Veterans Affairs committee  Definitely. That's what we do here in Ottawa. We have our outside consultants, who are specialized and follow the rules of confidentiality, etc. It's not done in-house. There's greater credibility, more communication. If I talk to the guy who's in charge of giving my profile wher

Veterans Affairs committee  That's it.

Veterans Affairs committee  After a critical incident we do a post-mortem, and sometimes a doctor is there just to have a debriefing and discuss it. It's not individual. Definitely the co-workers are the key, because they know you are reacting differently from usual. And we train people. You don't want th

Veterans Affairs committee  I want to thank the Committee for inviting me.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. Funnily enough, I haven't heard it stated like that, but as you know, the successful way to reduce the risk when you come home is through family support. But when you come back from a mission, either as a police officer or a member of the military, you don't speak to anybody

Veterans Affairs committee  Definitely, and as you know, we do it. If you're working for External Affairs, they'll book your family. When I went to France thirty years ago with my father, I had a medical. They do that. When we send families to the north, we assess all the children, because they're going to

Veterans Affairs committee  Background, yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  I can speak only about the police force. I think there we're very proactive. We're proud of the program. In fact, we're one—

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, because when we go to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, we visit all the police forces there and we visit the members. As you know, our members are scattered with other members from around the world, so we know. Our pre-deployment, medical and psychological assessment is unique. Maybe

Veterans Affairs committee  Since they don't consult a psychologist voluntarily, we decided to go and visit them and to do our own assessment. When I go to Port-au-Prince, the psychologist and myself each take half the members and arrange meetings with them. We have a short list of questions we ask them to

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a good point. Well, usually from my observations they get this message: “You have your pension for PTSD, George, and here's what you're entitled to, psychological support.” Then he goes to the psychologist, and the psychologist says, “Oh, they don't want to pay me. They

Veterans Affairs committee  That's the big problem. The military are very concerned about their data. The RCMP is very concerned about their data. That's it. Somebody--and I don't know who, and I don't have the solution--should share. Usually occupational physicians share that information, because we don'

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't want to make a statement that would.... I can tell you that the only force in Canada that has compulsory periodic health assessment is the RCMP. It's every second year. That's the only force officially, the only police force.

Veterans Affairs committee  No. I'll tell you how we're getting that. This member from the OPP wants to go to Darfur, and he has never had a medical. He had a medical when he graduated from the Aylmer police force in Aylmer, Ontario, but nothing else. We find out he has blood pressure problems, he is diabe

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, privacy. I had to document each question with the commissioner, and it was a very good thing. I substantiated each question of this three-page questionnaire with the access to information, because it was built up to assess the physical and mental capacity of the police offic