Veterans Affairs committee  In the traditional Métis territories, you have territory number three way up north, and then it comes down to around Winnipeg and the Red River. It definitely does go down into the U.S., so I'm sure that did happen, but I don't know any of the specifics off the top of my head. I know for sure it did happen, but to what degree I can't tell you.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think you're asking a bit of a loaded question. I will go right back to the World War II veterans when they left the service. They should not have been treated any differently than any other veteran was treated. You're asking the same thing, and I would say no. The military family resource centres are starting a great program of that transition, and nobody should be excluded from that.

Veterans Affairs committee  Definitely. The culture should be acknowledged, but it should not be any different for any veteran coming in or out.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Johns talked about getting more veterans involved as caseworkers who are out in the field, getting them out to identify.... Veterans aren't going to sit in a circle room and express their feelings. There isn't one program that is going to suit all veterans, and that's why there are so many of those groups out there.

Veterans Affairs committee  Right.

Veterans Affairs committee  Definitely. As I said, there's that stigma out there that veterans aren't going to ask for help. When I am personally in front of one of my comrades and talking to him, I'm going to see in his face that there's something wrong, and then maybe I'll add some other conversation to try to draw him out and see what it is.

Veterans Affairs committee  That discouragement is there unless somebody is there to pull that into them.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not sure. He didn't really elaborate on that. What I got from his testimony when I was listening to it was that because of his service, he wasn't taking care of himself. He wanted to take care of others. This was just a statement he made. I didn't hear if he elaborated on the specifics, but he did say there were issues within VAC that stopped him and that he got rid of the issues once he said or implied that he wasn't Métis.

Veterans Affairs committee  Not in recent years, no.

Veterans Affairs committee  With our personal counsel and for what we do, we don't have the infrastructure to do some of the other jobs that some of these associations do, so we piggyback with them. When they have something, we bring our resources to support and help them out to do what they're going to do.

Veterans Affairs committee  Just as you said, they're basically on the front lines. For example, last week VETS Canada was here in Ottawa doing a homeless search, looking for homeless vets, but I got notice of that on Friday. If there was some sort of way that Veterans Affairs could put on their website—for lack of a better word—an events page—

Veterans Affairs committee  I saw it on Facebook.

Veterans Affairs committee  That way, there could be some notice, and then maybe people could come out to help. It's the same thing when Veterans Affairs is having some activity. We don't find out until the day after it happened, or people say, “Oh, yes, I was there, and it was great.” We don't get advance notice that it's coming.

Veterans Affairs committee  No. I think you hit the point right on. We wanted a day to recognize our separate contributions. We also wanted to keep it separate from the November 11 ceremony, because we want to be with all our comrades. There are great stories out there from back in World War I and World War II.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Honourable members, guests, and friends, it's a great honour to be here before you to discuss Métis veterans and their issues. Métis peoples have been fighting battles for Canada since the War of 1812, and then again in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, the Persian Gulf, and Afghanistan.