Veterans Affairs Committee on March 22nd, 2022

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Laverdure, you mentioned liaison officers. I don't have much time, but I'd like you to take a minute to explain to me how you see this.

[Brigitte Laverdure]

Thank you for the question.

We know that case managers don't have the time to take calls from veterans who use case management services. I would therefore suggest that liaison officers in the district offices be linked to veterans' files in order to follow up with them. That would be ideal.

These officers would also be able to monitor the files and answer veterans' questions. They would be less left to their own devices and would be able to find out the status of their file after several months of waiting.

As I said earlier, case managers don't authorize claims. They authorize plans.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

From what I understand, that would be very reassuring for veterans.

Would there be a time saving or an advantage for liaison officers?

[Brigitte Laverdure]

I think there would be an advantage for case managers. Instead of spending many hours on the phone to call veterans back, they could spend more time processing cases to respond to requests for psychological or psychiatric care, to authorize visits to the doctor or therapist or to Ste. Anne's Hospital. They could also respond to Blue Cross requests and claims. It's the case managers who authorize all of that.

So that would be helpful for case managers.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

That's very interesting.

Our goal is to make recommendations in the report we'll have to write at the end of the study.

You alluded to something I had never heard of that might be interesting. What do you mean by blitz teams?

[Brigitte Laverdure]

The blitz teams would work in the district offices. We lost a large district office in Quebec, the one in Sherbrooke, which served a lot of veterans from the Eastern Townships, from the entire Eastern Townships. All these people are being redirected to Saint‑Jean‑sur‑Richelieu and Montreal.

I would suggest that each district should have blitz teams of case managers and liaison officers who would travel to the regions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you, Ms. Laverdure.

Ms. Blaney, you have two and a half minutes.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.

Again, thank you to all of our witnesses. It's good to be in the presence of so many strong and powerful women.

Ms. Perron, I want to congratulate you on having a movie made out of your book. I think that's absolutely fantastic and very exciting. It's exciting to see those voices finally represented in meaningful ways. Thank you for your dedication.

We know that women's disability claims are often extremely delayed. We know they're delayed because their bodies are seen as the traditional male body, without an acknowledgement of the wonderful spectrum of bodies that we exist. I'm just wondering if you could talk a little bit about what you've heard from the women you work with about the gear they wear and the impacts that has on their bodies.

The other part—and then I'll stop—is that you talked a lot about microaggressions. We heard today from other witnesses words like “shattered” and “endless pinpricks”. I think those two things need to be connected. It's what happens physically, emotionally and mentally that has that impact.

Could you just answer that huge question in about a minute?

[Sandra Perron]

So many of the VAC and military programs have been designed for men and adapted to women. This has a huge impact on women's bodies with regard to equipment. The rucksacks were not designed for women.

This is changing. There's new armour, bodysuits and body armour, that's coming out, but the women today who are retiring have been wearing equipment that was designed for men for 30 to 35 years, and that's had an impact. We need to recognize that.

We also need to recognize that some of the trauma they have suffered from sexual misconduct has physical consequences, such as debilitating diseases and—the name escapes me. A lot of physical ailments are due to some of the trauma they have suffered.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you so much, Ms. Blaney and Ms. Perron.

That's all the time we have tonight. On behalf of the members of the committee, I would like to say thank you to all of you.

I can tell you that, personally, I've learned a lot this evening, and I'm even more aware of your situation. You've given us some excellent testimony.

I would like to thank Brigitte Laverdure and Sgt Nina Charlene Usherwood, who testified as individuals, as well as Michelle Douglas, executive director of the LGBT Purge Fund, and Sandra Perron, founder and CEO of the Pepper Pod. Again, I thank you for your interventions and your contribution to this study that we're doing at the committee.

I'll now take a quick minute to address the committee members before adjourning the meeting.

First, as part of this study, you've received a document from VETS Canada.

I would like to know if I can get the consent of the committee to invite Ms. Lowther to appear at our next scheduled meeting for this study. I know that Ms. Wagantall has already answered on that.

So there's no problem with that?

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

No problem.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Okay. We will invite VETS Canada.

I would also simply like to inform you, committee members, that a number of people have declined our invitation to appear: Sherry Bordage, from CannaConnect, as an individual; Pierre‑Claude Vézina, as an individual; Sylvain Bolduc, as an individual; Lori Buchart, from It's Not Just 20K; and Virginia Vaillancourt, national president of the Veterans Affairs Employees Union, and Mike Martin, communications officer for the same union.

Committee members, I'd now like to know if I have your consent to adjourn this meeting.

I see that everyone agrees.

The meeting is adjourned.