Veterans Affairs committee  I'll go back to my culture camps, because for some indigenous people—not all—there's a great deal of emphasis that they place on their culture. You have somebody standing at the door going out from the military, somebody who spent 20 years, 25 years, or whatever, and he walks o

Veterans Affairs committee  No, it's first nations, Métis, and Inuit, so indigenous.

Veterans Affairs committee  It could work. The Legion has service officers. If you're lucky and fortunate, you have a service officer who has actually served and who understands what the benefits are and understands everything else that Veterans Affairs offers. Some do, some don't. The majority of them, I h

Veterans Affairs committee  You're absolutely right. It's not only the indigenous veterans who are in some of these areas, but I would say the percentage is higher in the indigenous communities than anywhere else. It's like a Newfoundlander wanting to go back home to the little community where she is from,

Veterans Affairs committee  For Saskatchewan, probably the best answer I can give you is Bold Eagle. The Bold Eagle program is now almost 30 years old. It's the Cadillac of the three indigenous programs they run. It's a six-week program for basic military qualification. It is very well supported by all of t

Veterans Affairs committee  Oh, yes. It started with maybe 30 or 40 kids. When General Leslie was the army commander, he pushed that. I think they're up to about 120 each summer. The difference is that the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations pays for the cultural side of things in the program.

Veterans Affairs committee  At Bold Eagle they are. I attended theirs. They do the same thing, and that's why, when I got out and decided to offer that when the new programs came in, that was the starting point. I don't teach it. I'm a teacher. I know a lot about indigenous.... I can educate anybody, bu

Veterans Affairs committee  That is the major critical one, the distance. We still have a couple of Korean vets and an Italian campaign vet. They're well into their nineties. It's very hard for them to travel. That's the critical side of things. It's not being able to access.... Even if they had a computer

Veterans Affairs committee  I think you're going to be speaking to some veterans out there. For example, Joe Grey-Thorne will be in Victoria, and Alex Maurice, and that will probably be one of the most interesting talks that you'll have. Also, there's Debbie Eisan in Halifax. When you speak to Debbie, you

Veterans Affairs committee  No, but I know he's part of First Nations Veterans of Canada, and I know that Chief Percy Joe is part of that organization as well.

Veterans Affairs committee  The fortunate aspect of it is that when Rose came back....

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. When she came back from Bosnia, she had to transport a casualty by helicopter from the field to the hospital in Sarajevo so he could get an MRI or something. When she went to Sarajevo, her back was bad. The doctor told her to get an MRI. Her back was worse than the casualty

Veterans Affairs committee  Again, there's the communication aspect of it. The people who are further away may not get the communication of the benefits that are there but across the board, everywhere indigenous or not, if you're close to a major centre, you're going to be able to get it.

Veterans Affairs committee  If you could get them all a computer.... No, I'm kidding.

Veterans Affairs committee  The critical part is the Inuit communities that are away from the normal major centres. I don't even know if VAC has an office up in Inuvik or Yellowknife. I'm not sure. If it doesn't, then that's probably a good start to looking after veterans. Again, for up north, anybody who'