Veterans Affairs Canada has to be a lot more proactive and hands on when it comes to complicated cases that have a degree of urgency to them.
The case facing Leah was about as complex and urgent as it got, and I had a teleconference with Veterans Affairs Canada to explain this whole thing in detail about what had to be done after Leah lost her medical support in Nova Scotia, indicating that they had to get things in gear, high gear, very quickly. It turned into a “fill out a form” thing, and I said, “I'll fill out all the forms you want, but somebody has to get there to take care of Leah.”
I asked them, “Can you at least phone the doctor, the medical support, to say, 'Veterans Affairs Canada is on the phone. We have an injured veteran who's in crisis. We were hoping that you could take her back under your wing'?”
No, they wouldn't do that.
A month went by when Leah was very much alive. Veterans Affairs was very much aware of what was going on, and then Leah passed away at 40 years old. There was no need. They only contacted the family after she had died.
We talk about lessons learned and barriers. This is why we have to look at these things and examine them. We don't pull back. Something very bad happened there. We have to learn from it. We lost a soldier. We lost a veteran.
Jessie's questions should be answered and an investigation should be made of that situation.