I want to say that what I am talking about is something that I read recently. Moreover, the regular forces should do more in the way of medical monitoring of people coming back from an operational mission.
The University of Manitoba study, for example, points out that witnessing atrocities, murders or serious injuries doubles the risk of someone wanting to commit suicide. That means that soldiers in an operational setting who see someone get killed or dismembered are twice as likely to commit suicide. The risk is four times higher if personnel have killed or injured another person.
If the risk is doubled when someone witnesses that kind of situation and quadrupled when the person is responsible for the death or injury, it seems to me that the Canadian Forces should be questioning those people to see whether they are suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. We do know that there have been some 50 suicides over the past 3 years.
What is your view?