Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee today. It's my privilege to appear today to give voice to those RCMP members suffering from mental disabilities who are reluctant to speak for themselves publicly as a result of the risk of the stigma associated with mental illness and for fear of repercussions.
There is no meaningful mental health strategy within the RCMP. As a result of the amendments to the RCMP Act sought by the RCMP commissioner, the implementation by the Conservative government of the enhancement to the RCMP Act accountability, and section 6 of the commissioner's standing orders, RCMP members with a physical or mental disability, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, are being medically discharged with no meaningful attempt to accommodate their respective disabilities. In reality, the RCMP's mental health strategy is nothing more than meaningless platitudes.
Rather than fulfilling their legal duty to accommodate disabled RCMP members by attempting to relocate or retrain them, the RCMP's health services officers have engaged in a widespread campaign throughout the force to declare them totally disabled from performing any RCMP work, resulting in medical discharge.
Consequently, too many disabled RCMP members to count are finding themselves summarily discharged to the scrap heap of humanity by the force. The RCMP's conduct with respect to disabled RCMP members is unconscionable. The RCMP's harsh conduct not only aggravates any underlying mental health issues for disabled RCMP members but can also lead to suicide.
I point out in my speaking notes that the vocational rehab services that are typically available to members of the Armed Forces are not available to RCMP members, and there's no explanation for that other than the RCMP opting not to engage those services for their members.
I've cited in my speaking notes and in the appendices two case studies. I won't go into them now, but they will illustrate two of our current cases that we have undertaken on behalf of individual RCMP members, and they're illustrative of cases that we've handled on behalf of RCMP members across Canada. We're a virtual law office operating out of Coquitlam. We represent RCMP members in every province of Canada except Quebec, and it's against that background that I make these statements.
Unlike the Canadian Armed Forces or the provincial workers' compensation regimes, the RCMP does not have a vocational rehabilitation program. However, a vocational rehabilitation program is absolutely necessary to accommodate sworn RCMP members suffering from a properly diagnosed mental or physical disability such as PTSD, either to another meaningful law enforcement role or to alternative employment as a civilian employee, so that they can continue to contribute as valuable members of society at work, at home, and in the community. A vocational rehabilitation program should include benefits such as career transition services, relocation, and retraining, including priority hiring within the federal public service.
Vocational rehabilitation benefits and programs ought to be available to current and former RCMP members prior to the RCMP initiating a medical discharge, similar to the vocational rehabilitation benefits and programs available through the various workers' compensation regimes available to municipal and provincial police officers and most other employees in the federal, provincial, and private sectors.
Those are my comments.