Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Sergeant Usherwood, for your service, but also for how well you have explained things for us today. It's very much appreciated.
I just have one thing to ask, because I have limited time. The Gulf War association put forward a petition to the House of Commons in March 2023, calling upon the Government of Canada to reclassify the Persian Gulf War, the liberation of Kuwait, from a special duty area to wartime service within all Canadian policies. The main argument was that, of course, if they designated that as a wartime service and extended it to Persian Gulf veterans, they would need to extend it to all post-Korea veterans who were deployed.
With petitions, ministers are always required to respond. This is the response tabled by the Minister of National Defence. I'd like you to pretend I'm the Minister of National Defence. I'm going to read the response, and I would like to get your reaction to that, to me, as though I was the minister. I would like to know, how do you feel about that?
The response tabled by the Minister of National Defencestated:
Applying these categories is not meant to signal greater or lesser respect for the service of members and Veterans, nor are such categories indicative of a lesser degree of risk on the part of those deployed.
There you have it. There's nothing to see here.