Thank you, Chairman.
Welcome, gentlemen, and thank you very much for being here and giving us this briefing.
Today we are to do our study on services provided to Canadian Forces personnel, with an emphasis on post-traumatic stress disorder, if I'm not mistaken. Nevertheless, you're here, and we'd like to ask you some questions, if you'll permit us, as we've heard from other witnesses who have come before the committee, both military and former military people. Along the way, because you've gone into such an elaborate presentation, maybe you've enticed me to ask some other questions as well.
I'd like to open by saying that, first and foremost, all of us ask these questions with the intent of trying to do the best we can in this committee in the support that we've provided to our military as a whole. Sometimes the questions might seem rude, extreme, and obnoxious, but they're intended so that at the end of the day we can come forward with decent recommendations.
We've heard from former military service people who have found difficulty getting services after they've completed their missions. There are comments such as “Medically I know where I am; I've gone through this process. My commander or my superior is just not paving the way or is not giving permission or is not being cooperative”, etc. I don't know if you can elaborate on that or how true or not true it is. Everybody's innocent until proven guilty, as far as I'm concerned, but I find that unacceptable as an individual. It's like my going to the hospital, for example, and asking to be treated for whatever, and the doctor just doesn't want to see me.
Maybe you could just comment on that for me, because the concern here in this study is how do we address this need that former service people have or enrolled service people who have to be treated have? As we've all come to understand, they are treated adequately and then the green light is given for them to return to active duty, either here or abroad.
Have you experienced anything like that, gentlemen?