At one time, reservists did not go overseas. I think when we mounted the operation in Central America, we broke the logjam. If we needed a specific individual, a Spanish speaker, a pilot, and so forth--I was the director of peacekeeping ops--they made an exception to send this class B pilot down there, and that kind of broke the logjam. So today, with what we've gone through in the last few years, there are a tremendous number of reservists out there.
One of the problems with reservists, even before any of this began, is that sometimes they will just walk away. The uniform is gone and so forth. It's difficult to track them. Technically, they can be found and charged, whatever, but that's not the case. They just want to get the equipment back, if possible.
Second, some of the people coming back from overseas, be it in a contentious area or even in a non-contentious area--in a benign situation--come back and say, “That's it. I don't want anything to do with the GD army. I've had my fill. I'm out of here”. And they disappear over the horizon. That can't happen with a regular force individual because they're tied to a contract.
When reservists are employed overseas, they are usually part of an existing regimental system, the artillery or the RCDs or the PPCLI, or so forth. In my time they were always treated as part of the family. Sure, when they went home they went back to their respective units, but because of workload, in some cases, that unit has difficulty tracking them.
Second, from a legal point of view, when that individual goes back to his unit and his own CO and his own regimental sergeant major and so forth, the unit that employed him overseas really doesn't have the right to direct anything to this individual because he is not under its command.
It was a problem we addressed during a Canadian Forces advisory council in regard to reserves and employment in the reserves--guaranteed employment--which is a festering sore across this country. Unlike the United States with the National Guard, our people are not guaranteed employment. In some cases, they are, on a volunteer basis, but some of them are left hanging.
As much as people try, because of the tremendous workload that's imposed on the existing units, particularly when they're coming back and going through decompression and so forth, sooner or later that reservist is going to move back to his own organization.
Having said that, when that person has gone back to his militia unit, say the Governor General's guards or whatever, one would like to think that the unit says, “We have Bloggins or Smith back, Sergeant Jones, and he has been over there and we need somebody to monitor this individual.” Does the person have any medical problems? Was that properly checked out? Was the person in action? Was the person there when some people got wounded? Does the person need some advice and counselling?
You don't like to use the term “mental health”. It's a dirty word in the military. That's why we've gone to operational stress injuries. “Do you need somebody to talk to? If you don't want to talk to somebody in a uniform, then go talk to one of these peer support coordinators who are in civvies.” They are usually master warrant officers, right down to corporals, who are specifically chosen to talk to that individual, not to listen to the war story, heaven forbid, and not to have a beer, but just to try to channel that individual to the right place, be it the operational stress injury clinics put up by Veterans Affairs, or the OTSSC, as they are called, the equivalent, that are put up by DND.
There's a monumental number, as I've indicated, out there. In the case of the reservists, it's more difficult to track.
I don't know if that answered your question or not.