Veterans Affairs Committee on June 14th, 2018

[Victor Sanderson]

Yes.

I need help with the earnings loss benefit application that I'm filling out—the paperwork and everything else that goes with it. I have a case manager here in Saskatoon, finally, and we're getting things on board, but to push that paperwork through takes time. Native veterans don't have time. We've been waiting forever and we're tired of waiting.

You need to fast-track us. We've always been segregated in this country. If you want to desegregate us, fast-track our claims. Our claims have been held up in Saskatchewan and wherever else we have to send them. They take a long time. They take forever, and money is a very tight issue when you have to travel a long distance to see your psychiatrist or your psychologist or any other provider that you need for your condition.

Now, I understand that Veterans Affairs has all the conditions compounded into categories, and it's very hard to actually attach one to another, because they're all separate. Each injury is a separate entity. For example, PTSD and chronic back pain are different, but there's always that vicious cycle of the chronic pain overtaking my mind and causing a lot of havoc in there, and PTSD just kicks in and from no problem at all, all of a sudden I'm in my garage for a week and half or two weeks, without my family around and not wanting to be around them.

I have no support for my wife and family, as there's nothing here for them, or in any place across Canada, for that matter. I've heard testimony about wives attacking the ministers in Ottawa, trying to seek help.

Now, those are really hard things for them to do, and it is humiliating to actually come towards this committee and to find ways, loopholes, and red tape to get through. The red tape is one of the hardest things we have to deal with as veterans. If you do away with that and fast-track everybody....

We're not asking for a lot, like the Prime Minister says. We're not. We want our quality of life back. We want to be able to breathe the air without having a flashback, but that's nearly impossible, because it always happens. I still see minefields in my yard from time to time.

I talk about that with my psychiatrist. She asks me how it is today and if I feel like killing anybody. Yes, I do, on a daily basis. It's not easy to get out of. PTSD is with us for life. You guys only have to be here for four years, but we are veterans forever. We try to humble ourselves and try to help our younger people move forward in a way that we see but that they don't see.

All I can do is observe and walk around. I do not have any sports or anything else to help me fight these things, because my conditions are so great.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you.

Mr. Kitchen, you have four minutes.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you all for being here today and for your service.

Tanya, I'm extremely impressed, because my father was a Dragoon. He was the CO of the Royal Canadian Dragoons. I spent many years as a youngster running around tanks, and around the Lynxes and the Cougars. I always wished I could pop my head out of the top of that turret someday.

Anyway, Mr. Sanderson, I too come from Saskatchewan. I live in Estevan. You've talked a bit and we've heard many times about how our veterans, at least in our area, will travel anywhere to get health care. They will go as far as they need to go, because those services aren't available to them in Saskatchewan. There are no clinics, etc.

We've also heard from them on the issue of reimbursement. You were saying it would be a huge benefit—not only in Saskatchewan, but also in other parts of the country where people have to do this travel—if once they got there, they could apply right then and there to VAC, such that they would get reimbursed immediately. Is that correct?

[Victor Sanderson]

Yes. That's how it was in the beginning.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Yes, so that would be a good thing, and you might suggest that we recommend something along those lines, correct?

[Victor Sanderson]

Yes, correct, because it takes money out of my pocket and it takes food off my table.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Right.

Telemedicine oftentimes is something we look at today, but in rural parts of Canada there isn't that ability to do telemedicine.

We heard throughout the week when we travelled as well as through committee meetings about other issues dealing with non-approved-support types of treatments, such as powwows, elders, or sweat lodges. We heard from an individual about a sweat lodge for someone who was on a ship and who was acting up. The indication was that rather than discharging them, they sent them home to talk to their elders. Immediately after doing that, the person went back and became a productive member of the forces for another almost 20 years. I'm wondering if the three of you could comment on that.

[Victor Sanderson]

I'll go first.

Our spirituality is our life. When we fall apart, when we fall down from being away from home and being situated in another diverse ethnic group such as white people, we spend so much time with you that sometimes our spirit will tell us we're having a hard time, so we have to go home. What that person did on the ship was the right thing to do, because it set him straight.

We listen to our elders and the Creator through our ceremonies. Our ceremonies are great for us. They help us and they benefit us, but they also tell us that we have a long way to go, that nothing is just taken care of right away. The medicines we use are from the land. The way we get them, we have to be so humble and free of all alcohol and drugs. For a veteran it's very hard to let go, because the PTSD could be so severe that those are what they need to help move on with life, so we go to you guys and try to go your way.

Then we come back to our way of life later on so that we can actually move forward again as human beings. That's who we are in this life. We are human beings, and we have tried our best to be humble, but with racism and everything else and the atrocities against our people, it's very hard to actually look back and to try to bring that forward.

Without an apology from the Canadian Armed Forces for what they've done to our people as veterans, for the sacrifices that they have made, and for the ones who died overseas and are buried there, we still have time to remember them and bring them forward. Only Veterans Affairs can actually do this. We can't, because you're the ones who did this to us. If you need help, we will give it to you, but you're the ones who actually have to do this public apology to our people. It would benefit us all in the long run because our people would want to be warriors again. We did have a lot of warriors before contact.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you.

Mr. Fraser, we'll end with you for four minutes.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all three of you for joining us today and for your thoughtful presentations.

I'd like to start with you, Ms. Smith and Ms. Davoren. You talked a little bit about outreach. Obviously, with British Columbia being a large province, it takes a lot of effort in order to reach out to all of your members and to indigenous veterans. I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about what Veterans Affairs Canada could do in order to support outreach work that either your group or other organizations are doing in a large province to get to those more remote communities.

I know we've talked a little bit about technology and how that could assist, but I think that sometimes having peer support on the ground to actually do that outreach is important to bring people in to understand what Veterans Affairs may be able to do to support them. I worry that sometimes the benefits and services are not necessarily known about by all of the veterans who could be accessing those services that could help them. What outreach work do you do and what could Veterans Affairs Canada do to support you?

[Lissa Smith]

One of the positions on our veterans committee is a service officer, and it's their job to navigate the systems for people who need assistance. I believe that one of our former service officers helped Métis veterans get $2.5 million in services that they weren't aware they were entitled to.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Right.

[Lissa Smith]

We have 38 chartered Métis communities throughout British Columbia, in seven regions. We do have a veteran representative for each region, but accessing the Métis chartered communities and finding out where the veterans are and who the veterans are would be of huge benefit to identifying Métis veterans.

We currently don't have any resources to do that work or to even help identify the Métis veterans in British Columbia, and that's important data we need so we can advocate more for specific Métis veterans services.

I'll let Tanya add anything. Thank you.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Sure.

[Tanya Davoren]

If I may, as to services that are currently available, the First Nations and Inuit Hope for Wellness Help Line is for first nations and Inuit people in crisis or distress. It is not for Métis people to call, so even having a line available for Métis people to access in crisis.... I did call the number to see what would happen, and they said they would try to assist me but I was not their intended audience.

When we think about technology and how it benefits Métis people trying to connect with one another, it's super-important to look at other ways. If Veterans Affairs Canada helped us prepare and work with our service officer and create more programs like that, I think we really could be providing the best service to Métis veterans in the province.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

You talked in your presentation about wanting an invitation from Veterans Affairs Canada to have representation. I wasn't clear what you meant by that. What would the invitation be for, and what representation would you be thinking about?

[Tanya Davoren]

I think that would be on working with committees, or on accessing services in a better way. We have a Métis National Council that represents us at the provincial level, but if there are committees that do this work and look at the service officer pieces provincially and how we could become more involved, we'd love to have that communication.

It was mentioned earlier that we're last on the “know list”, so we show up maybe a day late sometimes. Just being more aware of what's happening is very important, and this is a huge miss right now. We need to get that communication happening.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Mr. Black, I think, touched on that very well on the previous panel, on making sure that there is better communication and that the information gets out there in a timely way. I think that is very important.

Mr. Sanderson, would you agree that it would be helpful to have better communication between Veterans Affairs Canada and people actually on the ground serving veterans in Métis communities?

[Victor Sanderson]

I think it would be helpful. The civilian workers in there are not compassionate, and they're very hard to deal with because they're bureaucrats. Having somebody there who is compassionate and knows that a veteran is suffering, who can see it, would be beneficial for us. Having 30% of our own people in there as well, as a veteran.... Even in remote areas, for our older veterans, we need our own people in there in Veterans Affairs as front-line workers to help with the language barriers.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Would you see the newly reopened Veterans Affairs office in Saskatoon as an opportunity for your area to have that type of engagement?

[Victor Sanderson]

Well, yes, we'll see how that goes from here, because it just opened and I just got a counsellor. My last one was from 2009, so it's been a big gap to fill.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Right. Okay, thanks very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

That is our time today for testimony.

On behalf of the committee, I'd like to thank all three of you for taking time out of your schedules today to testify. The testimony was great, and hopefully it will help us in our journey to the end of this study.

Mr. Eyolfson, do you want to...?

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd just like to present a notice of motion. I'll distribute this.

The motion is:

That the Committee undertake a study of the challenges faced by homeless veterans, the causes that lead to their homelessness and Veterans Affairs Canada's efforts to address this issue; that the Committee report its findings and recommendations to the House no later than December 2018; and that the Committee request that the Government table a comprehensive response to the report.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Is there discussion on the motion?