I'll never speak about a specific case, and I don't know the details of the case you're speaking of, from a medical point of view.
In general, we have a robust Role 3 hospital in Kandahar. We have mental health professionals; the Americans have taken over. We absolutely train our leaders. If the leaders are concerned about members, they bring them in themselves, and that's so refreshing. It's music to the ears of a mental health professional if a sergeant or a warrant officer will say, “I'm worried about my guys, doctor. Can you see them?”
There's a suicide assessment. Nothing is perfect. You do your best training. You do your best to assess risk, to assess fatality. In a war zone, where people have weapons, the risk is higher. We will keep the person, restrain the person. We'll take his weapon away. We will put him on a C-17 and send him to Landstuhl if we have to, tied to a stretcher, medicated. Again, nothing is perfect.
I feel for every case and feel for every mother who goes to the media. We have a heightened awareness. These aren't the soldiers of the Canadian Forces; these are the people who wear the same uniforms as us. These are my comrades in arms, not my patients.
There are systems in place. If somebody is worried, we say, “Come for help.” They get briefings on mental health. The chain of command knows they can't ever stop somebody from going for care. The chain of command is told to get them to the doctor, and we have our policies and procedures in place. Despite all that, people are still going to die from their physical wounds, and there will be people who are going to have mental illness and attempt suicide.