Thank you very much.
My name is Jean Laurion, and I joined the Canadian Armed Forces at the age of 17, on January 7, 1980, and I left on March 31, 2017. I spent 37 years and 3 months in the military.
I started in the infantry. At some point, I went on leadership courses, master corporal and sergeant courses. I was a recruit instructor. I also started working as a driving instructor.
After that, I went to Baden-Soellingen, in Germany, for five and a half months. There I worked with the military police against the infiltration of terrorists. I came back in October 1985, and in January 1986, I was asked to go to the Q Branch, where there was no one, because everyone had left. I was asked to go there and to look after the equipment. I took my courses up to the rank of sergeant, because I was already an infantry sergeant.
After that, I asked for a change of trade. In 1991, it was granted to me. Then, I did a whole series of courses on protection against tritium and all radioactive materials found in the forces. Naturally, we had to take these courses.
After that, I also saw changes in weapons. I also went to schools where courses were taught. I was the storekeeper for these courses. They were finance, administration and procurement courses. In the summer, we also had medical courses. I was in charge of that in a school.
I also went to the combat school in Valcartier for the summer courses where I was, again, a supply technician during the summer.
I was in the 6th Battalion of the Royal 22e Régiment from January 7, 1980 until October 2005. After that, I asked to be transferred to the Service Battalion, because I had no possibility of career advancement. So I joined the Service Battalion. Until the end of my career, I went around from 2007 to 2017. I was working full time. I went around to different units. I worked for the air cadets. After that, I came back to my unit. That's where I finished in 2017.
What I experienced naturally caused things to happen. Maybe we can talk about that later. Sometimes we experience things, but we don't realize that we have problems as a result. It is others who observe us and allow us to see that we have a problem.
It wasn't so long ago that we started to recognize the symptoms of post-traumatic stress in the military. Now they are recognized and that's a good thing, because there are people who come back from postings and are still very ill today. Although there are many veterans' groups, I also founded my own. I am a member of two other groups as well.
I want to remind you that every day an average of 22 veterans commit suicide in Canada.
That's all I have to say.