Veterans Affairs committee  If I might, I would mention one thing quickly. You asked about suicides. I am aware that a special coroner has been appointed to do an investigation on suicides in B.C. John Knox, out of the B.C. coroner's office, will start with the suicide of Pierre Lemaitre and look at the sui

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely, yes, but we're here and we recognize in an organization as big as ours we're always going to have these issues, but not to the extent that they should be happening. If you're being offered help and resolutions and solutions to reduce the harm, why would you not acce

Veterans Affairs committee  There are many things you have to consider. I'm a proud member of the organization, still a serving current member, and I am leading the charge to bring about a lot of changes. At the end of the day, when you cut everything aside, put everything off the table, it's control and pu

Veterans Affairs committee  I would concur with that. Anything we can put into play that will help our people will be money well spent.

Veterans Affairs committee  I am unaware of any process until recently, when it became an issue and they started tracking and looking at this. That number starts from 2006. Prior to that, I have no idea if they even counted. My colleague Mr. Reichert could talk to you about some of the situations prior to

Veterans Affairs committee  It's the full, entire investigation. There were approximately 30 members or more affected in that case in which all the medical information was gone through. It was well founded, a serious privacy breach, because of the type of information—

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, the members have no choice. It has to go to the courts.

Veterans Affairs committee  That is a fabulous strategy, getting that sort of response and basically saving lives. For us, what we did was support peer groups, just for members to get together and talk, and you'd be amazed at how much healing came from that. For us who are part of this work, this is healing

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have that statistic to tell you how many have been disallowed in terms of getting more care.

Veterans Affairs committee  Okay.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's included in the brief.

Veterans Affairs committee  Right now, you do have the ability through Veterans Affairs to go to an OSI clinic, depending on a diagnosis for whatever it may be, whether it's PTSD or anxiety and depression and that type of thing. From what I understand, the process has changed. Before now, you could get refe

Veterans Affairs committee  Part of that issue, and it's a big piece, stems from trust, as I mentioned in my presentation. You're seen as one member, and—probably parallel to the military—if something happens, you become the weak link. You're seen now as the weak person, and that in itself has all kinds of

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair and committee members, for allowing us to be here to present with regard to a very important topic. My name is Rae Banwarie. I'm the national president of the Mounted Police Professional Association. We are the group trying to organize and unionize the RCMP. We