Good evening, Mr. Chair.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen members of the House.
Allow me to introduce myself: I am Brigitte Laverdure, a peer support worker for Canadian Forces veterans who are part of the LGBTQ community.
The purpose of my testimony is to denounce the injustice experienced by francophone veterans in Quebec during the processing of their file submitted to Veterans Affairs Canada.
In the exercise of my recognized role with my peers, I have very often been called upon by them to help them understand why the waiting period was interminable while their application was being processed. I remind you that these long processing times have a significant impact on the morale of the people affected. This ranges from discouragement to abandonment of the process. Worse still, some people go so far as to commit suicide.
For several years, I have been consulting various veterans' groups across Canada through social media, and I can read many comments from English-speaking veterans who have obtained quick responses to their requests. Sometimes, the deadlines are even shorter than those that the department undertakes to respect. I have forwarded several of these comments to Mr. Luc Desilets.
Why is the francophone community being subjected to discrimination? Here, we are not talking about weeks, but rather years. Yet, on the Veterans Affairs website, the notice of decision reads, verbatim, “We are committed to providing a decision to you as soon as possible. In most cases, a decision will be made within 16 weeks of the department receiving all the information required from you in support of your application.”
In addition, during a 2020 Radio Canada report in which I participated, the director of veterans' support services acknowledged that the department had experienced an increase in the number of applications from the French-speaking veteran community. As a result, he promised to hire francophone staff to provide responses to francophone veterans within the department's commitment of 16 weeks, as a general rule.
Distinguished listeners, it is clear that, two years later, in 2022, many files still have an unacceptable processing time, whether for receiving a notice of decision or for paying compensation. I would like to remind you that this situation existed well before the pandemic.
Mr. Chairman, members of Parliament, I thank you for your attention and interest in this cause.