Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to everybody for having me here today. My opener changed last night, as I stood at the War Memorial for the first time and put my hands on the side. I'm not exactly storming the beaches of Normandy here today, but I got about 30 minutes of sleep l

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. First, the recordings I have were recorded by the veteran himself. He recorded them because of the initial call, when he was offered MAID. These are two apology phone calls that were made by the VAC manager, who called to say that she was sorry and that the VAC casewo

Veterans Affairs committee  No. In the recording, there's that.... There's my knowledge of those recordings, which I transcribed, but also my personal conversations. I spoke with this veteran for well over two hours, perhaps more, over a few different phone calls and numerous emails. These were outgoing cal

Veterans Affairs committee  I wish we had more time, because it gets worse.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't know of anybody who's been able to access help quickly. One main symptom of PTSD, which has to be respected when we enter the mental health system, is that we tend to have a very common aversion to any kind of administrative burden. Any sort of barrier to entry is...the

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, that is correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't know. I couldn't comment, but they are aware that there are lengthy letters saying.... Everything that's in the transcripts is on his VAC account. He put it all in writing, so they're all sitting there. They are more than aware of that.

Veterans Affairs committee  The veteran put everything I have to talk about in letter format. My VAC Account is an encrypted system. All of these emails are encrypted end to end. He put it all in email format through My VAC Account—everything I have here, and more. All of his concerns are in writing. That a

Veterans Affairs committee  It is accessible to VAC. It is 100% accessible to anybody with VAC access. As a matter of fact, any service officer has access to all these files and they can read them. Anybody can read them with the correct clearance.

Veterans Affairs committee  What he told me directly—and this is not something I heard on the recording—was that in his original phone call when he was offered MAID, she said they could do this for him, because they had done it before. She said they'd done it before for one veteran. After he completed MAID—

Veterans Affairs committee  He doesn't know either. He asked that exact same question of the VAC manager, and she also said she didn't know. She didn't know where the heck that came from. He was asking for a completely separate service and supports for neurological injuries, and she said, “Oh, by the way,

Veterans Affairs committee  It's human nature. People can be vindictive. Here I am, contradicting.... I listened to the live testimony on Thursday, and there were three points that I believe to be untrue. One, I do not believe that the call was not recorded. I do not believe that, and neither does the vete

Veterans Affairs committee  The credit for that goes to the veteran. He went to Mercedes Stephenson personally, and I can say that the Global News report was done very well. I was actually quite surprised. I didn't expect it to be accurate, but it was.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not sure what to say. I don't believe the call was not recorded. I don't think it's even possible. Even if that were true, somehow there would be notes. There are always notes. There's a summation of the conversation. Because you have to. I don't know a single veteran in th

Veterans Affairs committee  I didn't hear the apology. It was a week later, which he did comment on. He said, “It's been a week. It's kind of an emergency.” He was told, “Well, I got to you when I could.”