Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I thank the member for the question. As I mentioned in my opening brief, the deployment of large numbers of women of reproductive age provides an opportunity—but, really, it forces the issue. It forces, or should force, militaries to reconsider, if they haven't already, their previous one-size-fits-all policies, including for the mandatory command-directed administration of anti-malarial drugs.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would say that what is missing from those reports is an acknowledgement of the most important thing with mefloquine and that is that the use of the drug must be discontinued at the onset of psychiatric symptoms. It is this critical warning that I think has been ignored and that has still not been acknowledged by Canadian officials.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I thank the member for the question. The member is, I believe, referring to the 2009 policy decision made by the U.S. Army. I believe that was in response to some research that I had published that had demonstrated that the drug had been used improperly on a large scale, particularly in Afghanistan.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. My name is Dr. Remington Nevin. I'm a former U.S. Army physician and preventive medicine officer, trained in epidemiology and drug safety at Johns Hopkins. During my 10-year active duty military career, I conducted research and published extensively on various topics in military medicine, including mental health and malaria.

Veterans Affairs committee  We are happy to assist in providing resources. Our mission is to promote and support education and research on this condition, but I don't think you need us. We're happy to help. For example, in the letter to your Minister of Veterans Affairs, I suggested one possible method of implementing screening for symptomatic mefloquine exposure.

Veterans Affairs committee  With formal acknowledgement by a senior official at the Department of National Defence or Veterans Affairs Canada, the clinical education will naturally follow. It will be recognized that this is a priority among leadership. Individuals will perform a review of the literature and share this with their colleagues spontaneously without further direction.

Veterans Affairs committee  Almost certainly he was. There is no more logical or likely explanation for what happened to Clayton Matchee. He was floridly psychotic in the days to weeks prior to the killing of Shidane Arone. Had the Somalia Commission of Inquiry investigated the role of mefloquine, interviewed Marj Matchee and interviewed others on their experiences with mefloquine, this point would have been obvious.

Veterans Affairs committee  Canadian mefloquine veterans have been fairly consistent in recent years in calling for three things that they need from the Canadian government: acknowledgement, outreach and research, in that order. As I mentioned initially, acknowledgement is the single most important thing that can occur.

Veterans Affairs committee  The simple answer is no. However, your question raises a broader point. If we are acknowledging that there is alcohol use in theatre and if we are acknowledging that there is some degree of recreational drug use in theatre—and I certainly hope that's not the case, very commonly—

Veterans Affairs committee  There is no question that mefloquine use causes long-term, psychiatric and neurologic symptoms. Now, there is a question of what percentage of individuals who took mefloquine correctly—meaning, they discontinued the drug at the first onset of any neurologic or psychiatric symptom—are disabled to some degree?

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, they would be.

Veterans Affairs committee  Let's assume that we all recognize this, and let's assume, furthermore, that the Department of National Defence recognizes this. Let's suppose further that the Department of National Defence recognizes and acknowledges that symptoms such as insomnia, anxiety and depression will be not uncommon in operational environments.

Veterans Affairs committee  Our group, The Quinism Foundation, has made our recommendation to the Canadian government very clear—and we do represent Canadian veterans and Canadian constituents. In a press release published on September 19, 2018, we called on Veterans Affairs Canada to screen recent Canadian veterans for symptomatic mefloquine exposure.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. This committee, several years ago, heard, either in person or in written briefs, from at least two witnesses describing the symptoms that Clayton Matchee had been experiencing in the weeks prior to the killing of Shidane Arone. He had been actively hallucinating, having visual hallucinations of, for example, camel spiders in the bunker, in the moments before he killed Shidane Arone; of a fang-toothed monster at the foot of his bed, as he was home with his wife Marj in the weeks prior to the killing.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think that standard of proof is adequate for these purposes.