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.
Conservative
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
I'd like to talk to you about the fact that a lot of veterans take issue with the critical injury benefit criteria. That was set up a while back. It has not been used with regard to psychological injuries because it doesn't explicitly mention psychological injuries. I know it has been awarded recently, but since then it's become impossible to get the information or to see others receive that support as well.
Are you familiar with the critical injury benefit and the limitations on it?
Sailor 3rd Class, Registered Nurse, As an Individual
Yes. I've been corresponding with the minister about it, and I did receive a letter. He said they're sending it back to committee to review and research the language to make sure that it's available for people with physical and/or psychological issues. I really hope that's not smoke and mirrors.
Conservative
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
I'm so sorry that government and its methods of doing the right thing quite honestly can add to sanctuary trauma with the whole process that we sometimes have to go through.
Do I have some time, sir?
Conservative
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
I will wait and hopefully have more time afterwards. I would like to speak to the others as well.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Emmanuel Dubourg
Thank you, MP Wagantall.
Now I'd like to invite Mr. Wilson Miao to take his six minutes, please.
Liberal
Wilson Miao Liberal Richmond Centre, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all of you for appearing today at our committee.
I'd like to direct my first question to Ms. Hughes.
You mentioned in your opening remarks that there are about 250,000 members right now in the Legion. Of those 250,000, how many of them are woman veterans?
Director, Veterans Services, National Headquarters, The Royal Canadian Legion
It's not my area of expertise, but I will get that answer and bring it back to you.
Liberal
Wilson Miao Liberal Richmond Centre, BC
Thank you.
On your website, it's stated, “The Legion is committed to supporting Veterans’ research.” As all of you know, this is the first time we are studying the experience of women veterans. Is there similar research done through the Royal Canadian Legion on this topic?
Director, Veterans Services, National Headquarters, The Royal Canadian Legion
Not at the moment, no. What we do is support research, especially through CIMVHR and the various universities. We don't do research ourselves. We support a lot of research that's out there.
We also provide a scholarship for a student who is going through a master's program in research to do with military health and research for veterans. This year, I believe it's on cannabis use and interactions with other medications. Hopefully, very shortly in the future, we'll be sponsoring a Ph.D. student. We also support the forum that goes on each year with CIMVHR.
We're very active in the research area, but we're not doing research ourselves.
Liberal
Wilson Miao Liberal Richmond Centre, BC
Thank you for sharing that.
If you could provide any recommendation to our committee for this study, what would it be?
Director, Veterans Services, National Headquarters, The Royal Canadian Legion
I wasn't expecting that one.
Director, Veterans Services, National Headquarters, The Royal Canadian Legion
I would say that for any area of the military or veterans, start looking at it with a gender-based analysis. There are so many policies out there that were traditionally established for males. Whether it's research or a program, it all needs to be looked at. It all needs to be opened up and researched for how it affects women, because sometimes it affects them in a negative way—often, it does.
Liberal
Wilson Miao Liberal Richmond Centre, BC
Thank you.
I'd like to direct my next question to Lieutenant-Colonel Perron.
As Canada's first female infantry officer, what program or training was helpful to you as a woman veteran?
LCol Sandra Perron
What program was helpful to me as an infantry officer? It was probably infantry training, but other than that, I had no separate training for being a woman in combat arms. There were no programs.
Now, I can tell you this, and I write about it in my book: There were supporters. There were men who championed what I represented. They were ostracized, and often it was to the detriment of their own careers. I referred to them as “the pepperoni lovers”. Because my name is “Perron”, they were called “the pepperoni lovers”.
LCol Sandra Perron
There are men like that today. Women are telling me that when they sit around the table, men are more and more present and are supporting or standing up for women. The proof is that we had the top 20 leaders at The Pepper Pod for a fireside chat. That speaks volumes, but there were no programs in my time.
Liberal
Wilson Miao Liberal Richmond Centre, BC
Thank you.
If you were to provide any recommendation to enhance our study on this topic, what would it be? I'd also like to open that up to the other two witnesses where.
LCol Sandra Perron
I entirely agree with Carolyn's perspective about looking at all our programs with a gendered lens to see what we're doing today that we're going to be ashamed of in five or 10 years.
I've spoken at these committees four times now. Every time, I mention the Silver Cross Mother as an example. Every year, we have a Silver Cross Mother who represents the mothers out there who have lost their children in service to this country, but why, in 2023, do we not have a Silver Cross family or parent?
We have soldiers now who have two fathers or two mothers or who were raised by guardians and grandparents. It's time to change words like those that work to our detriment, because the answer is that they're telling us, “Oh, but women have a special bond with their children.” Yes, it suits you to think that, because then we are the ones responsible for caring for children. We need to change biases like that.
Liberal
Wilson Miao Liberal Richmond Centre, BC
Thank you very much.
I understand The Pepper Pod received approximately $914,000 over five years through VAC's veteran and family well-being fund for the transition lifeshops, where women can support each other.
When women walk into your organization, what are the main questions you hear from them?
LCol Sandra Perron
Women come. Our signature program is called the lifeshop. They come for a weekend. They get there on a Friday. They don't know each other, for the most part. They're nervous, they're scared and they're anxious because they don't know what the weekend is about.
By the time they leave on Sunday, they have a new tribe. They have friendships that are deep and profound that they've developed over the weekend through commonalities, by sharing their stories, like we've just heard, and by connecting with women. Many of them don't have women friends due to military service and being uprooted every two to three years and changing provinces. Also, some of them are in fields where there aren't a whole lot of them. They can share some of their health challenges and their experiences.
This is what we provide to them, plus a whole slew of other activities, so they continue their journey together.