Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague. I think that we have a similar and humane view of our soldiers. I completely agree with her.
As I said earlier, we cannot put a price tag on helping these people. I will give an example. A father returning from Kandahar has seen horrible things. He saw children killed and women raped. He saw all kinds of things that do not happen here. In Canada, our tolerance for violence would maybe be a two out of ten, while in war-torn countries, it is an eight out of ten. We are not used to that.
I know that they are trained, but still, at home things are not like that. When they return home and must start taking care of a family, it is not easy. They are scarred, shattered, and their dignity takes a beating. They no longer know who they are. They do not want to talk about it with their partner, because they are ashamed of their feelings and their weakness. We must find a way to seek them out and help them.
It is not an easy thing to do. The family, on its own, cannot help these men and women who are proud. There is a sense of pride in being a member of the military. Sometimes, they come back to Canada shattered. That is unfortunate, but it does happen. I am not saying that it happens to everyone. However, we absolutely have to do something for those who are affected. In order to help them, they must be seen and assessed by specialists as soon as they get back. If we wait six months, a year or longer, the damage will have been done. Soldiers become alcoholics, or they take drugs or any kind of anti-depressant. They do not know what else to take to dull the pain. It is an internal illness that is extremely difficult to detect. We have to be able to offer them services as quickly as possible so they can take hold of themselves quickly and not go down the wrong path, which is not desirable.
We send men and women to defend us, and we are proud of them. We boast about it. Then they come back to Canada and we let them fend for themselves. I believe that is unacceptable.
This legislation is good news and it should be adopted as quickly as possible because there are men and women coming back now and more who will return in 2011. We must be able to provide for them and to look after them. This must be a lesson to us for the future, when we decide to become involved in a war somewhere else in the world. We have to take appropriate action and be equipped, but not with war toys such as tanks and trucks. That is not what we need. We need military equipment, but that is not the purpose of this bill, which will help military members who return from a very, very difficult mission.