Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. The Merlo Davidson settlement was for women of the RCMP who had been victims of or who had experienced sexual misconduct during the course of their service. The settlement had six levels of claim, if you will. We received complaints from RCMP women veterans who were getting part of their disability pensions clawed back based on the settlement monies they had received.

Veterans Affairs committee  Good evening Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me to address you on the subject of the experience of women Veterans. I understand this is the first time that the Committee has dedicated a series of meetings solely focused on women Veterans. As a woman Veteran myself, I am honoured that you have chosen me to lead off this historic undertaking.

Veterans Affairs committee  Very quickly, the people who step forward to help veterans [Technical difficulty—Editor] are saints. The Royal Canadian Legion does this and has done this for decades. There are many individuals across this country, like the people you have heard from, who step up and try to help their colleagues with their claims because they have some experience with it.

Veterans Affairs committee  I can say two things. First, I absolutely share your concern about veterans who are frustrated, who perhaps have mental health issues, and who are unable to provide the information required in a calm and collected manner because they are so frustrated and perhaps suffer from mental health issues.

Veterans Affairs committee  The veterans who have a caseworker are those who are in the rehabilitation program or who already have a disability claim approved and need more assistance. Mr. Schippers can correct me if I have that wrong. What we're talking about is the time it takes for the department to actually make the decision on the disability claim.

Veterans Affairs committee  We do this in two ways. First and foremost, when an individual veteran or serving member comes to us with a complaint about their difficulty with the department, in order to resolve that complaint we must interact with the department to bring it to their attention. At every level, my staff can work across with the person in the department who can help to fix the problem.

Veterans Affairs committee  As far as I understand it, the red zone means that if you are over 80 years old, your claim is expedited. If you self-identify as someone with a life-threatening condition—for example, you may be in palliative care—then your claim is pushed to the front of the line. It's given priority treatment.

Veterans Affairs committee  This is the scope of the problem. This is exactly where my concern is, and I thank all of you so much for being seized of that matter.

Veterans Affairs committee  A big one is mental health supports. As we know, mental health is certainly front and centre in people's concerns today. With the pandemic, we all understand so well how important mental health is, the concept of resilience, and just how difficult some things are and how they impact us.

Veterans Affairs committee  Could you perhaps give me a little more? I hear from veterans. I hear their concerns, and those are unique to their cases. We did a women's forum last spring. I think one of the big issues is that the way women get broken—pardon me for being so blunt—by service in the Canadian Forces or the RCMP is different from the way men are broken.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's an excellent question. I'm going to ask Mr. Schippers to provide what will probably be a better answer than I can provide, given the short time I've served as the ombud.

Veterans Affairs committee  I am sorry. I did not think to ask for an update from the department on the progress they are making in setting up the peer support. However, I know that at the moment we published our report, progress was under way. They have a joint working group between Veterans Affairs and the Canadian Armed Forces.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would agree with you in the sense that most veterans.... Here's something I heard from the RCMP Veterans' Association that applies to military veterans. We have served, and we expect that to go a long way to explaining when we tell you that we're broken. We don't do very well at complaining.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, Mr. Chair. Again, I would strongly encourage the committee to ask precise questions and ask for much more detail, as I have stated a couple of times already. Ask who we are looking at. Ask who these veterans are. Ask what their circumstance is. Then, I believe the committee could focus in on those veterans who are the most in distress and who need the department's help the most.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's not my role or mandate to tell the department or to offer to the department how it should do its very important work. Where we see gaps, we will do a systemic investigation, which we advise the department we are doing. We keep the department fully engaged. As we work through our research and collection of data, we work with the department to confirm that the findings we've made are indeed valid.