Evidence of meeting #51 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 military.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Veterans Services, National Headquarters, The Royal Canadian Legion
In the last couple of years, I've probably seen almost half come forward with claims.
Director, Veterans Services, National Headquarters, The Royal Canadian Legion
With the military sexual trauma lawsuit, a lot of them came forward at all levels of appeal. Two of us at the Legion do reconsideration levels. We saw a dramatic increase of claims that had been denied because there wasn't enough evidence, or perhaps the police found it unfounded or the chain of command said to just keep quiet about it, so there was no documentation on what happened.
The policies have gotten better recently for military sexual trauma, and claims are more favourable, but they didn't go back and look at all claims that were denied in the past. The women had to come forward to us to identify so that we knew. At our national command, we proactively went through all our files. We looked for claims that may have been turned down because there was no medical information of it happening or there was no successful harassment claim. We were able to get those overturned at the higher levels.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
Just to make sure I get this correct, when more information became available to you, you actually went back and looked at files.
Director, Veterans Services, National Headquarters, The Royal Canadian Legion
Yes.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
Did you do any outreach directly to the veterans to say, “By the way, something has changed”?
Director, Veterans Services, National Headquarters, The Royal Canadian Legion
Absolutely. We did the same thing with the hearing loss policy when it changed, and also with all the partial entitlements.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
I'm wondering whether you notice that women, when their physical ailments are perhaps tied to things like mental health or PTSD, are often put in a position where they have to appeal decisions again and again. I hear that a lot.
Director, Veterans Services, National Headquarters, The Royal Canadian Legion
Yes.
Director, Veterans Services, National Headquarters, The Royal Canadian Legion
Yes.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
You also talked about sexual dysfunction. I've had a lot of women veterans say they experience it, but they don't want to talk about it here. I'm just wondering whether, from your perspective, you've seen those claims. Is there any information you could share about that?
Director, Veterans Services, National Headquarters, The Royal Canadian Legion
Sure. I've had probably about five or six claims. There's another woman in our office now who helps with disability claims and appeals, but for the longest time I was the only one. I've dealt with a lot of women who did not want to deal with a male counterpart.
So far, I've had about four or five claims go in, whether for sexual dysfunction or anorgasmia. Two came back favourable. We're starting to see a change. It took over a year to get those decisions back, so it is a very slow process. The other three I'm still waiting on.
It's starting to increase, but it's slow. It's very slow.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Emmanuel Dubourg
Thank you very much.
I'd like to invite our first vice-chair of the committee, Mr. Blake Richards, to go ahead for five minutes, please.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Thank you.
I have a couple of things I want to touch on, but first I'll go to Ms. Hughes.
It's good to have you here again. It's good to see you. One thing we hear about quite frequently—this would apply to all veterans, but without question it would apply to women veterans equally, if not more so—is wait times. I often hear about the atrocious length of time that veterans will wait for claims to be adjudicated. You hear these horror stories of a year or two, and sometimes even much longer than that. Those aren't exceptions. Those are quite common.
I wonder if this is something you hear in your role with the Legion and if this is something you see and are dealing with as well. Do you have any suggestions on what can be done to better serve our veterans?
Director, Veterans Services, National Headquarters, The Royal Canadian Legion
I hear that complaint several times a day, whether it's in an email or a phone call.
The biggest problem we're having right now is with the wait time tool. Veterans will go on there and it will say it's going to take 23 weeks for a common condition. Now they're sitting at 40-some weeks and wondering why it's double the time. “How come I don't have it?” It could be a simple claim, such as osteoarthritis of the knees.
We've asked VAC multiple times to take that down or at least make it accurate, because it's not accurate. It's causing a lot of grief, frustration and nervousness out there. They say, “Why is my claim taking so long? It's going to be denied, obviously.” It's that kind of attitude. That would be one thing Veterans Affairs could do—either make it accurate or take it down completely.
They were making some progress in the disability claim turnaround time. With the strike, I know it may be a little longer—by a couple of weeks. We're monitoring it very closely and we're not going to let up until they're meeting their mandate of 80% within 16 weeks.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Thank you.
I would like to come back to you if there's time, but I want to go over to Ms. McIlmoyle first—Dawn, if I can call you Dawn. If we get some time after that, I'll ask you a couple more questions in regard to wait times. I noticed some nodding of the heads. It seems as if there is pretty general agreement on the panel here that wait times are a problem, so maybe others will have suggestions too.
Before I go to that, I'd like to go to you, Dawn. I hope you're okay with me drawing attention to this. I note you have a service dog. Is it okay if I draw some attention to that? I hope you don't mind.
What's your service dog's name?
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
It's Duchess. Okay.
Can I get you to tell us a bit about Duchess and how you ended up with her? How and when did that occur? Was VAC involved in that at all? What does your service dog do for you?
Sailor 3rd Class, Registered Nurse, As an Individual
After I left my abusive husband, I was all alone. I knew I could not be completely alone, so I went and got a three-month-old German shepherd puppy. I had a couple of veteran friends who said they were going to help me go here and there, but those things didn't come to fruition. I went to Wounded Warriors. They said they only give out dogs; they don't help train them.
I couldn't wait three to five years for a dog. I couldn't make it that long, sitting there by myself. She helps me go into stores. She helps me go out with my friends. She helps me have conversations with people. If someone says, “Can I pet your dog?” and I say no, they'll say, “I'm so sorry.” But I'm like, “Don't be. You are actually helping me say no.” That's something I have a hard time with too—saying no. I'm a people-pleaser.
She's still in training. I still have lots to do with her, but I've done it completely on my own so I could leave the house.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
This is not something Veterans Affairs has been involved in at all.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Did you go to them to seek assistance in getting a service dog?
Sailor 3rd Class, Registered Nurse, As an Individual
You wouldn't be able to. It's only with the organizations they have out there.