National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, once again, I apologize. I'm going to launch into this in English. The advisory committee that was established for the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman was modelled along the lines of the DND ombudsman. The original intent was to offer organizations—I refer to them as

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, in the first instance, as much as I harp on holding the chain of command responsible, I wouldn't for a second suggest they're being negligent. What I would say is required, though, is visionary leadership in that domain. I would think that when it comes back to budge

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, all I can say is that the perceptions are the reality. When I reflect on my experiences in Bosnia in 1993, my personal experiences were far more traumatic at that point than they ever were when I was a commander in the theatre. As I said, the perception is the reality.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I'm not sure I understand the question exactly.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, it has already been brought up once. I know from my own personal experience, when I went forward to seek treatment for certain psychological things that are beyond the scope of this presentation, I was immediately a category red. I was told I could not deploy overseas.

National Defence committee  We're actually trying our hardest to distance ourselves from VAC in terms of co-locating, and that sort of thing, in order to maintain our independence and, more importantly, our impartiality. In my experience from talking to the members of VAC and VRAB, their hearts are in the

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I couldn't begin to comment on what's actually happening within the Canadian Forces at this point in time.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, first of all, I think the situation I've been placed in as veterans ombudsman is not really terribly disadvantageous, although there have been some criticisms raised that I should be part of the decision-making process, that I should be reviewing individual cases. It's

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, my understanding right now is that the closest thing that exists is the package 5 Brigade had before it deployed overseas, called resilience training. I'm not sure of the actual content of it or whether it resembles in any way what we were doing for what we called s

National Defence committee  I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, 5 Brigade is the name of the brigade that is based in Valcartier with the vingt-deuxième regiment, which is now serving overseas.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I'm not privy to what happens behind the gates of that particular regiment. However, suffice it to say that the special forces of the world put a lot of time and effort into training their soldiers psychologically for what they will endure in combat. I know for a fact

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, that was a risk I was prepared to take as a commander. I would far sooner expose my soldiers to some of the things like we were going to have when we arranged with downtown Edmonton for them to witness autopsies and that sort of thing, and we intended to have them kill

National Defence committee  Our mandate is actually very complex, in that we're not allowed to dabble in areas of solicitor-client privilege between the Bureau of Pension Advocates and some of the parties that complain to us. We're not allowed to address individual decisions that are made in the review and

National Defence committee  I could suggest that Edmonton is a very, very large city in the first place, much larger than anything anywhere near places like Petawawa and Valcartier, and it has the services available. Moreover, Edmonton is a tremendous garrison town. Albertans like having people with guns ar

National Defence committee  All joking aside, the city—both Calgary, when the brigade used to be there, and now Edmonton—embraces the military community as part of its own. I couldn't comment on the relationship with the other area.