Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you for inviting me to speak with you today as you undertake this very important study on the experience of women veterans. Honestly, I find it disheartening that in 2023 there is an overwhelming need to even have this conversation.
As a national registered charity with an aim to provided immediate, on-the-ground support to Canadian Armed Forces and RCMP veterans who are homeless, at the risk of becoming homeless or otherwise in crisis, VETS Canada has had the privilege to interact with thousands of veterans since our inception in 2010. According to figures based on the 2021 Statistics Canada census, women represented 16.2% of veterans but women veterans currently account for just over 19% of our caseload. Because of this, we are in a position to have many experiences shared with us.
The stories we hear are all unique, but there are many common themes. First of all, almost every female veteran we have worked with has disclosed having experienced military sexual trauma and sexual harassment. The other common themes we hear are that women veterans feel invisible, they feel a strong sense of betrayal and they feel more judged by VAC than their male colleagues.
We have many women veterans who tell us that by the time they released from the Canadian Armed Forces, they were so physically and mentally exhausted from working twice as hard to earn half the respect as their male counterparts received that they didn't have the capacity to effectively manage their own lives and they completely fell apart. Many women veterans have told us that their time in the CAF wounded them, and then they went to VAC only to have salt added to the wounds.
We hear from numerous male veterans that their erectile dysfunction is an approved, pensioned condition through VAC, but then we have women veterans who tell us that they experience sexual dysfunction but have been regularly denied any recognition of their condition. Some women veterans have told us that when they are discussing their situation or their symptoms with health care providers or VAC case managers, they have been told, “It's all in your head,” or “You're being dramatic.” We have never had a single male veteran tell us that they have been called “dramatic”.
If we could provide any recommendations to improve the experiences of women veterans, a couple would be as follows.
The first recommendation is for the CAF, not VAC. They say prevention is the best medicine, so if there was a segment of training included in basic training around what constitutes sexual misconduct or sexual harassment, maybe we could prevent some of the military sexual trauma. I realize that we shouldn't have to train people to be decent human beings but, sadly, it seems that we do.
Next, there are six ministerial advisory groups but none specific to women veterans, and there should be. I think it's important for VAC to listen to women veterans, but a good representation of women veterans. Last year, VAC held a women and 2SLGBTQI+ veterans forum, which consisted of a series of panel discussions. There were 11 veterans and currently serving CAF members on the various panels. One was a retired sergeant and one was a retired master corporal, the rest were all officers. I don't think that was a realistic representation of women veterans' voices.
Finally, there is something that just hit me last week as I was preparing a report for VAC as a requirement of our funding from the veteran and family well-being fund. There is a question in the report, as there was in the original application for funding, around GBA+. When I got to that question, I thought, with all of the inconsistencies and deficiencies in the experiences of women veterans, maybe VAC needs to apply a GBA+ lens to their own policies and programs.
Thank you all for listening. I look forward to your questions.