Thank you very much. I'm pleased to have both of you here.
Brigadier-General, I wasn't here last week so I've just been reading your notes from last week's statements.
I just want to quote:
As you are likely aware, mefloquine remains an option for malaria prevention for many militaries around the world. We do, however, remain vigilant and open to assessing any new evidence related to mefloquine and other antimalarial medications.
Then you go on to say:
We will, accordingly, update our approach to malaria prevention in a scientifically sound manner and with an emphasis on critical appraisal of the evidence.
I did some research, and of course, this would be in relation to our allies. That would be where we would go to see what else was being done with those other militaries around the world.
I have a statement here from September 15 of this year from the Minister of Veterans Affairs for Australia addressing mefloquine concerns:
The Department of Veterans' Affairs has established a dedicated mefloquine support team for our serving and ex-serving community.... [and] additional support for current and former...members who have been administered mefloquine. The Government will: establish a formal community consultation mechanism to provide an open dialogue on issues concerning mefloquine between the Defence Links Committee and serving and ex-serving...; develop a more comprehensive online resource that will provide information on anti-malarial medications; establish a dedicated...mefloquine support team to assist...with...related claims, which will provide a specialised point of contact...and direct the inter-departmental [c]ommittee to examine the issues raised, consider existing relevant medical evidence and provide advice.... Any former member who was administered Mefloquine...and is concerned about possible side effects...can lodge a claim for a condition that they think was caused by Mefloquine.... Current and former...personnel can also access free mental health treatment....
They go on to list all the different areas of mental health that need treatment, and they indicate that those services are there.
In Britain also—this is from July 2016—the former head of the army has admitted that he would not take a controversial antimalarial drug as he revealed his son had suffered severe depression while prescribed Lariam. Lord Dannatt said that the side effects of the drug could be “pretty catastrophic” and he apologized to troops who had taken it while he was chief of the general staff.
He urged the Minister of Defence to show generosity when reaching compensation settlements with hundreds of personnel alleged to have suffered mental health problems after being given the drug during deployment to malaria hot spots.
He says here:
We see no reason to disbelieve the very strong anecdotal evidence that such conditions have been ignored in dispensing it to large numbers of troops about to be deployed.... It is our firm conclusion that there is neither the need nor any justification for continuing to issue this medication to Service personnel except when the three conditions listed above have been met.
The conditions were as a last resort when they weren't able to tolerate the other alternatives.
Then of course, the U.S. has had witnesses here. Dr. Nevin has said it's been blackboxed in the States.
With this type of evidence from our strong allies, would it not be time for Canada, especially with the new definitions that Health Canada has come out with on side effects, to see that this is a mental health issue that we could deal with right now? These are people who think they have PTSD because that's what they were told, when it's clearly possible they have a brain injury. Is it not time for us to set up the same type of services for them whereby we can get this information from our veterans directly?