Thank you, Chair.
Thank you very much for being here today.
I was reading the news release from December 2014 in regard to the announcement about the centre of excellence and your appointment. It indicated there are certain areas of focus that would be included, and I'll just quote it:
Conducting research on unique aspects of military and veterans mental health; Collaborating with scientific experts in academia such as through the Canadian Institute for Military and Veterans Health Research, government agencies, private sector laboratories, research consortia, and with NATO and other allies....
I was really pleased to see that. Our discussion today is about preventing suicide and treating people.
I'm sure you're aware that there's been quite a conversation around mefloquine as of late, the very clear reactions to it such as inability to sleep, hallucinations, nightmares, heightened anger issues, suicide ideations, and a number of suicides at this point can be attributed to it. Health Canada has updated the warning label and indicated that these conditions can carry on past the use as an anti-malarial drug.
In that regard, Germany, Britain, Australia, and the U.S. in the last couple of years have come to very determined statements and decisions in regard to mefloquine. It sounds like you collaborate with, and have a lot of information in regard to suicide from, our allies. Are we any closer to identifying this as a brain stem injury in Canada? There's no diagnosis and therefore no treatment, and we're still using it. Have you collaborated with NATO and our allies on this issue, and where are we at with it?