Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. I wasn't expecting that. Part of the network we are involved with includes the Women, Peace and Security Network. I hope that lens is part of this future study as well. With the Women, Peace and Security Network, we have had access to things like the Elsie initiative through GAC, Global Affairs Canada.

Veterans Affairs committee  Maya, go ahead.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think it's still important, although we've all kind of grown up with the binaries of male and female, to again remember that there's actually more variation within the sexes than between the sexes—that there is no one woman and there is no one man. There's a wide spectrum. When we start thinking about the spectrum, for me, then, it's how we include all the spectrum.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll quickly make two points. I remember an indigenous elder at a policy conference, who said, “Everyone's doing really good here at making quilt pieces, but what I don't see is who the quiltmaker is.” I think that's what we keep finding over and over again. There are a lot of very good people doing the quilt pieces, but there's no coordination.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. I do not claim to be an expert on the table of disabilities. However, I am aware that Lisa Campbell in particular, when she was involved with Veterans Affairs Canada, certainly left her door open to enable women to speak to her and to identify different issues. I know that during her time there was work by a contractor—I believe it was Dr.

Veterans Affairs committee  She's still an excellent leader, as head of the Canadian Space Agency.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. Again, it's an easy question. Before I forget, because I want to make sure it's here somewhere, I want to acknowledge that veterans can also be RCMP members. RCMP women have been of great help and service to the military women, especially on the sexual misconduct claims.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. That is an interesting question. The joy of being military, I think, is that I can probably talk to any of you and say that I'm from wherever you're from. Moose Jaw is, of course, a place where I have spent two years.

Veterans Affairs committee  Within this context and thinking back to Moose Jaw, there's a specific incident that comes to my mind. Of course, Moose Jaw is a training base for student pilots. Student pilots in Moose Jaw haven't made it yet—if they have three flights that they don't do well on, they're gone.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. My mom just recently broke her hip, so it's been a bit of a challenging time. As a physician, I have to do an absolute shout-out, if I can, for Alberta Health Services. Of course, living here in Ottawa, it's at those moments that you're devastated at being so far away.

Veterans Affairs committee  I apologize, but the translation had a gap halfway through your sentence. I just want to make sure I understood the sentence properly.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a doozy of a question. Thank you. I have been accused of being a broken record, because I'm often saying exactly the same thing all the time. I always talk about women's issues and the importance of things such as gender-based analysis, which I actually think, if it's done right, will answer a lot of stuff.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think it's important. There's no question that there are amazing men in the Canadian Armed Forces, and there are amazing women in it. We have some people who still need to get more training in these kinds of areas. I think, still, we can do only so much when we don't have the resources and we don't have the money, especially for women's issues.

Veterans Affairs committee  Obviously, I'm a veteran. I can say without question that CAF has made quite significant efforts to include stakeholders and engaged people, and it has held a number of town halls and stakeholder engagements—almost too many—which brings up a whole pile of issues. For people like us who are trying to help, how many times can we keep being asked to be part of these?

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a nice, easy question. To me, it's about mission. We share the same mission. We are here to support Canada and Canadians. That's what keeps us on the same team. I think what we are still working on is how to ensure individual respect, so that every member of the team feels respected.