Veterans Affairs committee  No, I learned that lesson in 1997, when I went public to change things. First of all, if I may just clarify, it is not the charter that has failings; it is the apprenticeship of implementing it. So it's the process of implementing, and it's whether or not the cash is going to the right places in implementing, whether or not it is the right number of staff in the right places, and if they have the experience.

Veterans Affairs committee  I was personally involved with it in army equipment, but that could be another time. I take uppers and downers during the day and I take pills to sleep at night. If I don't take them, I am not human...literally. I become an impossible entity because I'm either way up there or I'm way down there, and I become suicidal.

Veterans Affairs committee  Those traumas are there forever; it's just how you manage them so that they're not invading you every now and again. It's how to build a prosthesis for it.

Veterans Affairs committee  May I just add to that? Unofficial statistics say that OSISS--this volunteer, informal thing that was created--has saved a suicide a day a year.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a lot of people.

Veterans Affairs committee  On the first one, rapidly, we used to be called dependants. My wife used to be called a dependant wife when we served in Germany. That was the term. When we served in Germany, everything was handled by National Defence--the medical; the legal, when we went in front of a judge advocate, because of the SOFAs we signed with Germany, and so on.

Veterans Affairs committee  People said it was ridiculous, that we needed guys with bayonets, that's it. However, we realized that these people have increased operational capacity because soldiers have access to counseling services. I want to give an example. In Rwanda, in the midst of the conflict, some soldiers would suddenly "blow a fuse" as they say.

Veterans Affairs committee  Let me quickly reply to that. We mustn't forget, Mr. Perron, that the training they receive is one of the main tools to ensure that they do not suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. A well-trained, well-equipped, properly motivated solider under good leadership is much less at risk of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, because he feels confident.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's incredible. I'll use Valcartier as an example, which is seen as one of the more progressive arenas in which they are doing work to help both VAC and DND, and so on. They have one guy who's handling the reservists at the family support centre—nice guy, works hard, but he's totally overwhelmed.

Veterans Affairs committee  When I was commanding the brigade in Valcartier in 1992, there were soldiers in Yugoslavia. So we wanted to send people, specialists, to assess the nature of the conflict, see what the operations were and the work that needed to be done. At that time, we limited the number of individuals we could send.

Veterans Affairs committee  The charter is a living document, and one of the greatest things about it is that it gives the minister so much more power. It is not a charter that's in the hands of the technocrats within the department; it's in the interpretation and the philosophy of the minister. That has to be the cat's meow of it.

Veterans Affairs committee  In what riding?

Veterans Affairs committee  I think first, internally in Defence, although it is not the case, we have argued, and I have argued--and they are moving slowly--to change the culture with regard to PTSD as an injury. The macho dimension still has to be cleaned up, and that is ongoing. I think an absolute effort still has to be committed to doing that.

Veterans Affairs committee  No. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. David is here to slip pertinent notes to me every now and again to keep me on track, if that's suitable with you.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's Madame Ladouceur's first time in committee. She joined me not long ago. So it's an on-the-job-training experience. I propose to speak, hopefully not for 20 minutes, but I will power talk my way through a few points in order to give you a bit of information, and then I'll be only too happy to respond to questions.