National Defence committee  You are absolutely right. A good chunk of folks who come to see us aren't coming because they have what they would identify in any way as being a religious question or a spiritual question. They're coming because they see the chaplain as an easy resource to access, because the ch

National Defence committee  That could be dangerous. But we seek people out and we ask them those questions. You might have to ask them two or three times, “How are you doing?” Because the first time you'll just get the answer. You look them in the eye, and you spend time connecting with them. You will iden

National Defence committee  Thank you very much.

National Defence committee  I will turn the question to Padre Yaskiw to answer that. As I mentioned, he's the only member of our staff in the headquarters who is a reservist. He brings a unique perspective to some of the challenges reservists often face that we regular force people take for granted. I app

National Defence committee  They don't. We have aboriginal chaplains within the chaplaincy, but they're Christian clergy. A fair bit of time was spent with aboriginal elders to sort out how we would address traditional aboriginal spiritual needs. The determination was that to pursue having uniformed spirit

National Defence committee  Thank you very much. What I identified earlier as what I think is crucial to our successful management of the challenges before us, being rooted in community, is true for us as well. Chaplains need to remain well rooted and grounded within their own faith tradition. They need to

National Defence committee  We might have to stay after school.

National Defence committee  You may need to refresh my memory on these three points, but I want to go back to the first one you mentioned about a lagging or leading indicator for physical healing and spiritual healing. I think you see both. In some instances, you will see people whose physical scars and w

National Defence committee  Yes, values.

National Defence committee  I agree with you. I think that for a number of people their faith becomes shattered by these experiences. Other people come back deepened, deepened in a belief and commitment that what they were engaged in was of incredible value and that they made a significant difference. Other

National Defence committee  That's correct. Certainly every one of our chaplains belongs to a faith group and we are accountable to that faith group for our mandate and our licence to exercise ministry. So while a female chaplain from the Roman Catholic church can exercise the military role of a chaplain in

National Defence committee  That's correct. It's written somewhere in a holy book that you can't serve two masters, but every one of our chaplains needs to. They belong to a religious tradition that has licensed them to serve in this capacity, and they remain accountable to that religious authority. But the

National Defence committee  Certainly in theatre a multidisciplinary care team is deployed. In addition to chaplain counsel there would be other resources as well, mental health nurses, etc. We do have resources in theatre that can be brought to bear to address whatever counselling needs might present thems

National Defence committee  Yes, we do. We're the only military occupation that actually has a mandated role to provide services to family members. There are some unique differences with families who are posted to Europe or outside of the country, where other occupations also have a mandate to provide servi

National Defence committee  Thank you very much. Recruitment remains one of our biggest challenges. It's not necessarily a matter of available candidates in Canada; it's a matter of age. We are finding that in most of the seminaries, for example, across Canada, the average age of theological students is m