Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not exactly sure what kind of training I could recommend. One of the biggest problems is communication. I just find that communication is very slow, and frequently, for me—and I'm pretty sure I've heard this from other people—it's waiting to hear from VAC acknowledging that they've even received your message in the first place.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, the simplest answer is that the Employment Equity Act has not been amended since 1995, the last time I looked at it, so maybe there needs to be an amendment to that. Frankly, it's almost like the government said, “Okay, we'll have employment equity. Okay, we passed the act and we've checked our box.

Veterans Affairs committee  I believe the first DAG was formed about 20 years after I joined the forces, as a result of the Employment Equity Act in 1995. I don't know when they were actually started in the forces, but I believe the Defence Aboriginal Advisory Group is probably now 22 or 23 years old.

Veterans Affairs committee  The purpose of the DAG is to act both as an advisory to the leadership and also—and yes, I did—to point out issues that the DAG members might see. I don't feel that the leadership actually uses the DAG as much as they should. Mainly, frankly, in my experience, the DAGs are used to acknowledge the international day against racism or the international day of women, etc.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not an expert on privacy, so I don't feel that I could actually give any suggestions, because privacy comes into it and the whole Privacy Act is not even an act I've read. I can't speak to that.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think that's aimed at me. Part of the problem, to be honest, is Canadian society itself. That's where recruits are drawn from, so part of it is that we need a change in Canadian society. There is intention, but again, part of the problem that I see in my career is that even when there's intention, there isn't time and energy put to the intention of changing the culture.

Veterans Affairs committee  The short answer is yes. CAF hasn't even acted on all of Madame Deschamps' recommendations, never mind what the committee does.

Veterans Affairs committee  The more voices pointing out the fact that the government isn't doing what it's been recommended to do, the better. It helps, but we can look at a lot of reports. Frankly, a lot of the recommendations don't happen.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, actually. The whole “deny, deny and then die ” is definitely a sense that everybody in the military has. I know personally that in my own case and in another case I was involved in helping to get approved, they did agree, and when it went before the pensions advocates review board, it was approved.

Veterans Affairs committee  In the military, there is an exit interview to do with your medical health if you are being medically released. I believe they were going to do that for all releases as well, but I'm not aware of that. From the time I first put my application in to Veterans Affairs until someone actually, finally, did an interview with me on my current health, it was a year and a half, and that was not done by Veterans Affairs.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. I know someone, an RCMP member, who after 33 years just released officially as of yesterday, and I can compare their release to mine. Because I was being medically released, I had a nurse from the local military hospital take me, step by step, through how to apply and through everything related to VAC.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have any idea of their employment numbers. I'm not sure that.... Hiring more veterans would, I think, definitely help. As I said earlier, you can't understand how someone's life is if you don't know their life, if you haven't experienced it, so I think that would certainly be useful.

Veterans Affairs committee  One thing that I experience now that I've experienced dealing with VAC some more is kind of the same thing that Vivienne talked about. VAC is focused on and set up to treat people who have bullet wounds and limb amputations. Although for the last few years they've been accepting mental trauma, they still do not see how the mental trauma can have a lifelong impact on a person's health.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would say for sure in the past, but right now.... When I was still in the forces, as I said in my opening statement, it was documented by a Canadian Forces health services psychologist that I had suffered a serious physical impact from the mental trauma that I dealt with. VAC does not want to accept that it's linked, that there's a linkage with physical trauma, and I see that more as an issue from VAC's side.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, I think this is what any minority experiences. When you don't know somebody, it's easier to not understand them, and the more you know, the more you understand they're just people, the same as you. My phrase that I like to use is, “It's easier to hate what you don't know.”