If it were a perfect world, there would be some kind of way for this for all women across Canada, women in the CAF included. Sexual assault is not just about the assault; it's about the collection afterward. It's about the physical body afterward. It's the fact that victims deserve the right to a criminal court case, if they can do it.
I found out through my studies and working with the national ombudsman that only 20% of Canadian hospitals offer rape kits. Every single hospital that's around basic training or any kind of military base is hundreds of kilometres away. That's where you have to go to even receive it. From contacting the surgeon general, I know they have no interest in applying a rape kit protocol. It costs $1.25 to provide these tests.
The sad part is with regard to the collection of data. I think it should be similar to victim services in Canada, where they have a different person who records the information. At least there's a middle person. For me, when I was trying to report this, I wasn't even allowed to go to the RCMP. I wasn't allowed to go civil. I was basically contained into an area and I couldn't speak to anybody. I couldn't even go get sanitary pads by myself, even though I couldn't walk. I couldn't go anywhere. At the end of the day, if I'd had somebody to talk to that wasn't them....
I did whatever I could to survive at that point. I was just fearing for my life. If I'd had somebody else who would listen to me, I could have explained what happened. To them, they labelled me with all these military legal terms, but they never let me speak to anybody. When I got back home, the RCMP said they couldn't do anything because there was no information. They had contained the information.
I believe this is how rapists get away with what they do. They get to hide the information. If there was at least a way that we could trace it, maybe somebody who was doing this could be found. I know I'm not the only victim.