Evidence of meeting #64 for Veterans Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was study.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
Number 5: “There is no strong evidence of adverse health effects reported in larger civilian studies with longer follow-up periods of populations with increased exposure to uranium....”
As an Individual
We disagree. In fact, right now the radiological and medical reporting out of Sarajevo shows a 10% increase in lymphatic cancers in those regions that we talked about.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
Number 6: “Our finding that exposure to uranium is not associated with a large or frequent health effect is in agreement with the conclusions of other expert bodies.”
As an Individual
We disagree. A lot of the expert bodies are actually coming forward. You saw the French saying yes, there is a risk.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
Number 7:
There are many Veterans suffering from persistent symptoms following deployment or military conflict which, although not linked to specific exposures such as DU, can cause considerable suffering and can be effectively treated.
As an Individual
I agree with that.
“Effectively treated”...it may not be, because you won't get the treatment if you're a veteran. You have to have cause and effect for a veteran.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
If I can ask one final question, while I know that there was much in the report that you disagreed with, could you perhaps point to any aspects of the report that you liked or that you were in agreement with?
As an Individual
Very quickly, on the parts that we liked, they did answer our question that we posed to them. They did cite studies. They just didn't cite all of the studies.
Also, they didn't include any of the animal studies, and we don't know why, because that's the only effective way of doing it. They referenced animal studies four times, but then said they couldn't use them. I don't know how they can get by with that. They're there. If you actually pull up the references and read the references yourselves, you'll find they're not in line with the conclusions, or with the finality of the conclusions, if I can put it that way.
Conservative
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Peter Stoffer
Thank you very much.
In fairness to your travel here, I'd like to take 30 seconds to give your beautiful wife a 30-second summary.
If you could just give us 30 seconds...?
On behalf of the committee and Greg Kerr, the chair of our committee, Mr. Dornan, we wish you the very best in your continued health. We hope, as Mr. Lizon said, that you're here with us for another 56 years.
To let you know, you've filled up one of my filing cabinets, by the way, with all of the documentation—
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Peter Stoffer
I know. I'm just kidding.
Mrs. Dornan, you get a chance to wrap up for 30 seconds.
As an Individual
I do want to say that I am very grateful for former Minister Blackburn and the following Minister of Veterans Affairs for bringing this into a discussion. It needs to be discussed. But again, I'm hoping you will all understand that there's depleted uranium causing cancer, and the other question is depleted uranium with Gulf War illness or the maladies and illnesses that are falling under that.
It has been very difficult, but as I've said many times to my husband, I'm very grateful, because we've learned so much and have talked to.... There's power in knowledge. I'm very grateful for that, because if you hadn't challenged us seven or eight years ago when we began this, I know we wouldn't be where we're at today.
I'm actually grateful for this opportunity, and I also hope he stays around for a very long time.
Thank you.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Peter Stoffer
Thank you, Mrs. Dornan.
Thank you, Mr. Dornan, and thanks again for your service as well.
We have half a minute to say our goodbyes before we go in camera to very quickly discuss committee business.
[Proceedings continue in camera]