Mr. Chair, as I pointed out in my opening comments, a recurring theme that has become blatantly apparent to me is the lack of timeliness. Indeed, I would submit that the stories I've heard of our veterans of war services who have received their entitlements just shortly before their demise are nothing short of tragic.
Indeed, in this day and age, personnel who have come back off so-called peacekeeping operations suffering from post-traumatic stress were probably not treated with the sense of urgency that I would think the situation warranted. I would submit that we viewed past operations, post-Korea and pre-Afghanistan, as being something that was “out of sight, out of mind”.
Indeed, it's been suggested that we shouldn't be sending soldiers overseas unless there is a peace to keep. I would submit that, conversely, we don't send soldiers overseas unless there's a war. I submit that our soldiers--it doesn't matter where we've sent them in the world--have been submitted to situations that were every bit as severe as the individual occurrences during the great wars and Korea, so it's indeed a travesty that we have not been treating their concerns as quickly as possible.
I must say that throughout my career I've always challenged bureaucracy. I've challenged bureaucrats in and out of uniform throughout my career, and I think my record stands for itself in Afghanistan. We made it happen. Our battalion was slated to be withdrawn from the order of battle, so consequently it was shortchanged in all of the resources, money included; yet when we were called upon to deploy to Afghanistan, we were in a position to pull certain strings and make things happen in short order. Suffice it to say that I'm the kind of person who likes to cut through bureaucracy.
Having said that, I've encountered huge amounts of bureaucracy just stepping into this job. I would submit that things are in discussion now that might severely constrain me at the office.
All that is to say that I stayed in the army for 31 years because I enjoy a fight. I joined the office of the ombudsman because I deeply believe that they have entitlements, and I have a sense of giving back. All I can say at this point in time is that the government has displayed a lot of moral courage in appointing me to the position, because I intend to take on those impediments to swift closure of cases with a vengeance.