Evidence of meeting #11 for Veterans Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was husband.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:25 p.m.
As an Individual
It went off the rail the moment I met him, because he was coming to me wounded from the Canadian Armed Forces.
I'd like to remind you, the JPSU has an 18-month delay. Do you know what that means?
12:25 p.m.
As an Individual
It means they are coming already wounded from a system that is already abandoning them. Whose burden will it be, do you think? It's yours. Everybody's closing their eyes on everybody's responsibility, first of all.
Of course, it derailed from the moment he was wounded. He didn't know it. He didn't acknowledge it. For me, he was already experiencing nightmares, and I was already receiving...you know...to begin with.
12:25 p.m.
As an Individual
The one thing I can say about going off the rails is that my husband had two major injuries in service. One was in Goose Bay, Labrador, and we were abandoned then, really abandoned. I have horrific stories to tell you about that. We finally got him better after unbelievable stories, and he continued on with his career. His PTSD finally got to be too much for him. Once again we were abandoned.
Even signing out, he could not do the paperwork to do his sign-out. We missed his life insurance, and we can never get it now. I'm doing his paperwork. I don't understand all that “JFQ7936”. It was a stack this big, and I'm not exaggerating. I was responsible for it. I'm clueless, and these guys that I'm dealing with are not happy that it's me doing it. There was no help. The case manager thing was a joke back then.
Steve's boss told his psychiatrist exactly what was going to happen, his whole care team. His boss got up and said, “He will be released by this date. I don't give a goddam what you say.” That was it. The psychiatrist was shocked.
You can't name a part of Veterans Affairs that I can't tell you a nightmare story about that we personally went through. Every single—
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Alaina Lockhart Liberal Fundy Royal, NB
Sorry; I find it interesting that you've both mentioned.... We look for this big solution, but both of you have mentioned the paperwork and how that's your first introduction to Veterans Affairs, as I understand it. There's a stack of paperwork without a person to go with it. Is that fair to say?
12:25 p.m.
As an Individual
Let's talk about the quality of life form. Can your husband do grocery shopping? Yes. Yes, with help. No. Well, is it his PTSD? Is it his backbone? Is it his knees? The forms are ridiculous. You know what? We never know what to answer, because all of a sudden we're going to say the worst thing. What can I say? Am I considered his help if I say that he needs me to grocery shopping?
The ridiculousness is at every level. You are right about the fact that there's no one magical solution, because the problem is everywhere at every single layer of the system, from the psychologist who treats him, from Veterans Affairs Canada. In our case, for years my husband told them that he was using marijuana and he recognized that it was helping him, yet for years psychologists and psychiatrists of Veterans Affairs Canada from Ste. Anne's Hospital told him that he was a guilty man for using marijuana. All this time Veterans Affairs was actually offering it.
12:25 p.m.
As an Individual
Very quickly, what it meant in our lives was that my 15-year-old son used to go in the street to buy the marijuana for his step-father. This is the result.
12:25 p.m.
As an Individual
The paperwork is insane. The simple solution is to get VAC to do their own paperwork. Make them sit down with a veteran. Then we still get the face-to-face that I want, and they do the paperwork. You'll be amazed how quickly it will be simplified.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Bob Bratina Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Thank you.
This is quite a day. My own personal approach to political things is the integrity of the family unit. You can work anything out with a family. So our take-away as a committee, from the meeting that we've had with you today, is pretty interesting. Number one would be blow it up and start all over from scratch with a blank piece of paper. I'm not discounting that.
I think an immediately useful thing would be the notion of a family package, because I'm not sure exactly whether there has been a package, so-called, designed with input from a broad range of experiences such as we've heard from Jenny and Carla.
What would you say to the notion of the family package? Give me a general idea of what you would like the government to come forward with. It will help us deliver the service if we know what we're actually delivering from the point of view of the needs of the family.
Could you speak to that, Jenny?
12:30 p.m.
As an Individual
It's all about the support, education, and recognition. This should be the package, if you ask me.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Bob Bratina Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Education is really a powerful one, too, because we tend to think that it's kind of a retraining education so you can learn how to weld, but you spoke of other kinds of education.
12:30 p.m.
As an Individual
You talk about education, but I'd like to talk a little bit about the importance of support.
12:30 p.m.
As an Individual
As I said, I come with my own baggage, my own person, my own experience. You can give me education on the effects of a pill, but if....
I'll give you a perfect example. I'm sorry, but it's a personal one. My husband received a new prescription every six weeks. Every six weeks a new pill was added.
At one point, a new pill is introduced and no more sexual activity is possible for him. Of course, you could tell me, “Jenny, there's this pill, blah, blah, blah,” but if Jenny still believes he doesn't love her anymore...because at that point, the relationship is bad. The notion of love is gone. If I don't have the support to see him through the correct eyes, then let me tell you something: I will become his worst enemy, no matter how you will try to invest in him. I will destroy your therapeutic efforts that you're investing in him. I really can do that as a spouse.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Bob Bratina Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Let me come back to the notion of the Legion and the shortcomings of the Legion. We've heard people from many veterans groups. So what's the point of the shortcomings? What doesn't happen that should happen?
12:30 p.m.
As an Individual
There are veterans in crisis near me who aren't actually members of the Legion. When we approached the Legion to get help for them, they looked me in the face and told me the poppy fund is not for veterans; it's for the community. I know of all these veterans in huge need but the poppy fund will not release funds for them. The baseball clubs gets funds, and Fort McMurray gets them. My father was a World War II vet, and the Legion was a part of my life, but I have made all my dear friends take down that little Legion sticker that says “Legions Support Veterans”.
When the Cirillo funeral was going on, I was in my hometown of Weyburn, and I pulled into the Legion because I wanted to watch the funeral, of course. They were in there watching the Communithon. They would not change the channel. And that was the Legion. There are no veterans left; there's no support; and there's nothing to attract the new veterans to the new Legion.
They're doing nothing. I've seen them refuse to let guys photocopy their VAC paperwork. I've seen them refuse entry. The small Legions we have are useless.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Bob Bratina Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Thank you both personally for your contribution today. You've given us a lot to think about.
