Veterans Affairs committee  Effectively what I mean by denial by design.... I'm sorry, my tongue is getting tied in knots. I've dissociated several times already because of all this. By denial by design, what I mean is that the very system itself is operating in a manner that is purposely trying to find any and every reason to deny benefits, to deny applications, to not grant the benefits, the claims, or the treatment.

Veterans Affairs committee  It depends on what form it is. There are some forms where there is confusion even with the doctors about whether they are able to bill VAC. With the SISIP forms, are they able to bill SISIP? Depending on which form it is and on the doctor and their awareness, you end up getting a different answer.

Veterans Affairs committee  As in our response to these conditions?

Veterans Affairs committee  That's actually a really good question, whether an individual in that situation would be able to get immediate care within the military. He's probably on a class A assignment right now. I don't know what the nature of the memorial guard contract is. I don't know if that's a class B, 180 under, or if it's a class A.

Veterans Affairs committee  Nine and a half years.

Veterans Affairs committee  Pretty much all of my work was done either in a training capacity, a command capacity, or a logistical capacity here in Canada. I never made it overseas. I never ended up on a deployment.

Veterans Affairs committee  That is correct, as is the nature of our training and the nature of our exercises where we apply our training, learn what's working and what isn't, check our training, and get better at it. Even that, because of the nature of military service, is an incredible dangerous undertaking.

Veterans Affairs committee  This will probably be controversial and get me a lot of hate mail, but let's maybe shift it out of the toxic form of hyper-masculinity that's there and get rid of the idea of “Suck it up, sunshine.” Let's get out of that hard-core aspect. We can do these jobs without having that toxic form of behaviour.

Veterans Affairs committee  With the clawbacks, there is a slight issue of how SISIP and VAC work on this as well, and what stage of the rehabilitation programs you're at. My understanding, as it is right now, is with the rehabilitation program, so long as you're on it, you're able to make a certain amount of money, up to a certain tier, then it starts getting claw backed.

Veterans Affairs committee  We interact when I actually manage to get through to her, or when she finally decides, “Oh, wait. I should call Walter. I haven't talked to him in six months.” I finally heard from her two weeks ago, or last week, and it had been almost a year since I had previously heard from her.

Veterans Affairs committee  That would be nice. It may be even better if there were an easier mechanism for us to contact them.

Veterans Affairs committee  Email. The VAC thing and the 1-800 number thing do not work. Give us the ability to contact our case manager by email. I do understand, from talking with my three different case managers, that one of the reasons behind not letting veterans contact their case managers directly by email was that, especially with people when they're in moments of psychological distress, sometimes they can be overbearing, make demands, and just hound the hell out of their case managers.

Veterans Affairs committee  It is both. The stigma is also still real. There have some been some shifts in it depending on what trades and what units you're looking at. There's still quite a bit of stigma in the infantry and the combat arms, but within the service trades the stigma seems to have alleviated a bit, but there's still that issue of, am I polluted, am I sick, am I diseased?

Veterans Affairs committee  I've had three different case managers. The first one went above and beyond. She was a saving grace for me and got me benefits I hadn't even been aware of. She also helped me get through all the paperwork and, in some cases, did the paperwork for me. She went way beyond. I don't know what happened to her, because she got transferred.

Veterans Affairs committee  As a reservist, I was not really able to access the military medical system. With the back injury, going through my GP, he's the one who turned around and sent me up to Sunnybrook to an orthopaedic specialist who took one look at me walking in the door and said I had done something to my back.