Part of it is.... I think it's a multifaceted one. We need to celebrate the veteran transitions in the communities. If you're at a base like Petawawa, you can't help but see that this is a military town. But for a lot of people in my home community of St. Catherine's, the Lake Street Armoury was built in 1906. For most people, they just see it as the castle. They have no idea what goes on there, and yet in that unit, you have at least 40 members who are veterans. Their stories aren't told, or once in a while, maybe on Remembrance Day.
For the most part, that's what I mean by the disconnect. If we can reconnect, that will take care of 49% of the problem right there. The other part is in terms of sensitivity training. Stigma comes from the population at large.
I know myself, I attended camp practices with my wife, and I learned quite a bit. I really can see now.... My voice never gets louder than this, but at 6 '5” and 280 pounds, if I look the wrong way, I could probably frighten someone. I had to learn that. Because with self-observation, I would say I wasn't upset, but the person beside me might take it the wrong way.
We feel everything. That's the best way to describe it, that 90% of communication is body language. And in terms of language, there's cadence, tone, and volume. You manipulate one of the three, and it changes the message. For us, that hyper vigilance, we can set other people off, but they set us off.
So for a lot of it, when I mention about having a Veterans Affairs caseworker being able to advocate for you— whether it's in the workplace or whether it's with housing—we need someone at the local level who can help that transition and support when we're dealing with people who think they know, but really don't.