Veterans Affairs committee  I feel like I'm a unique case, because I have an amazing one. I keep telling her that she needs to be cloned. She is fantastic. She is the reason why I don't have panic attacks when I get messages from my VAC—even when I'm struggling, I still freeze. I'm very close friends with Lisa, and I can't tell you how many times I've answered texts, calls and messages.

Veterans Affairs committee  I have two things. One is for Veterans Affairs specifically. It's to review the table of benefits and update it to cover the modern veteran. It's not men from World War II. It's gender, types of injuries and types of accumulated trauma. The second one is sort of a recommendation, but it's also a challenge to all members of the committee and to all members of Parliament to take back to your caucus members.

Veterans Affairs committee  Can I go last?

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. I'd love to. We were a group of women who were frustrated. It was just under two years ago, when there was a lot of news and scandal about sexual misconduct in the military affecting those in senior ranks. We knew it didn't have to be this way. We knew there was more that could be done.

Veterans Affairs committee  She adapted the training, with their assistance and permission, for a uniform environment. It respects that we are soldiers. We are using violence as our tool, but we're still people. We need to take care of our people. The training focuses on not belittling anyone and not making people feel bad, or as if they have to be on edge or they can't be themselves.

Veterans Affairs committee  I strongly believe this is a powerful tool. There's been some reluctance from the CAF for various reasons, but we've had interest expressed to us by other foreign militaries. If CAF won't take it, we'll go overseas.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the opportunity to speak about this. It was clear that the injuries were related to service, and I have awards for a couple of specific joints. However, as an overall whole person, when I applied for the specific condition called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, despite there clearly being information in my medical records, the Veterans Affairs medical officer who reviewed the file....

Veterans Affairs committee  I was very fortunate that I didn't apply for anything related to MST until after the policy had changed, although the initial incident leading to my PTSD wasn't related to MST. It was operational. That's a whole other thing. The fact that there was an MST component to it meant that it was actually reviewed and processed very quickly.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the opportunity to speak about this. There have been a couple, but the one that really stands out was actually from last fall. As part of my injuries, I discovered I had hip pain and ultimately it was determined that I had hip dysplasia. I was fortunate enough not to have arthritis, but in order to prevent that, the only treatment was surgery.

Veterans Affairs committee  I want to start by first thanking the chair and the committee for giving me this opportunity to speak. My name is Carly Arkell, as introduced, and I'm a retired major. I need to apologize. I don't have a prepared statement in advance. I have a few challenges in writing using a computer, so I'll provide a little information this way.