Veterans Affairs committee  That's a good question. Thank you. I would say that I had to prove I was reliable as part of the men's group. From the beginning, I pushed myself to the limits. I was told I was part of the club, but for sure, in some portion of my career when I was going up the ranks and changing positions, it was always that I had to prove myself again and make sure everybody had my back instead of stabbing me in the back.

Veterans Affairs committee  Part of it is also being recognized as a veteran. As a female, I find that people often don't believe that I'm a veteran, that I went to Afghanistan, that I was on the terrain over there, that an IED exploded on me. People look at me like I'm lying or telling the story of somebody else.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. I'm focusing on the identity crisis that military personnel are going through while transitioning out of the military based on a personal stress injury.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, you're right. However, efforts are already being made to attract more women, more representation from various backgrounds, be it people from the navy or the air force, or diverse people.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. First, as mentioned, the issue of chronic pain in relation to pain and mental suffering definitely needs to be further addressed. Second, as other speakers have mentioned, women, who have a maternal role, often give priority to the services they provide to others instead of caring for themselves.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. I'll answer in English and I'll try to do my best.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would start with the fact that it's very difficult to transition from the “we” mindset to the “I” mindset. We never learned to think about ourselves in the military, and nobody showed us how to reconnect with that. When you're transitioning out and people are asking, even clinicians, what you want to do, what you like, it's something that you cannot answer because you never thought of anything for yourself.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you again for the question. You just said one word that is very important. We're “serving” in the military. We're doing things for people. This is the purpose we chose when we joined the military: It was to serve our country, our nation and our people. Doing volunteer work is exactly connecting with that.

Veterans Affairs committee  Today, we held our first official meeting as a research consortium for francophone veterans. This is really an initiative that I'm championing as co-chair of the Advisory Council for Veterans at the Centre of Excellence. This is a very important element that I brought in when I joined the team.

Veterans Affairs committee  No. At the time I was still doing my master's, and it was afterwards, when I was transitioning totally out of the military—six months after—that I decided to pursue my work to the Ph.D. level.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. I hope that today it's different. I released in 2016, and back then when you were doing your last day as military personnel, you entered the building at 101 Colonel By Drive in Ottawa as a military person, so as a trusted person. The minute I went up the stairs and was meeting the last person with my piece of paper saying that I had quit—my quittance to every department—the civilian person who took my card in the ID section just said to me, “From now on you have to be escorted.”

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you again for the question. It was mentioned in the opening remarks from the person before us. When you leave the military, it's.... Can you repeat the question again? I lost my thought.

Veterans Affairs committee  The person talked about that before. The vocational part of the transition is really well addressed and so was a portion of the health services, but for me, the psychosocial portion of it, the identity portion, was not addressed. When I left the military, I felt that I had been built as a soldier, but nobody helped me to become something different from the soldier I was.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. I joined when I was 17. I was not even an adult. The army became my parent. The army became the family I needed, with the structure and all the guidance. When I got kicked out at 43 years old, I got kicked out without anything—nobody telling me where to go, what to do, how to behave.

Veterans Affairs committee  It was a medical release. At the time, in 2016, the fact that you received a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress syndrome automatically meant that you were being released for medical reasons with no way of being accommodated.