On Friday June 21, 2024 we were fortunate to have a face-to-face meeting with Chris McNeil the Chair of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. We found him to be sincere and genuinely concerned with veteran’s welfare. The meeting was scheduled for one hour and lasted over 90 minutes. Chris was very open and understanding of the challenges facing veterans who develop cancer from their exposure to environmental hazards like burn pits and carcinogenic chemicals like Carbon Tetrachloride. He listened attentively to our concerns and even offered to reach out to his counterparts at VAC and BPA.

Chris also advises all Veterans appearing before the Board to articulate the environment in which they were working when the exposure occurred in as much detail as possible. He said that only 30% of Veterans describe the exposure environment and that board members need that detailed information as it could be the difference between winning or losing your appeal.

(Environmental Hazards at Sea in the 60s and 70s)

We discussed the Veterans Well-Being Act and in particular para 50 (g) of the regulation which essentially states that cancers that develop from exposure to known carcinogens are presumed to be service related unless there is evidence to the contrary.

(click here to read the Regulation)

He did acknowledge that perhaps in the past that they may have been a little too strict in their interpretation of the “presumption” clause of this regulation. He indicated that this was changing and that he had just approved a veteran’s claim.

Some of the main takeaways were:

• He identified the similarities between cancer due to exposure with PTSD in that they are both injuries that can show up several years after service.

• He mentioned that only 4% to 10% of all cases now go to appeal which means that VAC is approving more cases.

• He also mentioned that the current approval rate is 87% and when he first was appointed to his position in 2018 it was 60%.

• He told us that VRAB is doing 6000 cases per year which is up from 2000 a few years ago.

• He also transmitted that they are now generous when giving the benefit of the doubt. From his perspective it’s better err on the side of safety than to deny an award to a veteran who truly deserves it. He said that it’s better to approves a couple of claims that don’t deserve it that turn away one veteran that truly deserves compensation for their injury.

• He also said that doctor’s letters are not always necessary when cancer resulting from exposure to chemicals is involved.

All in all it was a very successful meeting. We learned that VRAB is evolving when it comes to relatively new injuries like PTSD and Cancer. It was very obvious to all of us that the systemic barriers that we identified in our Discussion Paper were not at all present in VRAB processes. This tells us that the the primary source of the systemic barriers for veterans with cancer to be VAC. Fortunately Chris has offered to introduce us to his counterparts at VAC and BPA so we will continue our efforts to improve VAC processes for Veterans with Cancer.

Veterans with Cancer now has a FaceBook Group

Tap or Click on the Link Above to View Our Group