National Defence committee  First of all, I'd like to thank the committee for giving me the opportunity to appear before you today on something that's been very important to me, especially in the latter years of my career. I'd like to remind you that I am here as a private member. I'm not reflecting my curr

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, that is my understanding. However, I haven't personally experienced it. It has changed considerably from the concept that we put forth in 2002, but it is my understanding that everybody who leaves the theatre of operation goes through third-location decompression in Cy

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, I am the Veterans' Ombudsman but, since our office has not yet opened its doors, we cannot yet deal with the complaints from soldiers and veterans.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, I will try to answer in French but it may be a little bit difficult. The problem is that the treatment of people with psychological injuries is the responsibility of the medical staff. The chain of command does not have the responsibility... I'll excuse myself at

National Defence committee  That was the situation as of 2003, after I left the unit, because my successors had also been blamed for not being able to address them. I hope that situation has changed, but what hasn't changed is that the chain of command at every level is relying on the medical experts to sol

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, it's throughout the chain of command. I have met with soldiers who feel that the senior non-commissioned officers do not treat these things with the care they deserve, and I've also heard at the very top, very senior officers saying that a few slip through the cracks.

National Defence committee  In my study of the situation, there are very few militaries of the world that actually engage in the prevention before deploying to a theatre of operation, aside from, for example, the U.S. Army Battlemind program, where they do pre-training of a sort. It's not as intensive as wh

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I feel that within the training system you should have medical experts who are contributing to the design, development, and delivery of training. However, once again, the actual hands-on, the procedures that are used within a unit, that should be transparent to the tro

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I would have to qualify my answer, because that's only one very small part of the answer. I couldn't say conclusively that would be the case. However, I can say from personal experience that the opposite is true. Denying a soldier the ability to do what is morally righ

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, at this point in time, I know of no others. However, I am taking advantage of the present position I have to hopefully hold a symposium in the new year to find out what the state is of various armies around the world in addressing that situation.

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I'm very thankful to the honourable member for bringing this point up, because it's something that I did forget to put in my brief. At Fort Leonard Wood, with the American warrior training unit or rehabilitation unit, they have established exactly that sort of thing:

National Defence committee  Very quickly, unfortunately, any time a soldier, sailor, or air force person tries to avail themselves of the services and benefits of Veterans Affairs, it's normally because they are injured in some way, shape, or form. I certainly intend to take that on with a passion within ou

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I'd like to approach that from two angles. First of all, we should definitely be turning away people who are not cut out to serve in uniform and to witness some of the things that we ask our soldiers to see. Having said that, once they're in uniform and they become

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, it goes without saying that it would be if I were in a position to make such a decree.