Thank you very much for being here today. This is so helpful.
I want to focus specifically on your first comment regarding the Canadian Armed Forces suicide prevention strategy and how to implement it with ministerial oversight committees. You mentioned Somalia.
I'm very involved with our veterans on the issue of mefloquine. We are still hearing from the powers that be that only one in 11,000 forces members is affected. Our own Minister of Health, as recently as February 22, has written with respect to the continuing use of mefloquine that as a malaria prophylaxis, the department considers the benefits of mefloquine to outweigh its potential risks under the conditions of use described in the CMP.
I'm hearing from veterans from Somalia, Rwanda, Uganda, Afghanistan, and Bosnia who have been taking this that they did not have freedom of choice with its use. Our allies—Germany, Britain, Australia, and the U.S.—have taken steps, and yet our government still doesn't recognize what happened in Somalia and has carried on. It's impacting suicide rates. I know this what I'm hearing directly from veterans.
Can you please talk about this?