Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Dallaire, for having accepted the committee's invitation.
I took a few notes during your statement. You talk about acceptance within the culture of the forces, and full employment following post-traumatic stress. But in the field one hears a different take: the culture of the forces still leads people to say that this does not exist. People have told me that they had to wait two or three months before being able to see a psychologist. At a certain point, one person was unable to return to her battalion. She was unable to leave her house for two, three, four or five days. When she returned to the base she was told that if she was unable to do the job, if she was too stressed and didn't like it, she could just leave and she would be demobilized.
This is how these people who experience post-traumatic stress are treated. They can't rejoin the ranks and so they are demobilized. They have trouble accepting this because very often they have been there for years and they have given a lot of their time. One person was telling me that in a theatre of operations, you never leave anyone behind; when you leave it after having experienced certain things there, however, they do leave you behind, and there is no follow-up.
I would like to hear your comments on this.