National Defence committee  No, of course not.

National Defence committee  Absolutely, I would say so. You've no doubt heard stories about some soldiers who wanted to go back to Afghanistan to die there, to finish the job or to avenge fallen comrades on some level. Without question, the ambiguity around our success in Afghanistan will remain a moral dil

National Defence committee  As far as treatment goes, we're there. It's good. From my experience, it's fine. As far as peer support goes, the program exists and is working well. Don't change it. Don't let it disappear. No more investment is needed on that front. As for leadership, I believe leadership edu

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  I think history has demonstrated that when the budgets are tightened...and perhaps rightly so. You know what? We all have our opinions. But having been through the mental health gauntlet myself, and having come close to killing myself, I know how important it is to not allow the

National Defence committee  Unfortunately, I don't have any numbers with me. I've been away from the program for three years now. But those numbers are easy to get. There shouldn't be any trouble obtaining that information.

National Defence committee  You mean women acting as peer helpers?

National Defence committee  You bring up an important consideration when it comes to the peer helper. When I put programs in place in private industry or large companies, we do the same thing. There isn't an official way to access peer support. In other words, the person who needs help seeks out a person of

National Defence committee  Regarding resistance, at the time there was a very entrenched clinical paradigm, which incidentally I think the military is slowly gravitating back towards, unbeknownst to itself, perhaps. They're letting the clinical world re-influence everything, which, I think, is part of the

National Defence committee  I mean by the leadership itself to recognize that the mental health of its members is not a clinical matter. When somebody is ill, it's definitely a clinical issue. Somebody needs proper treatment, etc. But the mental health of any employee in Canada is not a doctor's responsib

National Defence committee  You're no doubt ware that DND introduced blind testing policies to screen for those who could be taking drugs. As parliamentarians who study these matters, you also know, however, that soldiers are resourceful people. Our soldiers are extremely resourceful. Something unexpected

National Defence committee  Again, this is my opinion and I can't prove it. But my intuition tells me that among younger members, say those with less than 10 years of service, 4 or 5 years in, for example, a certain culture has developed in some units. It is seen as cool. Certainly, like anywhere else, peop

National Defence committee  Well, I will be very candid, Mr. Bezan, and say that I think there is no such thing as universality of service. I'll be very candid again. I'm not in uniform anymore, but I think it is a figment of the Canadian Forces' imagination to think that every soldier, sailor, airman, airw

National Defence committee  I would have to think about that. I did not come prepared to answer the question of how, but I do know that it does start at the leadership level. I do understand that hopefully there will one day be a chief of military personnel or a chief of the defence staff who will accept th

National Defence committee  I don't have decades of experience in my civilian work now, but I have to say that every meeting I go to, every corporation I work with, the majority of people who are stepping up are in fact women. So if True Patriot Love is reporting that women aren't coming forth in the milita