Veterans Affairs committee  I do. The question of burden of proof is interesting. I am stunned to hear Marie-Claude say that they will not process VAC disability claims without a conviction resultant from an alleged assault. I've seen a lot of criminal investigations in which a conviction did not result, bu

Veterans Affairs committee  I heard it referred to as a navigator. I can't recall if that came from Minister O'Toole or Deputy Minister Natynczyk. That was two summers ago, when the ministerial advisory groups met in Charlottetown. We all thought it was a great idea, and presently we're still twiddling our

Veterans Affairs committee  There's no surefire way to do it. Sometimes I'm talking with them while I'm getting somebody else to call up 911 and get police and an ambulance to them, and that has been successful on a number of occasions. Other times, if I have a better rapport with the person, I'm able to fe

Veterans Affairs committee  You might have perceived, sir, that I'm a little bit opinionated. Imagine a few thousand of me all trying to come to the same agreement.

Veterans Affairs committee  There are many groups. Some are very active advocacies. In my group, we're totally non-political. We leave that at the door quite forcefully, because it's damaging. People see things differently. Some people can't stand each other on a personal basis and can't work well togethe

Veterans Affairs committee  The ones who proactively care about their fellow vets will just step up and do it with the best we've got. If you're walking down the street and you see someone get hit by a car, most people are going to run to help them in some way. Someone who knows first aid CPR is probably

Veterans Affairs committee  I left Afghanistan on March 24, or something like that, in 2009. We flew, briefly, through a staging base in the Middle East and turned in our guns, our ammunition, and all the fighting kit that we had. A bunch of our stuff went into boxes to get shipped home. They put us on a mi

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not throwing out statistics. Some will; some won't. Those who don't can speak to me about it, and I will tell them what I have observed. Most people are okay in most circumstances, but there is still far too much going on.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's hard to say. If I were to address these issues, I would not be speaking to the Minister of Veterans Affairs but to the associate minister of National Defence, which is the capacity that could have an impact on this. Within the serving military, values are, I believe, shif

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I'll put on my still-serving sergeant's hat for a second. It'll be a cold day in hell before somebody does something like this to one of my troops and I don't go to bat for them, but that's me. There are many who come from a different mindset—an obsolete, destructive mindset

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, that's a doozy. “I'm from the government and I'm here to help” is not always going to play over well.

Veterans Affairs committee  Most of these contacts just happen informally. We just talk to our friends. After I came back from Afghanistan, some months later I began getting hounded by emails to attend a follow-up appointment with a military social worker. After long enough, they were eventually able to pi

Veterans Affairs committee  I cannot speak in a comparative way. I can't say a soldier in every case will be better than a VAC employee.

Veterans Affairs committee  I do know that proactive outreach from soldiers on an ongoing basis saves lives.