Good day, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Shawn Hearn and I'm the peer support coordinator for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. I was born in 1972 in St. John's, Newfoundland, and was raised in a very small community, a place called Colinet on the east coast. I now live in Mount Pearl. I'm the youngest of 12 kids. I have five brothers and six sisters. My mom and dad are saints, because they raised all of us. I have a grade 12 education.
I joined the Canadian armed forces in 1990 as a member of the regular force, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. I also served with the Canadian Airborne Regiment. I was medically released from the Forces as a member of the 3rd battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry para company.
In 1994 I was deployed to Bosnia and worked as a battle group sniper. I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress in 2000 and medically released from the Canadian armed forces under a 3(b) in June 2000.
My road to recovery has been quite interesting. I've had several hospital admissions along the way, and I started therapy in 2000, which I'm still in today. With the help of a local psychologist and psychiatrist, I began some peer support on the ground at a local level. I was contacted in 2002 by the OSISS founder, Lieutenant-Colonel Stéphane Grenier. I began to work half-time at the OSISS program in 2002 and 2003 on the advice of my therapist to not jump back into the workforce.
In 2003 I became a full-time employee with the OSISS program. I'm still with OSISS today as the coordinator for Newfoundland. I'm married and I have a baby girl who turned three on February 21.
Thank you.