National Defence committee  I don't know what it's like to be a woman in the military; I have no idea, but I can imagine that in order to make your place in a man's world, you're going to have to work perhaps as hard or harder. Therefore, when you've achieved that, the demise could be that much more rapid if you expose these potential vulnerabilities or perceived vulnerabilities.

National Defence committee  Absolutely, which is why I said now that we're not in a combat role, we cannot let these programs erode, because we will be one day. Peacekeeping erodes people as much as combat does. I'm convinced of it. I hope that one day Parliament will calculate the human cost of all these operations, not fuel, boots, tanks, and planes, but the human cost.

National Defence committee  I think what your question alludes to is the core of the definition of the four causes of operational stress injury, the four causes that we developed in cooperation with the U.S. Marine Corps in the 2007-08 era. Very clearly one is trauma. I believe it's very fair for me to say that if you are in a combat situation, you are experiencing high-intensity trauma.

National Defence committee  I hate to say this, but I'm not familiar enough with their success and their programs to comment, but what I do find is that there is a continued need for organizations like this. The Wounded Warriors foundation was very effective in some areas. I believe it's a great complementary system.

National Defence committee  No.

National Defence committee  The committee should be aware that there is a duty to accommodate process in the military. Do I agree with the process? The answer is no. Do I trust the process? No. I simply don't agree with the way it is being applied. Every year every trade in the military provides a certain percentage of vacancies for every trade and at every rank level.

National Defence committee  Quite clearly the military is not allowed to treat families, and therefore in theory they don't. However, in my past role in the military as stress injury adviser to the chief military personnel, I visited bases and came across some very innovative social workers who would see families unbeknownst to the system.

National Defence committee  It's screening.

National Defence committee  Yes, you fill out questionnaires—

National Defence committee  Yes, now there's a pre-deployment, a post-deployment—

National Defence committee  I don't know. You see, if I were a medical practitioner, I could comment on that, but I'm not an occupational doctor, so I would reserve judgment. My issue, though, is if a soldier is diagnosed with a condition that is caused by the military that Veterans Affairs should pick up, that transition should be very seamless.

National Defence committee  I think the military culture is a very demanding one. I don't think it is worse. It's not an issue of degree, whether it is worse or better. It's very demanding and it's unique. The whole transition, I believe, from the military mindset and the military way of doing things to the rest of society and how society operates, and how they reintegrate into the other ways of functioning is a big change for a healthy person.

National Defence committee  In some cases, but it wasn't systemic. In any case, the issue for me is when I became suicidal in 1995, about six months after my return, I showed up at the hospital, went through tests and all that, and was basically given a few sleeping pills and sent back home. This was in 1995.

National Defence committee  I would start by saying that, under the peer support paradigm, no diagnosis is required. The traditional medical model requires a diagnosis and a list of symptoms. Each specific intervention addresses a specific symptom. Conversely, peer support looks at the human being with the initial understanding that a specific incident need not have occurred, a bomb need not have gone off, for example, to recognize that the person has a problem.

National Defence committee  In my case, remember that the undiagnosed issue is post-Rwanda. In Rwanda there was no pre-deployment screening. There was no post-deployment screening in those days, in 1994.