Evidence of meeting #18 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 you're.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
Welcome to our continued study of the review of the new Veterans Charter and the enhanced recommendations that we're welcoming.
I certainly am very pleased to welcome Sergeant Nielsen....
3:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
Bjarne. I was just going to say Bjorn, but I got in trouble with one of our own members here the other day by mispronouncing his name. I'm not going to do that twice in a row.
Thank you very much for being here. I think it's been explained that we look forward to your presentation, Sergeant Nielsen. As you know, we allow about 10 minutes for presentations, so we look forward to that, and then a round of questions from all the members.
Please proceed.
3:30 p.m.
Sgt Bjarne Nielsen
Thank you.
I must apologize for my scruffy appearance. Next month, on April 16, with True Patriot Love, I'm trekking up to the North Pole—
3:30 p.m.
Voices
Hear, hear!
3:30 p.m.
Sgt Bjarne Nielsen
—so I'm just trying to get myself all scruffy and get as much protection as I can for when I'm up there.
It might be a little bit lengthy, but bear with me.
3:30 p.m.
Sgt Bjarne Nielsen
Good afternoon, everyone.
I just want to thank all of you in attendance for inviting me here to share my story as well as some of my insights on the matters at hand with all of you. My name is Sergeant Bjarne Nielsen. I'm 34 years old. I've been in the military for just over 17 years now, as of this next February 9th.
As I've mentioned, I'm a sergeant. I've had a very blessed career within the armed forces. I started right out of high school just trying to get my last four credits by taking a cooperative education program not knowing that it would change and pave a whole new course for my life. I'm very proud of my successes within the military, even considering recent events. It fed my insatiable appetite for challenge and productivity. The military gave me a whole new perspective on life, not just through the technical skills that I achieved but by opening my eyes to a lot of good that comes from it as well.
Now, I don't want to bore you too much with my old history as far as my career goes, but I want to share my perspective as to how I got to become the Bjarne that I am today.
The best part of my career with the military was when I was posted in Meaford. What a great experience that was, just as parenting is. I had a great time honing my speaking skills and teaching the various complexities of the military structure, mentoring and inspiring the next generation of soldiers so that they, too, can one day become leaders.
It was a great time in my life because I felt like I was contributing, flourishing in my own career but actually contributing time that seemed to be worth it. I saw some troubled and not-so-troubled kids morph and turn into fine gentlemen or women. I saw them find courage and bravery under the harshest of conditions. I saw how they could be aggressive when required, yet find the ability to remain delicate when caring for a child during a gunfight, for example, or to know when it was time to fight and when it was time to offer that helping hand, be it to a friend or stranger. It is the esprit de corps that binds us and the Canadian values.
When I rebadged from a Patricia and became a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment, it was amazing to see them all again when I moved from Edmonton and Meaford and then up to Petawawa. I trained with a majority of the young men and women I'd put through their paces when they were just starting out, and the returns on that were to come back more than I had ever dreamed.
Our workup training began in 2009. We deployed from Petawawa on May 13, 2010, my daughter's birthday. The thousands of men and women of Task Force 1-10 were mostly made up of our infantry, the engineers, some techies, artillery, and air force, but most importantly, our combat medics. Between flights and transfers, we spent two days travelling, mostly because of that volcano over Iceland that had erupted. It caused a lot of delays and diverted our flight path some.
We were held up in Spain for a few hours and them moved on to Camp Mirage in Dubai. There we geared up and prepared to take our last flight into Afghanistan, to Kandahar, actually. We had two days to acclimatize before we started heading out to our various FOBs, forward operating bases. The platoon I was with was call sign “23”. My designation was “Bravo”.
On July 1, 2010, at approximately 0630, 23 Bravo departed Combat Outpost Ballpein for a routine Friday morning patrol. The 45-degree heat no longer phased us by this point. It would soon reach 55 degrees.
At approximately 0800, after conducting a long halt with my patrol, we stopped to scan the area before I had my navigators resume take point. Everyone had finished their individual fives and twenties, which are five-metre and twenty-metre radial searches of where you're standing. You're looking for telltale signs of activity: disturbed earth, markers, observers, and stuff of that nature.
When I began to make my walk towards my navigators, that's when the IED detonated just behind me, to my left. In mid-stride I was launched nearly 17 metres up into the air, up and over a mud wall and into a farmer's field adjacent to the route of our patrol. When I landed, I shook my head and collected myself and briefly—and I do mean briefly—looked down at my left side. I looked at the sky and called out, “Oh, man”. I said to myself, “Stay calm, B. If you get scared and excited you'll bleed out faster and you surely will die.”
I took a breath, then a second, and then I called out for my guys. My first aid stuff was on my left leg and had obviously been blown away as a result of the blast. My guys and gals were there in minutes. They saved me.
I suffered what one would call a catastrophic injury, a sure need for amputation eight inches from my left hip. My left side was completely torn open, so badly that, as I recovered, I used to have cables, not sutures, that held the side of my body closed all the way up to my armpit. My left shoulder was separated. I fractured my humerus and completely blew out my elbow. I suffered extensive nerve damage as well. I severed both my ulnar and my radial nerves and had a barely functional median nerve. Let me tell you, it was the most challenging part of my life at the time, just survival.
I went through countless surgeries and learned a lot of patience, let me tell you. I spent five and a half months lying in a bed on my back. I couldn't roll onto my left side or my right either because of the PICC lines for all the antibiotics and the vacuum that was draining fluid from my limb every 15 minutes.
These weren't the best times for me. I lost a lot of perspective on what or who I was. For the first time in my life, I felt like giving up. I mean, with my family history, I was supposed to live a life until at least 90, but where would a one-armed and one-legged man make it? How was I still going to be able to make my mark?
During that time of doubt, I had a lot of great visitors. Everyone would offer their encouragement and would say how happy they were to be able to see me. Even my guys during their leave, their HLTA, would come back from overseas to visit me in the hospital. It brought my spirits up, but after a while, the bitterness came, and I was tired of seeing the green relish uniform. This wasn't because I resented it, but because it was the same thing every time they came to visit: “Sorry, man. How are you feeling? We're here for you.” All that stuff.
Something happened though, something that I couldn't have thought of or predicted would happen. I had two visitors, strangers to me at the time, at two separate times: Master Corporal Mike Trauner and Corporal Andrew Knisley. Andrew Knisley, a few years younger than me, had the exact same injury, just mirrored, to what I had. He had gotten through it, since his injury occurred in January of 2008. His philosophy was—and army guys realize—that shit happens. We laughed about it, and it felt really good to laugh.
Everyone has their epiphany. Mike Trauner comes in. He comes walking into my hospital room with this other guy who I knew from serving in battalion. I had no idea about Mike at the time or who he was. He was just another master corporal to me at the time, dressing himself in relish and coming to give his regards, I thought. He asked if I wanted to do anything, and I replied that I would love to go out for a smoke, which was probably a terrible thing to do while you're in the middle of recovering, but I needed to get out.
At the time, I was still bleeding just transferring from my bed to my wheelchair, but it did me some good to get outside, as I said. The warm breeze, the fresh air, and the sun shining were almost too much, though. Not long after, I had him wheel me back inside, and again, he helped me to transfer back into my bed. He then asked me if he could sit down. I was wondering what was up, but I said sure, thinking “I'm the injured guy here. What's the matter with you?” He said that his legs bothered him sometimes. Then he proceeded to raise up his combat pants and expose the fact that he had lost both his legs, amputated, one above and the other below the knee. I had no idea. I think at the time he must have seen the shock and the awe come out on my face, and after some chatting and sharing his story with me, he and my friend Davidson left, and that's when I had my epiphany.
I had wasted a lot of time thinking about the fact that I wasn't going to be able to amount to anything, when really it was possible. My thoughts were that I needed to be inspired, but then I took it a bit further, deep in one of my thoughts while I lay there. Why couldn't I, myself, be the example that I needed to follow? Why can't I too be the inspiration for others like I had just experienced? I then knew I was myself again and that the repercussions of my actions would reap rewards far more than just me and my personal gain, if I got up, and I had to get up.
Eventually I did. I started with barely wiggling my thumb, and now today I can do 20 push-ups and 5 pull-ups, depending on how many chocolate-covered almonds I eat, of course, but still without an elbow. I've been doing squats off the side of my bed and hopping flights of stairs all on my one leg. It takes will to do something, but it also takes courage and support to do something you're scared to do.
My first time participating at the annual Soldier On army run was just a mere three months after my first day of walking, June 17, 2011. I participated in the event again last year and most likely will for the rest of my days, I'm sure. In my sights are, who knows, a mini-triathlon. To get back to running, I have no idea why, because I hated running while I was in the military, but now I want to do it. It's that insatiable appetite. I wanted to live my life, not just survive. So persevering through adversity had to be a mindset, a sentiment that can be shared no matter what path any one of us wants.
My family has been so supportive throughout my military career. Even when I knew that going to Afghanistan was going to make a huge impact on all our lives, they still supported me. After I had my incident, as hard as the times were, they were there. Maxine and I were worried about how Heather would handle this catastrophic injury that I had brought on my family. But me smiling, seeing Heather again, to see her smile too...because, even though dad got hurt, I was home. I had to put myself in my daughter's shoes and imagine the example that she was witnessing. At the tender age of six at the time, she needed a good role model. Although daddy came back hurt, again I could still be her dad.
The first time she saw me, the first thing she said was, “wiggle your stump”. It brought a little bit of lightness to the mood. The second thing she said though came from her anger, “I told you so.” Some stuff you just don't forget. When I left on that May 13, 2010, it was her sixth birthday. She said that I would get hurt and made me promise to come home. You can't break promises.
What a great feeling though to know that my appearance didn't matter. The emotional content remained the same. For her benefit, Heather needed that example so that when she's much older and maybe has children of her own, she'll possess those same strengths and great skills not to give up when life gets difficult and to be a positive role model regardless.
We all know there is already too much sadness going on in the world, so when life gives you lemons, they say, you make lemonade. I may not have the same physical ability to perform like the soldier I once was, but I can use this muscle up here that truly matters to continue to do something that's truly worth doing.
So it was all these things, Mike Trauner, Andrew Knisley, the impressions I can make on Heather by piggybacking her, hopping on one leg. To my guys, the ones I had trained, the very same who were responsible for saving my life, it would be one hell of a thing to waste, just to survive. So I decided to live it.
I share this—and this kind of ties into everything that we're going to be discussing later—if rehab or recovery was to be put into a number or percentage, 49% comes from all the resources that surround us. That's you, the government, our friends, our family, the cleaners, the doctors, the nurses. I have to bring that 51%. I have to bring that little bit more to make all those resources worthwhile.
It's not easy, but anything that's truly worth doing shouldn't be. Relationships or working our way up the corporate ladder, or winning the cup for the Super Bowl or even parenting, all these things would be great reasons to strive for something better. It shouldn't take getting one's leg blown off to realize it, but sometimes we don't learn lessons until after the hardships have happened.
I've had a very blessed life. I've survived a lot of dangers throughout, and I've been very fortunate in many ways because of the others who have helped me. In this time that I'm fortunate to continue to live I hope to make a difference in just a few people's lives, to inspire them as others have done for me.
All my hard work and exercise to improve my own ability paid off, and continues to still. If I didn't get out of that bed that one day to start pulling out those ninja skills and start hopping flights of stairs, for example, I wouldn't have been able to do those five kilometre walks, nor go trekking across Canada a couple of years ago with my daughter. Man, to be able to climb those mountains, to swim in hot springs or the wave pool at the West Edmonton Mall, to see all the sights that make up this truly gorgeous country of ours, and then to share them all the way to Dawson City, Yukon, with my daughter, it's priceless.
As I mentioned, this month on April 16 I'm trekking to the North Pole, just one more of my achievements because I had the people to support me. Last summer I learned to water-ski down in Colorado. While I was working with Soldier On, I ran the aquatics camp here out of Ottawa.
Water skiing, wakeboarding, rowing, and sailing are all good stuff, but the best part was being a peer, one amongst many who are or were feeling the same way I was at one time, and sharing that “soldier on” motto. Despite adversity, we can prevail. You don't have to be alone when you're going through those struggles. Events such as those that Soldier On puts on build confidence, but it's not everything.
I just returned from backpacking in Europe and revisiting the hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. That's where I was first treated immediately after I was blown up in Afghanistan. What a sentimental treat that was, let me tell you. I was also one of the five that went to Germany for CISM, the military sports event in Warendorf. All these things were accomplished because of friends and family, the ones who supported me along the way, those encouraging words constantly reminding me, “There's no such thing as can't, my friend, only unable to do it this time”.
These opportunities can shadow my fears, and those of others like me, only for so long. Opportunities go...to water-ski, ski down a mountain, or travel around the world. Those insecurities that we face along with our new physical and mental challenges are quite daunting. With great effort and focus these fears can be alleviated.
Thank you all for listening.
Enjoy the rest of the week. Soldier on.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
Heather, right?
You must be the research and resource with your father here. Do you have a story you'd like to tell us?
Go ahead.
3:45 p.m.
As an Individual
Once upon a time there was a cupboard that slammed really hard and it broke in pieces. The end.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
Thank you.
With that, we'll move along to our questions by the members.
Mr. Stoffer.
3:45 p.m.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
Sergeant Nielsen, one of the privileges of being a member of Parliament just short of 17 years is that we get to meet some incredible people. I've been on this committee since its inception and I've never heard a more powerful speech by anyone. I personally thank you on behalf of our chair and our entire committee. You remind me of those heroes that liberated my parents in the liberation of the Netherlands. Your bravery and courage are incredible. Thank you, as well, for bringing your daughter today to remind us of our own families. It's amazing.
Thank you so very much.
3:45 p.m.
NDP
Sylvain Chicoine NDP Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC
Welcome and thank you for that wonderful testimony.
We are studying the New Veterans Charter. I would like you to talk more about the services you have received. Would you like to have received a different type of care compared to the care you received, or a different type of support compared to what was provided to your family?
3:45 p.m.
Sgt Bjarne Nielsen
Everyone's case happens to be different, unfortunately.
For continuity of care, I think it's a good interaction for the member who's injured to maintain communiqué with his case representative or his caseworker, making sure that this contact is also in communiqué with the unit or units that are involved with ensuring that all the t's are crossed and i's are dotted.
I think if there is anything that should be improved, I would say that there should be a team, because my case manager couldn't always be there. The guy who was appointed to stick with us couldn't always be there, and at times we did feel we were left in the dark.
When I was injured initially my home was down in Cambridge, so my unit, being out of Petawawa, is quite the distance. It's a six-hour drive to be able to get in close to your unit, to be with and among all those resources that were available. I think, especially with our reserves, our part-time service members, if they had an opportunity for someone to be posted or someone to come out to that site and stay with them for, I would say, a period of six months, through their recovery, I think that would be ideal.
Yes, case managers help you with some of your administrative duties or burdens, but there's no one there really to support you with whatever else is going on outside that picture. For example, at the time, Heather's mom, Heather, and I were living together. Our case manager would come or call us once in a while but wasn't always there to answer questions, nor did she have the insight or the knowledge to answer all the questions that we had. Even though we had asked her stuff that pertained to the military, she didn't know the answer, and it was a huge delay.
If we had someone from the unit or from the battle group who had that awareness, who was easily able to answer those questions for us, I think that would be ideal. It could be a peer, it could be someone...but an opportunity for a position to be filled should that unfortunate circumstance arise.
3:50 p.m.
NDP
Sylvain Chicoine NDP Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC
What do you think about the lump sum you received as compensation? Do you feel you received sufficient compensation? Did you receive enough financial support?
3:50 p.m.
Sgt Bjarne Nielsen
I don't like the lump sum payout.
Not everyone is financially savvy. It's great that the opportunity for someone to go and seek some professional help with regard to financing is available. Unfortunately, one of my peers Jody Mitic—I'm sure everyone knows about him. He's been on the news. One of his issues was that he consulted someone, got some advice to invest his money into the market, and a huge chunk of that disappeared, all because his plan, what he thought was supposed to happen, didn't come through.
Unfortunately, having a huge lump sum of money, yes, it makes you feel good right in the beginning, but do you know what? It won't last, especially if you invest it into a market that is as unsure as it has been over the last five years. This is just my opinion, but I would be happy with a year's salary up front. I think it would be best. That helps pay out any of the things that you might have to deal with at the time for the first year. For example, I had to pay out of pocket, with my own money that I got for my elbow and my leg—$70,000—to do all my home renovations. That had to come out of my pocket first.
Here's your award, but now you have to pay for everything. Yes, you get reimbursed for it, but it took eight or nine months to get everything back, when all that money could have been invested somewhere or turned into a tax-free savings fund, or put into your registered disability savings fund, or maybe you can buy into another house so you can start building your equity to make sure you get the best return. Again, not everyone is that savvy, right?
Having that one-year salary sum paid out to you would be ideal. Then having more payments every month down the road I think is the best option. This allows for you to have some money to feel comfortable with in the beginning, but also ensures that later on down the road you're always going to be able to pay your bills.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
You're just over. Very good; I was so intrigued, I almost forgot to look at the clock. Thank you.
Mr. Gill, please, you have six minutes.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
Parm Gill Conservative Brampton—Springdale, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I also want to take this opportunity to welcome Sergeant Nielsen, and your daughter Heather, for appearing before the committee to help us in this important study. I really want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is an honour, obviously, to see you here again.
It was a pleasure to join you at Calabogie, the ski clinic for the soldiers. Minister Fantino has also asked me to pass his greetings along. He was very touched by your presentation at the...students, hosted by Dr. Kavanagh and project veterans on Remembrance Day.
The committee has been asked by Mr. Fantino to conduct a comprehensive review of the new Veterans Charter. We're certainly honoured to have you here today. All of us on the government side have had the opportunity to read about your story and learn about the experience that you had. Since you are an Afghan veteran who has experienced the application of the Veterans Charter first-hand, I believe that your words here today are invaluable to the work of this committee.
As a serving member, can you please elaborate on your experience between the service and support you received from DND, and the service you received from Veterans Affairs Canada?
3:55 p.m.
Sgt Bjarne Nielsen
With regard to service with DND, again it's a case-by-case basis, and you want to help those who are helping you. It doesn't do any good to go in banging your fists or yelling at someone because you're having a bad day, because you can't wear your prosthetic or whatever. You know what? That's secondary. That person who is across from you at that table may not understand what you're going through, but in order to provide them with the right tools, the necessities to be able to help you, you have to consider that.
Within the whole DND spectrum with regard to my recovery, I would say it went fairly well. I always reached out and talked to the people I needed to, because obviously if I wasn't getting a phone call, or if someone wasn't calling me, there was something wrong. So at times yes, I wasn't getting those phone calls, but I followed up, as anyone who is really caring about such matters would.
With regard to Veterans Affairs, I don't have a lot of dealings with them to be honest, not quite yet. Right now the only thing I do have with them is some of my cleaning services that happen at my house, because I have a hard time taking care of daily chores, and stuff like that. But for the most part, I don't have a lot of dealings with Veterans Affairs.
I got my payout, which came in a timely manner, but I do have some worries for after I do release. When I do release from the forces then I'm not in that comfort zone. I don't have all those resources I had as a serving member to be able to employ or to reach out to. I've heard a lot of horror stories just from talking to other peers, of all different rank levels and different generations, and the hardships that they've had.
I think my biggest concern with Veterans Affairs is the empathy. The person who sits across from you at the desk may not understand you or what you're going through per se, but if they lack the empathy then they're not able to make you feel secure in knowing that they are there truly to help you. It's a tough position to fill, because you have all these guys and gals who are coming in with all these different injuries, and wanting this and demanding that, and stuff like that. But at the base level, you have to say, “Hey, this guy or gal is hurting and they've been through a lot.” That I think is the primary thing. A lot of people have had a hard time dealing with people just on a personal level.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
Parm Gill Conservative Brampton—Springdale, ON
Perfect.
As to the second question, I understand that a case manager is working with you on your case. At what point did your case manager become involved and how involved are they? Can you share your experience with us?
3:55 p.m.
Sgt Bjarne Nielsen
For the first nine months post-injury, I had an assisting officer. It bounced between a couple of different guys because initially we got a member who was from the reserve world who came and catered to Maxine at the time. He was way outside of the circle of knowledge in terms of what needed to be done with respect to the responsibilities and rules of the assisting officer, the AO.
We had to fire him and another fellow only because they weren't doing their job, unfortunately. Ensuring that the individual is properly trained and up to date or current with his roles and responsibilities, and with his accountabilities to us, I think that's paramount. You have to make sure those guys have that.
As for the case manager, she didn't come into the picture until I got back up into the area. As I mentioned earlier, living down in Cambridge, you're outside of that unit bubble as a regular force member. All the major bases are out in the sticks. They're in isolated areas. Being out in Cambridge, well, there's a bit of a disconnect going on. It's a six-hour drive. You can't always pick up the phone and call your CO or commanding officer at the time to say that you have a problem with it, even though he said you could, because he has his own responsibilities and stuff.
When Tanya came into the picture, it was really nice to have that involvement. Initially, at the beginning over the first month or two, it was pretty heavy. She was there most of the time. Again, that was because I had moved up to Petawawa, so we were able to develop a closer relationship. As my recovery and rehabilitation progressed, we started weaning away from each other and going from maybe a twice a week to just a once a week. Now we're only getting together maybe once every two months.
When I was having my renovations done on my home, she and I were together like this, because there was a lot of stuff, a lot of admin stuff, that I wasn't familiar with. I'm an infanteer. It's not that I'm a dumb infanteer, but it's just not my role, right? I just didn't understand it, and it was really nice to have her there on hand when I needed her.
Every case is different, you know. You have some guys who are missing both legs, or three limbs, or four limbs, and maybe their amount or their necessity is a little bit more in demand than for a guy like me. For the most part, I had a good relationship, but it was nice to have her there once I got to Petawawa and all those amenities were available for me.
4 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
Thank you very much.
We'll now go to Mr. Valeriote for six minutes.