Thank you all for taking the time to come up and speak today. If I don't necessarily get to you with a question, it doesn't mean that your ideas haven't been received and will be brought forward.
Mr. MacEachern, condolences certainly aren't enough. Others have expressed them. Frankly, they are hollow if they are not met with some form of reaction to it, and I apologize for what you have been through.
I met with the department today on a briefing to talk about the details of the new Veterans Charter and its application. While I was with them I was thinking about our social covenant, our sacred obligation. Over the weeks and months, I've been thinking about it and trying to define it. What does it really mean? I've come to the conclusion that, because those who go to fight on our behalf when called to go anywhere we send them and are prepared to give up their lives without limited liability, Canadians', not the government's, but Canadians' liability should also be unlimited. It's a reciprocal covenant, not just one-sided, but reciprocal. So what I'm hearing is that we're not carrying our side of the bargain on all of this.
I want to speak specifically to the comments you made—you listened to Senator Dallaire—about a concern that there are a lot of people out there right now suffering, and these events of suicide could very well happen again and again to the point where there will be more victims of this war after their return than before.
I also heard from others before. Just this week I heard from the National Council of Veterans Associations in Canada, Brian Forbes, and last week Canadian Veterans Advocacy through Michael Blais that things have to be done now. I'm concerned, frankly, that by the time this study is over, by the time it's prepared, by the time the minister receives it and responds to it, far worse things are going to happen.
Do you believe that things can be done right now to start changing this? What I'm hearing is there's a wrong culture right now with the bureaucrats. They are more like an insurance company that wants to deny a claim for whiplash in a motor vehicle accident, and it shouldn't be that way. You shouldn't have to prove your claim. You're injured. That's it.
Can you respond to that?