I've heard from so many jurors, former jurors across the country, who have had to look over the proverbial fence at the province next to them, which has a program for post-trial support, and they're sitting in their own home province and saying, “How come in that province, they have access to post-trial care, and in this province there's nothing? I've been through a triple homicide. I can't leave my house. I can't look my husband in the face. I can't go to work. I can't even play with my kids, and I'm devastated.”
I've heard that too many times. I think a national standard and a strong one that doesn't set limits on the amount of counselling that's available to the individual, that says it's the covenant between the clinician and the juror, the patient, that determines the length of counselling required to get that person back to.... I have PTSD. It's my new normal. It's what I am now. I don't beat myself up about it anymore, but it's just going to be a part of me.
I'm not able to do the things that I used to be able to do. I'm not able to go out in public the same way I used to before this. In some cases it's not to return to your life, but it's to allow you to keep moving forward.
Is the Ontario program the baseline for this? Is eight counselling sessions enough for an individual? I was barely able to articulate what was wrong with me in eight sessions, let alone begin to develop coping mechanisms to move forward. I'm well past eight sessions.
Again, I think it's incumbent on us to create a program that is universal for all Canadians serving in a jury no matter where they live in this country.