Veterans Affairs Committee on Oct. 28th, 2025

[Braedon Clark, Liberal, Sackville—Bedford—Preston, NS]

I appreciate that, Mr. Fynes.

In your opening statement, you mentioned a paradigm shift that you had seen. I want to touch on that.

As Mr. Casey said earlier, I think all the members of the committee, regardless of party, are doing this study because we think it's very important. We want to make sure veterans in our country get the support they need and that we reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans in this country, which has been constant for 50 years. That's unacceptable to us as a committee, and that's why we're doing this study, among other things.

Mr. Fynes, can you elaborate on the point you made earlier about what you see as a paradigm shift? What should we be doing as parliamentarians, as a committee to make sure that both veterans and their families have access to the support they need and make sure we can reduce those incidents? That is the point of this study.

[Shaun Fynes]

I'm sorry. That's a difficult question.

I think everyone in your room knows, intuitively or first hand, that our system is not perfect. We still fail. We still have human frailty. However, it's absolutely night and day when comparing the treatment of victims of PTSD 17 years ago to now because back then they just ignored and denied that there was even a problem.

There's much more to be done, as the Australians said, for our veterans. In my personal experience, we have been befriended. We've been supported, and we've been helped by the veteran community. Most of them wear their hearts on their sleeves. They are absolutely the finest of people, and they will always have my respect and my love. They just deserve so much more.

I'm not familiar enough now with the system to get into the intricacies of which parts of it need to be changed, enhanced or improved. However, I would underscore that some years ago, the American military funded research in the universities in California. One of the findings, when they did brain scans on victims of PTSD, was that typically the brain had shrunk 10%, and the hippocampus, which controls impulse control and all that stuff, had atrophied. Of course, military members were getting into trouble for impulsive behaviours. It was part of their injury. It was a discipline issue, and it wasn't going to be cured or shouldn't have been addressed as a discipline issue.

I'm sorry. I completely support what your witnesses are saying and the efforts they're making, and all of the others who have come forward to help move the needle on this. I thank the committee and everyone else who has done anything to support our veteran community. They are absolutely deserving. It's not a gift to them. It's not something we throw to them as a charity. They have absolutely earned every medical assistance and every other help possible.

I thank you for the question.

[Braedon Clark, Liberal, Sackville—Bedford—Preston, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Fynes. I appreciate it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Ms. Gaudreau, you have the last turn with these witnesses. You have two and a half minutes. Then we'll go to the next witness panel.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I'd like to go back to what I said about the system.

The system is broken, so that's where we need to start. If not, how can we act? Regardless of what we do, we are powerless, as I said earlier. We are not unsympathetic, but we are powerless in an apparatus that is too big, where priorities vary widely and where there is a lack of money, care and services. We're told that they're doing the best they can and that improvements have been made, but that's not enough. When you cherish someone and value them, you'll take care of them and work hard to help them get well.

I'd like to hear your opinion.

[Christine Gauthier]

You're right, Ms. Gaudreau, the system is fixable.

Since the government decided to nationalize the services and bring in subcontractors like Lifemark and Blue Cross, all the money has been going to those subcontractors, who are double-checking information. In fact, they're not even checking; they're just rejecting applications at the first stage, at the second stage, and then at the third stage, non-stop. It's a wheel that keeps spinning. Nothing is resolved, either at the outset or at the end. It just goes in circles between Blue Cross, Lifemark and probably Brookfield.

However, it's easy to catch up. I have been a veteran since 1998. At the time, the department had regional offices. The officers who were contacting us had already met with us and they knew the categories. They had the power to act. Today, Veterans Affairs Canada officers want to act, but they no longer have the ability and power to do so, since everything is outsourced.

[Kelsie Sheren]

I know we're very short for time, but it's very simple. I did the study on emerging treatments for veterans and first responders two years ago. You said that you were going to give us funding for psychedelic-assisted research. You said that we had the proof. You said that we had the evidence. Give us that.

The next step you need to take is to stop Manulife. Stop it. Stop it completely, across the board. You need to stop giving us case managers who don't speak English. I'm not exaggerating, and I'm not kidding. We will not answer the phone to them. They are triggering as hell. You need to stop over-prescribing pharmaceutical drugs. Ketamine does not work in the long term.

I'm going fast because we don't have time.

You need to start looking at things like physical fitness, actual community, diet and exercise. Stop doing SSRIs. They are damaging. Fitness is two times more effective than SSRIs. Stop giving us a drug for the morning and the night. Stop telling us we're liars. Stop telling us it's not happening, because we can prove it. Also, stop telling us that we have to stop praying a certain way when we have our Remembrance Day ceremonies.

These things in our community matter, but our community is broken when you tell us we can't say things out loud. We actually have true solutions. You're not hearing us.

Don't tell me you don't have money. You just gave $189 million to Black-owned businesses. You gave $500 million to Ukraine. You gave another $100 million somewhere else, and you're hiding more taxes through our Prime Minister. I'm telling you there is money.

We want to help ourselves. Our own charities do it. My business helps do it. It fills the gaps that you haven't. We have the solutions. You're tying our hands, putting bricks on our feet, throwing us in the ocean and saying, “We don't have the solution.” Those are lies. Those are excuses. We have the solutions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Thank you very much.

I'd like to thank all the witnesses who were with us today.

Thank you for your service.

We will be suspending in order to go to our next panel.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Please take your seats.

We are resuming the meeting.

We do have a second hour, hopefully, or as much as we can, out of respect for our other witnesses.

Mr. Clark.

[Braedon Clark, Liberal, Sackville—Bedford—Preston, NS]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

This is a quick request or perhaps a point of order for the committee.

I know that we had a bit of time getting through the first panel and into the second panel. Out of respect to both the witnesses and the committee, I would ask for unanimous consent to extend the meeting by 15 minutes. We would adjourn at 5:45.

Is that good?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

There is unanimous consent.

Thank you, Mr. Clark.

Before we introduce our second group of witnesses, for the people who are viewing this, I would like to provide a warning. We will be discussing experiences related to suicide and grief. This may be triggering to viewers with similar experiences. That goes for all the witnesses and for members of Parliament. It is important to recognize that these are difficult discussions.

Witnesses, if you do not feel comfortable at any point, please let us know. We can pause our meeting for you.

I would now like to introduce our next set of witnesses.

We have Mr. Kenneth Bennett, warrant officer, retired, appearing as an individual.

Welcome.

We have Mr. Brendan Hynes, who is also appearing as an individual.

Thank you very much, sir, for being here. Thank you for your service.

From the United Federation of Canadian Veterans, we have Mrs. Diane Rose, peer support advocate.

Each of you will have five minutes. At the end of the 15 minutes, we'll open the floor for our members of Parliament. It was unanimously approved that we will be extending our committee meeting by 15 minutes. I hope you are available. Members of Parliament can be available, but you are our witnesses today, so I want to make sure that you are available to extend the time by 15 minutes.

Thank you very much for that.

Mr. Bennett, let's start with you for five minutes, please.

[Kenneth Bennett, Warrant Officer (Retired), As an Individual]

Do you want me to do an introduction of myself?

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Yes, please.

[Kenneth Bennett]

I spent almost 28 years in the service. I started off in the army. I did most of my career in the air force, but spent a little bit of time, 30 months, attached to ships, taking care of Sea King helicopters, so I had a glimpse into all three elements of the Canadian Armed Forces. I'm the father of two, a grandfather of six and a great-grandfather of one.

I was triggered when I read the email requesting volunteers to come and testify about suicide among veterans and serving members. I was triggered, because I am one, and I never told my story—not to my psychiatrist after I was diagnosed with PTSD, not to my family. My wife is my support person. She stayed out in the hall because she didn't want to hear me speak about this.

Several of the people who worked with me and were under me during my career—far too many—have committed suicide, or attempted it. I played sports a lot in my early career, and guys who were fantastic athletes and had families, who had seen or experienced too much, committed suicide. I didn't understand it, and I still don't, even though it was me.

I didn't make an attempt, but I knew how I was going to do it. I had considered it. I'm so grateful for my indigenous ways that helped heal me, for the support of my community. I can't say family—although they knew all about my PTSD, they didn't know about the suicide.

I've watched as the people I worked with and knew throughout my career have become addicted to different drugs as a solution. I believe that maybe if they took a soldier off fentanyl and put them on marijuana...but lots of those soldiers were never marijuana users, and now they're addicted or they have to do it all day long. It didn't fix the problem; it dumbed it down, maybe. That's only how I feel, personally. It's hard, but I think we deserve more help and more information as we're serving, as we go through so many of the tragic things that we experience, which we're not prepared for. The stigma is, “Well, he's taken out of the game—or she—because they're a weakened warrior or don't have the heart to continue.” There was no understanding among our peers or those we worked for.

I feel that there's a certain prejudice to it all, and I believe that only through conversation can we come to a better solution. We may not stop it, but we can slow it down. If we can save one, maybe we can save 100, but we have to get outside this box of throwing money and drugs at the situation, because the numbers are going up, especially in the first nations or indigenous communities.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bennett, for sharing.

Mr. Hynes, you have five minutes.

[Brendan Hynes, As an Individual]

I'll be moving quickly because I have a big mouth and not a lot of time.

I'm going to throw some numbers at you.

One hundred and fifty-eight Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. Active service member suicide rates equalled that in nine years.

Of course, we don't know about veteran suicides because there are no reliable numbers in Canada. However, the estimate is that there are one-and-a-half to two times the number of veteran suicides compared to civilian suicides, despite military members having screening, financial stability, employment, medical care, a strong peer group, mental health services and lower addiction rates than civilians, which are all predisposing factors for mental health crisis and suicide. Don't tell me there's not a crisis.

Zero is the number of veteran and military hospitals in Canada. There's not one. We have clinics—good old 10 to 3—and that's it.

Zero is also the number of brain scans I had from any veterans' service provider, despite being released from the military for traumatic brain injury. Thank God for organizations like Project Trauma Support and Concussion Legacy Foundation Canada. How many members are being treated for PTSI, post-traumatic stress injury—it's not a disorder; it's an injury—but are never investigated for TBI? We've been briefing this since 2009.

Two to three months was the wait time for a VAC settlement in 2006. One and a half years is the wait time now, despite better technology, more studies, more departments and more employees.

Once is the number of times I presented to military emergency mental health care because I was suicidal. Incidentally, they were closed, but they had a nice sign requesting that I go home and call a certain number that they had posted. That's not bloody useful.

Zero is the number of proven supplements and nootropics prescribed to veterans with TBI or PTSD. There's not one. Ironically, 90 is how many grams of weed per month a veteran is eligible for with no questions asked, despite its proven impact on nervous system dysfunction. For psychedelic treatment coupled with counselling, which is proven to be of benefit for those suffering both TBI or PTSD, good luck. You're on your own. You're better off to be sponsored by an American charity, as some of our SOF members were, and flown to the U.S.

Seven is how many agencies veterans have had to wade through for health coverage, rehabilitation or education. It's a debacle. It should all be under VAC. Stop shuffling things around under different shells of money.

Three is the number of agencies veterans must deal with regarding their pay. Again, it doesn't take “rocket appliances”.... It should be one agency.

Sixty-four is the percentage of my pay that I receive. Ninety is the percentage of my pay that the government claims I receive.

My name is Brendan Hynes. I served our country for five years as a reservist and 26 as a full-time member. I was an IEDD operator and a breacher instructor with both the combat engineers and special operations. My exposure to blast-induced overpressure resulted in my medical release due to traumatic brain injury, though VAC labelled that as CTE, which, oddly, is impossible to diagnose in the living.

Despite a litany of smaller injuries, my brain injury was the worst. It changed my life and tried to steal my life from me. My balance was so bad that I had to sit in the shower. I couldn't stand with my eyes closed without falling over. I've had headaches daily for several years and often wake up feeling hungover without having consumed a single drop of alcohol. If I push myself too hard or I'm not mindful of my sleep, diet and life routines, I become symptomatic again.

The worst is the effect on my mental health. I spent years stuck in neutral. There was little that caused emotion in me and when it did, it was generally frustration or anger. My panic response was heightened. I barely slept and when I did, it was fitful. I occasionally acted recklessly to see if I could feel something. I rarely could. I was failing at both work and home. I had panic attacks.

In 2019, I took my little girls Christmas shopping. I forced myself through time at a busy mall until finally escaping to our car on the journey home. All day I'd thought about what I felt I had to do.

As we drove home, my girls sang Christmas carols in the back seat. In the front, I had tears streaming down my face. I thought of how I'd failed them and how much I'd miss them. I had a plan to end my life and to do it so there would be no horror for my family. I planned to leave directions with 911 for a body recovery.

To those of you who have not experienced this, it's lunacy, absolute insanity—and I agree, it was—but at that time of pain and panic, it was the only way to stop being hurt and confused. I thought and hoped it would be like a deep sleep.

To members of this committee, I thank you for your time. You've seen a lot of anger and frustration from veterans. It's warranted, every goddamn bit of it. We have met, shared, briefed and advocated for brain injury mitigation, for mental health care and a streamlined and coherent system. What have you given us? You have applied bullshit bureaucratic band-aids, nothing of substance, no improvement and no ease of navigating the system.

Your military and veterans face a degree of abandonment that causes more loss of life and more mental health issues than any trauma they ever faced overseas. It’s not what we see and do; it's the lack of assistance in recovery, the lack of reliability and a cohesive plan for treatment.

We keep trying to apply a rote methodology of injury assessment, emotion, pain and abandonment. You cannot apply a unit of measure to these things. We require guidelines and, for a refreshing change, some common bloody sense and maybe some compassion, some facilities, some clear answers and a clear path.

We were sent to fight on your behalf and wound up having to come home and fight with the very people who sent us there in the first place. It’s about accountability and responsibility.

Get a number that members can call when they're in need, where somebody will answer and be able to respond to questions about pay and health care, not one to suggest MAID or to pass off vets to yet another bureaucracy.

We cannot end this by only looking at VAC; however, if you, the people who are elected to be servants of your nation, decide to be biased towards action and leadership rather than simply closing the books on yet another long-winded, myopic committee meeting with sunshiny platitudes, then we can start a change, but we've seen enough of that.

It’s not shocking that we lose so many along the way, because few fights are ever won alone, so please, please, not for me, but for those who come after me, those who served with me and those we've lost along the way, for once, become our allies.

While I eagerly await your questions, I have some for you. I wonder what the logic has been in the application of things like Manulife and PCVRS to this system rather than it being coordinated by Veterans Affairs.

It is the government that sent us into harm's way. It is their duty to look after those who went. “Here I am; send me”, was what we said, so please explain to me how we gave a non-competitive contract to the Loblaw family to set up PCVRS to lay over thousands and thousands of more sheets of administrative miasma for veterans to wade through.

God bless our veterans, our fallen and their families. I was blessed to be able to stand on the shoulders of heroes.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Thank you, Mr. Hynes.

Next is Ms. Rose for five minutes.

[Diane Hill Rose, Peer Support Advocate, United Federation of Canadian Veterans]

It's hard to speak after that.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the committee. My name is Diane Rose. I'm the director of military sexual trauma for the United Federation of Canadian Veterans. I am the founder of Canadian Survivors of MST, a peer support and advocacy group active for more than 15 years. Together, our networks represent the voice of over 8,000 veterans and many more organizations. The federation stands shoulder to shoulder with all veterans in need. It exists to give voice to those silenced or left behind.

Most of what we do is quiet, unseen work, helping veterans to survive another day, but not every veteran does survive another day. We already know the statistics. Women veterans are at higher risk of suicide than male veterans or civilian women. Male veterans are at higher risk than civilian men. However, instead of offering you more numbers, I'll speak from lived experience.

Too often, we only learn of another loss when we see a familiar name in the obituaries. Less than a month ago, a veteran was found dead in the woods a short distance from a base where she had once worked. She had loved her job until she was raped by a fellow member. The trauma that followed and the way she was treated by the military afterward forced her into taking a medical release. When she left the military, she didn't have stable housing, family supports or a VAC case manager. A year and a half later, she died alone. She was only 35. I was the one who identified her body.

I've heard government-funded researchers say that you can't just walk down the street and find a woman veteran who's experienced homelessness, yet that's exactly what we do. One of our members saw her sitting outside of the Tim Hortons. Instead of walking by, I stopped and sat down. I talked to her and gave her my business card. When the police found her body, that card was still in her pocket. She didn't die because she was weak. She died because she had been made invisible by a system not built with her in mind.

When veterans reach out for help, they're far too often told, “Here's a 1-800 number you can call,” but if you're at the end of your rope, you don't need a number that puts you on hold. You need a real human being: “Stay on the line. I am coming.”

Federation members do that type of work every day as volunteers, driving for hours, using our own money and answering late-night messages from people who don't think they can make it until morning. We don't do it for awards or grants. We do it because we're taught that you don't leave people behind.

From the front lines, we see too many support programs that are still designed by civilians or senior male officers and assume that all veterans in crisis are men, but more and more of us are not men. Women in junior ranks still routinely face gaslighting and tone-deaf policies when we speak our truth. The institutional silencing makes us invisible, and invisibility kills. Suicide prevention isn't just about mental health. It's about trust, transition and belonging. Veterans need trauma- and violence-informed, gender-responsive care, not more forms, backlogs and wait-lists.

The federation's message to the committee today is simple: We can do better, and we must. Many solutions already exist from your own reports. “Invisible no more. The experiences of Canadian women veterans” was tabled on June 12, 2024. We ask the government to implement its 42 recommendations, especially those on homelessness, MST and gender-responsive health care.

When a veteran dies by suicide, it's not because one system failed but because every system failed. RCMP, DND, CAF, VAC and community supports all must share in the responsibility for these failures. One day, I hope VAC will have evolved into a system centred on the veteran and not the bureaucrat. Maybe then we can all stop reading so many obituaries for people who should still be alive with us today.

I have several additional recommendations that I would be pleased to share during questions. Thank you for listening, and thank you for taking this issue seriously.

I have a list of the top 10 recommendations.

Very quickly, one is for VAC to push the list of consequential conditions. Veterans shouldn't have to guess what conditions are linked to their service. Transparency would relieve time, stress and lives.

Ungag and properly fund the Women Veterans Council. Let those women representing us actually talk to us. Trust can't grow in silence.

Make transition units mandatory for all releases. Suicide prevention starts before the release, not after the uniform comes off.

Train VAC to “speak veteran”. Military communication can sound blunt or emotional. Don't mistake my trauma for attitude.

Require mental health first aid, veteran edition, not what you're getting from these university students who don't know what they're talking about. Every VAC staff member should know how to respond safely when a veteran says they're not okay.

VAC should tell the truth about wait times. Count from the day a veteran applies, not when VAC finishes processing. Honesty builds trust.

Add MST to the transition process. Military sexual trauma must be a standard part of every transition review, not an afterthought.

Build women veteran health into policy. Women's bodies, pain and trauma responses are different. Health care must reflect that.

Create safe women-only recovery programs with qualified staff and national standards. Mixed-gender facilities have failed to protect women veterans. Safety must come first.

I have a lot to say on that.

Launch an independent review about the effectiveness of SMSRC for veterans. At a minimum, the government needs to complete schedule “L” of the CAF-DND sexual misconduct class action and act on the recommendations of the “Invisible No More” report. The government agreed to both. Start implementing them before more veterans die waiting.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Thank you very much, Ms. Rose.

We will start our round of questions with six minutes for Mr. Richards.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Airdrie—Cochrane, AB]

Thank you.

It was Ms. Rose who mentioned it here, but in the first panel someone—I think it was Ms. Gauthier—said the exact same thing: When you serve in the military, you leave no one behind.

The implication, of course, in the statement that was made in both cases was that our government has asked each and every one of you, and all of those like you who are veterans in this country, to go and serve our country. You did it willingly. You wanted to do it and you were proud to do it, but then the government didn't keep its part of the bargain. It's not there to serve you when you need it.

That saddens me, and then to hear the kinds of things we're hearing today saddened me even more.

I would like to start with you, Mr. Hynes.

You mentioned wait times. In 2006, it was about two to three months, and I think you said about one to two years—

[Brendan Hynes]

They're very easily one and a half to two years now. I've heard some veterans say that they have ongoing issues beyond that.

Part of the difficulty is that as you apply, there's no common sense written into it. For example, if I have had my hip shattered, they don't think ahead that I may have lower back issues or knee problems. If I have my lower leg blown off, they don't think that maybe I'll need a different kind of footwear.

It becomes a litany of going through the VAC application process for every follow-on condition that is a result of the original one. That in itself adds an incredible burden.

When I was told by the doctor that I was being recommended for medical release, I sought the advice of others who had gone through it. I said, “What am I going to do?”, and they said, “Don't worry. Your new full-time job is your medical release.” That's because of the amount of paperwork, the number of appointments, the number of phone calls.

I have to be very honest with you, sir: It really had an impact, especially for me. I can be an ass when I'm forced to be. I'm bullheaded. One of my psychologists once said that I had a physically unhealthy level of determination, which is great. That's what got me to where I was in my career, which I'm very, very proud of.

However, it also got me to the point that this system was so painful and so hard on my mental health that I walked away from it for almost a year.

I'm not the most connected guy in the world. I do the advocacy that I can. I encourage staying in touch with your fellow veterans—

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Airdrie—Cochrane, AB]

Could I interrupt you?

You told us a story that took a lot of courage to tell us.

[Brendan Hynes]

Thank you.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Airdrie—Cochrane, AB]

How much do you think what you just described contributed to that?