April 23, 1999

Ms Jean Dixon
Senior Legal Counsel
Veterans Review and Appeal Board
P.O. Box 9900
Charlottetown, P.E.I.
C1A 8V7

Dear Ms Dixon:

I am in recept of your April 12, 1999 letter informing me of the Board's rejection of Mrs. Clayton Matchee's request to the Board to allow her to provide it with new evidence fundamental to its determination of the facts in her case.

On April 20th, Parliament received a special report from the Auditor General entitled: "National Defence and Health Canada: Non-compliance with conditions and inadequate monitoring with respect to the pre-licensing use of an anti-malarial drug." With receipt of that report and the substantial evidence that we have assembled for presentation to the Board, it is now clear that virtually every one of the Board's original findings is now in doubt.

Mrs. Matchee engaged me to represent her so that this new evidence would be put forward. Your decision to refuse to hear new evidence diminishes her confidence in the Board.

On April 22nd, she directed me to withdraw any request the Pension Advocate may have made in January for the Board to re-consider her application. Mrs. Matchee indicates that the Pension Advocate was not acting on her instructions when the request for re-consideration was made.

Mrs. Matchee is of the view that a decision made without the new evidence now in her possession would be worse than no decision at all, as it would misrepresent her husband's disability and the events leading to that disability. Your immediate attention to Mrs. Matchee's request for a discontinuance will be appreciated.

Yours truly,

John Cummins, M.P.