Veterans Affairs committee  As mentioned earlier, possibly it would be a merging of the departments, DND and Veterans Affairs. I'm not sure of the history of it, or of why it was set up that way. Probably it was the sheer volume of, at the time, the post-Second World War veterans, or maybe even after the Fi

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, that's what it was. You got the option—

Veterans Affairs committee  You should take it all, yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  No, I think it's a federal responsibility since they are federal employees. Coming back to the covenant, if there were such a thing as the army of Alberta, then perhaps that would be their problem. In this case, it's a federal jurisdiction, and the sad thing is that we seem to be

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, 23 years over a period of 27, and part of the reason for that is.... She was an exemplary soldier, had extremely good reviews and was listed as promotable. In 1994 while in Germany, she brought forth a case of sexual harassment against her supervisor, and that was the end of

Veterans Affairs committee  Not at the time. To clarify, when she did come forward for the psychological help, she was given the loss benefit allowance as well—lost wages. That was the money the letter came out to claw back after her death. She had been receiving that for...I want to say six or eight months

Veterans Affairs committee  It was a few thousand a month. It was her full pay from her last rank as corporal. The reason for that small amount was that she did not have a full military pension even though she would have qualified. When she was “5(f)ed” the original time, they essentially said, “Here's the

Veterans Affairs committee  Exactly.

Veterans Affairs committee  How that happens, I don't know, but...

Veterans Affairs committee  Just quickly, if I could add, Mr. Chair. One of the paradoxes of that is a lot of people may bring to the conversation that the last thing we need is more bureaucrats. Yet ironically, yes, I think we need more people in places to be dealing with this. The caseloads are large.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think you've stated it eloquently. Certainly from the position of people on this side of it, that's what it feels like. One other veteran who prepares these claims for other Afghan vets did seven tours over there and he, himself, became PTSD-diagnosed after seven. He now spend

Veterans Affairs committee  That I saw personally, after the fact?

Veterans Affairs committee  No, I guess I could say I had a fairly stable job and position that I was able to manage. It wasn't easy. This was an ongoing process leading up to her death. This whole process lasted about a year and a half. At times, you would think things were levelling or getting better, an

Veterans Affairs committee  Not really. I should say that initially, after she was out of service for a few years, things were quite good. She was engaged with a home business. She ran a day care in the neighbourhood and took care of other children. But after a while that in itself became quite a stressful

Veterans Affairs committee  I believe it was certainly a factor. The issues that were plaguing her over time stemmed back quite a few years, actually, but had been brought to the forefront again as she was having difficulty readjusting to civilian life. After a couple of years, she needed to try to find a c