Veterans Affairs Committee on Sept. 27th, 2018

[Wally Sinclair]

Yes, at Rivers.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

You left planes before they landed.

[Wally Sinclair]

I was told that. I enjoyed it, yes.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

When you began your military service.... How many years did you serve?

[Wally Sinclair]

I served for 10-plus years.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

How did you relate to your first nations identity as a soldier?

[Wally Sinclair]

It wasn't a conversation. We are native. We are just a native person. That was it. There was no conversation after that. Left and right, you didn't look at colour, creed or language. You were a soldier first. That's why I enjoyed and loved it in going within that.

Later on, that came into play. You start building that with regard to “you're from a reservation” or whatever. To me, I didn't find that to be part of the military, so I just left well enough alone.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

We heard much testimony like that—that it was great and you had each other's backs and that was it.

It's sad that we're having to deal with the fallout of, in our case, the issues we're looking at for indigenous veterans, the cases you're encountering and why the friendship centres exist, I guess.

In your mind, what would be priorities for us in terms of the funding? How should that be directed? What would you see as the activities that you would really want to fund?

[Wally Sinclair]

In relation to the map of Canada, look at the various distances and how far apart the friendship centres are. I would make a regional map that the unit can display in that circumference, within that. I've done this with the province for a lot of years and in the north for Canada.

We found that delivery of service was a core need. The formula that was bent depends on what and who is involved.... Look at the national research that's being done now—I believe it's this group that I was reading about—to see some of that. Look at a bigger picture and talk to some of the old-timers and the veterans. What do they see in their lifetime? What do they like?

We have a lot of history on paper, but to speak about it is a whole different avenue between Blackfoot, Cree, Dene.... There's a real language difference there. I could be saying one thing in Cree that means something different for another person. I'd say, [Witness speaks in Cree], and then they'd say something else over there.

That's not how it's presented, and that's always been in the system federally and provincially. That one paper is supposed to cover all of the agenda. It doesn't really work that way with the challenge you just spoke of. Some cases might be different. It just depends on what you're dealing with. This is a very sensitive one.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

It's important to the first nations that their languages be preserved—

[Wally Sinclair]

Yes.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

—and I would think that in your work you would probably want translation ability, which isn't cheap. You have to fund that.

[Wally Sinclair]

With regard to the level of competence today of our young men and women who are speaking our languages, it's coming back. The ones who spoke it regularly are the ones whose lives we celebrate. They have passed on.

There is still a bit of a gap there yet with languages, especially when you go up north. When you go up north, you still see that. The languages are very particular in their communications.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

We had a tour in which we were visiting indigenous veterans. We went to Beauval. All of us talk about that time. I met a 98-year-old Second World War veteran who walked 110 miles to enlist and walked back again afterward.

The sad part, of course, was that in the day there were no benefits and there was no interaction. Would one of your tasks be to ensure that every indigenous veteran is registered with and knowledgeable about your organization?

[Wally Sinclair]

That is very much one of our tasks. That's key in our agenda. Once we have our national meeting—I think it's coming up here—that's what we're proposing. We've started already, but we just have to justify it by our governance.

We're not in competition with anyone, because there are other indigenous veteran organizations out there. Somewhere we have to celebrate together through this—through our feather.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Thanks for being here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Mr. Johns.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Thank you.

I also would like to acknowledge that we're doing business on the unceded traditional territory of Algonquin Anishinabe people.

I want to thank you for your service, and all of you, for the work that you're doing at the friendship centres. I have two friendship centres in my riding, the Port Alberni Friendship Centre and the Wachiay Friendship Centre in the Comox Valley. They play an important role not just for indigenous people, but for reconciliation and bringing our communities together. In fact, we have a lot of meetings at the friendship centres.

We had some town halls this summer and we listened to veterans. We had five town halls on veterans. At one of the town halls, a more holistic approach—you talked about it earlier—came to fruition. There was a lack of services that were holistic and health-related. Maybe you could speak to taking a holistic approach—a more natural type of approach around the needs of aboriginal veterans. Could you speak to how maybe some of the requirements at Veterans Affairs need to be relaxed or adapted to serve indigenous veterans and Métis veterans?

[Wally Sinclair]

Thank you for that.

The first thing that comes to mind is a celebration. First, it's your pow wows and grand entries in uniform. To me, that is powerful work, with the chief council and the RCMP and everyone there. That visual is a start, within that work and to that area.

Then we have cadets from the nation dressed up in uniform. That's a message right there on its own. They're dressed up proud, and everything else.

We concentrate on our youth with our elders. You put them in combination with the veterans and they're marching together. What more of a picture do you need to explain about reconciliation and truth? They're indigenous and non-indigenous, that's all. They're marching all at the same time. That's key to that.

For me, this summer, there were a lot of the grand entries in uniform. I was in the all-chiefs meeting here in Ottawa, or across the bridge over there. I'm asked to participate in different ones and I share. That's when I get my consultation going: Where are you from? Is there's anything we can do with our friendship centre? Here's a contact. That's what I do.

You talk about reconciliation. That's what we're doing now in Alberta. We're sitting at the table at St. Paul des Métis in Alberta and it's starting to work now. Two veterans have come forward from first nations. They had never talked, never shared. That's exactly what's starting now, what you just mentioned in that.

For my role, I always look at the physical, mental, spiritual and emotional. The elders.... Do you know what? They called me an elder one day, and I looked around and I thought, okay, I'll accept that from the youth and the children. My late grandfather said, “If you're walking on Jell-O all your life, in the physical, mental, spiritual and emotional, your journey is going to be pretty rough.” You have to have a balance in life today. We have the Creator, which we acknowledge every morning through our different ways. All walks of life do that. If we can sit next to everybody and ask for that forgiveness. We move forward with the knowledge base and everything else.

Concentrating in one area.... You need the big picture. Sometimes we're just focusing on that reconciliation. There's more to it, with family and extended family—whether the kids are coming home. Just recently in the newspaper in St. Paul—I don't know if you've seen it—there was something about the statement on residential schools. What did the kids learn? I'm sorry to say it, but we still have racism. We still have it.

I'm going to just share. I was sitting and they were talking about “the Indians out there”. I finally showed them my treaty card, and I said, “You're talking about me. Could you explain a little more, please?” I was not negative, because you have the right to do that in reconciliation. He came and shook my hand and gave me a hug. That's building that relationship, with what you're doing.

In B.C., you have some real models out there. They come back to Ottawa here and that's shared openly.

I graduated in Prince Rupert, B.C.. I lived there for two years. It was in the same area.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

On the thread of how we can better serve veterans and having a different approach.... In the United States, 30% of their case workers are actually former veterans serving veterans. The NDP would like to see more veterans serving veterans when they're released. The government has finally come up with a commitment to at least be at 10% by 2020. We're far off from that right now.

When you think about indigenous veterans.... I think 2.8% of the military is indigenous. Would you like to see at least 2.8% of case workers be indigenous veterans with that cultural knowledge? The friendship centres are a great vehicle. You understand the respect and you've earned the trust of indigenous people. Do you see a way to work that in?

[Wally Sinclair]

There's a document from Veterans Affairs that talks about preparing you for the civilian street. I wish that was there when I got out. If I had that support, maybe I wouldn't have went where I went in not dealing with my past issues.

You're going to hear the word “trauma” in your travels. That's key to that, but overall, it's training the people who are there to prepare them as service providers. I wish I had that opportunity.

I've been working in the health field now for quite a few years in different capacities, and that's what I try to bring on. If you come to treatment where I'm at, it's “Fill out this application. Come and work here for a while. You have skills that you haven't even touched yet. You learned them in the military and where you're from.”

That's key. You're hitting the key part.

Thank you.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Thank you for the shirts, the story and for remembering. We greatly appreciate it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Ms. Ludwig, you have six minutes.

[Karen Ludwig, New Brunswick Southwest, Lib.]

Thank you all very much for being here today.

Mr. Sinclair, I certainly thank you for your service.

Mr. MacLeod, as a reservist, thank you for your service as well.

Mr. Fellows, I have a lot of questions for you about the research, so thank you for the work you're doing as well.

Some of the words I heard when you were speaking, Mr. Sinclair, were about trust, mental health, culture, spirituality and the emotional aspect. I'm wondering if we could work together with Mr. Fellows, in terms of the research you're going to be working on.

From a research perspective, a lot of what we do in government relates to Statistics Canada. How do we take the stories and experiences and put them in a comparable format with Statistics Canada? That's one.

The other one is on the language side. One of your recommendations was working in participation with all nations. Do you see an opportunity, in terms of the research, where there would be people from different first nations groups that would get together, to almost have a common language that could be comparable for the research?

Those are my first questions.

[Ruston Fellows]

I think most people are speaking English right now, so that could be a common language. It's a language of exchange.