Evidence of meeting #45 for Veterans Affairs in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was training.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Veteran Advocate, As an Individual
My number one suggestion is a top-to-bottom review of the table of disabilities and making sure there are no sex or gender biases left in them.
Liberal
Churence Rogers Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
That answers the question I was going to ask as well about that table and what you would like to see done with that.
Thanks, Christine.
Ms. Douglas is next.
Executive Director, LGBT Purge Fund
Historical education is helpful grounding for culture change. I think bringing in outside stakeholders for the journey of change that is under way in both the CAF and Veterans Affairs is essential. Also, a shifting culture that grounds respect and diversity in everything that's done at Veterans Affairs, and not mocking or judging people's experience but accepting and believing it, is essential. Training is so important in that journey.
Lieutenant-Commander (Retired), Founder, Servicewomen’s Salute Canada
I'm going to go to a higher level.
With regard to veterans in Canada, when they leave the military, they disappear. They are an amazing resource at the local level, but we are not tapping into that. I would give the example of work that I'm involved in right now around emergency management disaster response.
The question I ask is, where are your veterans in your local community pitching in? The reserves aren't going to be called in, and the reg force isn't going to be called in. It's a request for final assistance; they're the force of last resort. Where are the reserves? They are living in a community but not wearing a uniform. Where are the veterans? Women veterans organize. That's who we should be using.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Blake Richards
We have concluded the time for this round.
Ms. Riguidel, if you have just a brief response, then go ahead.
Major (Retired), As an Individual
It's super fast. Honestly, just have far more women-centred, dedicated programming for our women.
Thank you.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Blake Richards
That was incredibly brief. Thank you for that.
Mr. Desilets, I now yield the floor to you.
You may continue your remarks, but only for two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Luc Desilets Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Wood, I think you alluded to a gender-related report that would have sort of been pushed aside. In fact, it may not have been published. I may have misunderstood.
What is that about?
Veteran Advocate, As an Individual
I was referring to the GBA+ analysis that is done by VAC. I believe every department of the Canadian government is required to do a gender-based analysis.
Do you understand what that is?
Bloc
Luc Desilets Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Very good, but I'm not familiar with this report.
Has it been made public?
Veteran Advocate, As an Individual
It has not been made public, despite numerous calls for it to be made public—I'm talking about a long time. We need to see it.
Veteran Advocate, As an Individual
I don't know how intersectional they were. I don't know how deeply they got into it or if they got it right. We need to know.
Bloc
Luc Desilets Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
In principle, it is quite difficult to hide things when they are not state secrets. We'll see what can be done about that.
Have you had to appear before the Veterans Review and Appeal Board with respect to your various claims?
Veteran Advocate, As an Individual
No, I always appealed myself or with the assistance of the Bureau of Pensions Advocates, the BPA. I was either successful or not. I've never gone as far as going to the VRAB, the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. I've never gone that far. I might. It takes so much effort, though.
Veteran Advocate, As an Individual
It takes so much time. The medical conditions I have make it difficult for me to focus. They make it difficult for me to keep my things organized with different doctors' notes, appointments, records, receipts and everything like that.
It's also incredibly difficult to have to say again and again that I have been injured in this way. I mean, with every single application that I fill out I have to say that I was sexually assaulted in 2011. This is how it happened. This is what happened after. This is why I have PTSD, and now I have this.
I link it to the medications I took for PTSD or just the mental stress that came out and presented in my body. I have to do it again and again and again. That is what I mean about it being exhausting and dehumanizing. It is embarrassing.
Like I said, I'm ashamed I left. I advocate alongside women who went through what I went through, and they stayed in, but I didn't. I knew that, without knowing who raped me, I could never be safe in a room.
I shouldn't have to write on every form what my primary diagnosis was and all of the details to make it obvious. It's like I'm trying to dumb things down enough so that they can understand and make the connection. I'm exhausted from it. Like I said, there are claims I haven't put in that I need to. I need to, because I need care. I need coverage and treatment.
I will stop there. I'm sorry; I'm taking too much time.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Blake Richards
No, thank you. Nobody feels at all like that. I think what you just told us is incredibly valuable information for this committee to know and understand. I think it's something that many of us have heard far too often—the need to continually tell the story that is so hard for you to tell. Don't feel like you've taken too much time. We appreciate what you've just shared with us, without question.
We will now finish our questioning for today with Rachel Blaney for the last two and a half minutes.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
Thank you, Chair.
Again, as I said earlier, I'm sorry that you have to bleed so that we can actually do something with it.
I'm going to come back to my very unsexy but, I think, very important issue and question around data collection. I believe that what we don't track, we don't see. Talk about making things invisible.
I'm going to start with Ms. Park. I have only about two and a half minutes, and I want to get all three of you in there, so I apologize for that.
Could you speak to that?
Lieutenant-Commander (Retired), Founder, Servicewomen’s Salute Canada
The lack of collection by the CAF makes it very difficult for VAC to have a history. I'll give you the one example that surprised me. We have a saying at Servicewomen's Salute: #iamnotsurprised. With respect to deployment, when women were sent on deployment, they did not record where they were or what they did, so there is no record. We have to crowdsource now. Those deployment experiences, and logically those in harsher conditions, will have implications for later health care and other issues. If I had a request.... They have tried to do a study. They've been able to find women going back to 2000, but they say it isn't possible to find them from earlier than that. There have been 399 missions since 1945. Women have been sent on international deployments since 1975. The only thing we can do, which we are undertaking, is to crowdsource.
Executive Director, LGBT Purge Fund
We're looking for these purge victims, purge survivors. We'd like to talk to their families, and we don't know how to find them. We don't have the data to know who they are or how to reach them. We think the government might be able to help by doing much more information broadcasting and awareness raising. We need this data, because we know this is an aging group and that they're in their final years in many cases. We want them to know in this period of their life that they are respected as veterans and that they can get help as they age from Veterans Affairs, from the government that, in many cases, betrayed them. Without this data, we don't even know what we're dealing with to try to resource the help for them.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Blake Richards
Is there anyone else who wants to respond briefly? We are at the end of our time, but if there's a brief response, I can allow that.
Veteran Advocate, As an Individual
I was going to say that if Veterans Affairs and CAF tracked injuries and claims, if we tracked all of these different metrics and data points, then we would know what programs are needed. We could collect data about how effective they are. That's the whole point of it. We need to be transparent and accountable to the public. These are taxpayer dollars. The programs, if they are not designed for you, are not going to work for you. Collecting that data has to be part of the backbone or the foundation of all the work that goes forward, because, as I said, you can't treat it if you can't name it. You can't name it if you don't track it and have the data.
Thank you.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Blake Richards
Thank you.
We'll have to close there, but I want to sincerely thank all of the witnesses today for the moving and impactful testimony that you have provided this committee. I think I can speak on behalf of everyone here when I say that it was very powerful, and I think it is going to be very important to us in our deliberations and in the recommendations we make going forward. Know that you have made a difference today. Thank you for your courage and for your time with us today.
With that, we'll close the meeting.
The meeting is adjourned.