Mr. Speaker, as deputy shadow minister for veterans affairs, September 19 is very significant to me.
In 2016, Claude Lalancette, who served in Somalia in 1993, came to the Hill on a hunger strike looking for answers. After a photo op with the ministers of veterans affairs, health and national defence, with a promise made and then broken, followed by another hunger strike, two days of testimony were his to orchestrate at the veterans affairs committee study on mental health. The testimony sounded the alarm on mefloquine poisoning of our troops up to and including the Afghan war. As a result, Health Canada changed the drug label and mefloquine became a drug of last resort for our troops.
In 2017, the first mefloquine rally took place after the Prime Minister ignored mefloquine advocate veteran Dave Bona in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Today, the second mefloquine rally is celebrating Quinism Foundation's expanding research to scientifically prove mefloquine poisoning impacts on our Canadian service men and women.
Members should come and meet our veterans.