Thank you, Madam Chair. I won't take five minutes. I'll keep my remarks short.
I joined the reserves at 17 years old. Before I was 18, I became one of the 19,000 members of the military sexual misconduct lawsuit. I was sexually assaulted by an older soldier while I was sleeping at night.
I went on to serve two tours with 2nd Battalion, PPCLI in Bosnia. If I had kept drinking the way I was drinking up until 2011, I wouldn't be sitting here giving you these statements right now.
Right now, I'm the sergeant-at-arms at the Royal Canadian Legion in Amherst, Nova Scotia. In 2023, I hope I helped some Afghan veterans with some healing by unveiling an Afghan memorial in Nova Scotia.
I, too, almost took my own life, and I would have if it hadn't been for another service member helping me out. That's why I implore you to take all of our information—Mr. Hurley's information, Mr. Simons' information, Mr. Bona's information and Mr. Wouter's information—to Veterans Affairs.
I don't think that cutting the benefits that we get—i.e., the shockwave therapy that some veterans get for chronic pain—is a good avenue to go down, because then you're going to push veterans to another avenue unless you give them something else to take away that pain.
I implore you to heed the recommendations at this committee and take them to VAC.
That's all I'll say. Thank you.