioned are the ones with the higher favourability rate.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sir, we only have to follow the rules. They're clear.

Veterans Affairs committee  I can only speak from my experience, and what I've given you is my experience. I don't know that anybody blatantly comes out and says that they're not going to listen to the Federal Court. I don't think that happens. I think what happens is that people simply don't agree with th

Veterans Affairs committee  Personally, I would like to see somebody go through our decisions. The board has complete authority to review our own decisions on our own motion, because we know there are some people who have absolutely deferred their decision-making to the.... I could provide a list of names i

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you.