Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Minister, first of all, thank you for being here. I wish you were here for the amount of time we'd asked you for, but I appreciate that you are here.
However, I will say this: I've had this role as your shadow minister for about six months now, and I've taken the opportunity to meet and visit with veterans across this country. The first thing I will say is that many times what they're telling me is, “We're so glad someone's listening.” They feel like you and your government aren't listening.
Second, they're pointing out things like lack of service for many of the claims they need to live their lives. At a meeting recently, I brought up the point that the service standard is 16 weeks. There was laughter throughout the room, because they know that is just not anywhere near what's happening right now. There was literally laughter at the idea that this was the standard. They were not feeling that it's being met. There is a new switchover of a contract that's leaving veterans without services. There is just....
I could go on and on, but I think what it really boils down to is a saying that we've all heard, and veterans use it consistently: “Deny. Delay. Die.” It's the way they feel they're being treated.
It all comes to a real head when we talk about this medical assistance in dying fiasco that we've seen in your department. It really, I think, hits home hard for a lot of veterans, who feel that they're not getting the consideration they deserve. Then, on top of it, there's the insult that it's being suggested to some of their comrades that maybe they should consider ending their lives. It's something that needs to be taken seriously.
I looked through the report that you mentioned in your opening comments. I looked through that report. It seems as though you basically asked employees to self-report if they did something wrong, and maybe did a keyword search of some files.
It also notes that there were as many as 19 other veterans who came forward and indicated that they had these discussions brought up to them inappropriately as well, but you found that none of those were valid allegations. Are you saying that those veterans were all lying?