If you want to have round tables on women veterans, you have to include the people who are most impacted. You need the lived experience of women veterans during these discussions. I've been talking about women veterans' homelessness for over five years now since I've been a VAC client. I've talked to the Veterans Ombudsman. I've talked to various non-profit organizations, City of Ottawa housing and the social housing department. They tell me it doesn't exist or that they don't have a mandate. In those five years, I have not been contacted once for a round table. Nobody has reached out to me to ask me about my lived experience. Instead they have veterans on their round tables. They are women veterans, but they don't have the lived experience of the topic at hand.
On November 9th, 2023. See this statement in context.