Evidence of meeting #17 for Veterans Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was military.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Publisher, VeteranVoice.info
Mr. Hayes picked one comment out of over 300,000, and it is unfair for you to take away that person's freedom of speech.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
No, no, I'm just talking in general terms.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
I'm not talking even about your forum. I'm talking about general forums that I've seen where people who don't have to give their names abuse that privilege. That's all I'm saying.
Publisher, VeteranVoice.info
We also have a lot of postings on the CSAT that are very positive for government, for the system, and for each other. Mr. Hayes picked one comment and yet there are thousands of other excellent comments that are done.
So I think it was a little unfair for Mr. Hayes just to point out one comment from our website.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
I'm not attacking you or the website. I'm just saying—
Publisher, VeteranVoice.info
Well, I'm sorry, sir. That's the way you're coming off to me.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
No, no, I'm just saying in general terms on any forums that are public.
Conservative
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
Anyway, Dr. Aiken, I would like to ask you about your research and the program that you have, the courageous companion dog. Could you elaborate on this? Are these dogs specially trained, similar to seeing eye dogs? How does it work?
Director, Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research
We operationalize a large research contract for National Defence and Veterans Affairs and the Minister of Veterans Affairs recently contracted us to pull together a pan-Canadian research team to look at the issue of service dogs, what we know, and what would be the way forward for Canada.
That report was just released to the minister's staff yesterday. In short, there isn't a robust body of literature about service dogs as compared to companion animals. However, there is some very great merit in moving forward with research in that area and in particular, in researching the people who currently reside in Canada and have psychiatric service dogs.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
Just a quick question. What's the difference between owning a service dog and just owning a pet?
Director, Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research
Yes, absolutely, and in the literature it's very well defined, looking at a pet as treatment versus looking at a pet as a companion. It's actually part of a regimented treatment program the same way an antidepressant would be. It's prescribed. It's mandated. It's very specific.
Conservative
Director, Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research
You're welcome.
National Program Director, Wounded Warriors Canada
Mr. Chairman, may I have one moment on this question? As the largest national provider of funding for service dogs in Canada, we just graduated our hundredth service dog at a ceremony right here on Parliament Hill. I can tell you the testimonials of the veterans who have service dogs. I have two lovely shelties at home and they keep me company. They're wonderful pets, but they're not service dogs.
We are all familiar with what a service dog for the blind is; it helps the person see. The service dog is in tune with how the veteran is feeling, how the veteran's anxiety level is, and what the triggers are. They are working towards very robust national standards. We're happy that the Department of Veterans Affairs has commissioned Dr. Aiken and her team to do the study, and we look forward to the results of the study. But we can say, from our point of view, that we wouldn't have funded it if we hadn't seen that it was very effective.
NDP
John Rafferty NDP Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Thank you, everyone, for being here.
I have a service dog question, but it will be my last one because I have other ones set up too.
Dr. Aiken, many veterans, of course, are unaccounted for, as you indicated in your statistics. I wonder if it would make a difference if, as soon as a member is released, that person is automatically considered a client of Veterans Affairs. In other words, they are given a file number and so on, even if they don't use the service for 10, 20 or 30 years down the road. This also brings up that it might also solve the problem of access for families, because there is a file there.
Do you have some quick thoughts on that idea?
Director, Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research
Yes, I think that's great. To my knowledge, nobody has my service number or will ever get it, so I don't see any reason that we couldn't just carry our service number forward to become a client of Veterans Affairs, with that same number between the two departments. You're right; it would solve the access problem for families as well, because you're already a client of Veterans Affairs.
One of the big, big issues is that a lot of people don't consider themselves veterans, even though by Veterans Affairs definitions they are. They say, “Oh yes, I served in the military.” I've had people say to me, “Yes, I was in for 30 years, but I'm not a veteran.”
NDP
John Rafferty NDP Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Does that mean better counselling as people are leaving service?
