Veterans Affairs committee  There are no parameters put in place, and there's no respect for the victim. In my particular case, I made a complaint. I was used to working as a civilian. I was a social worker for the New Brunswick government, so I was used to being respected. The military allowed the accuse

Veterans Affairs committee  The issue with that is they're saying that's it's unfounded, but it's ridiculous, because the issue is that the military police wouldn't copy down the allegations at the beginning. I'd call up the Sexual Misconduct Response Centre. In 2015 they sent me to deal with the chain of c

Veterans Affairs committee  VAC is very committed to serving veterans, but it is often stifled by the system. There are issues with decision-making frameworks used by employees, as there is a lot of flexibility in the frameworks in terms of interpretation of the law and the medical evidence. What's happen

Veterans Affairs committee  It's the amount of abuse that they have experienced. It's unfathomable. People don't really understand how much abuse the women have gone through in terms of repeated sexual assaults, repeated rapes, and the betrayal by the government system. Then there are the issues in terms

Veterans Affairs committee  A lot of the time now, trauma services are lumped in with addictions services, and not all women have addictions issues. The trauma needs to be treated in a different way from the way addictions are treated. The women are having issues with people coming in and violating their pe

Veterans Affairs committee  Honourable committee members, I am pleased to have the opportunity to share my personal and professional experiences with the VAC ministry pertaining to obstacles women face because of their military service. I have a master's degree in social work, with significant professional

Status of Women committee  I've talked to both men and women from the Canadian Armed Forces who were sexually exploited, and in some cases, it was easier.... It's easier for me to come forward and say, “I experienced sexual harassment in the Canadian Armed Forces,” than it is for one of my male colleagues

Status of Women committee  It's not that I'm not allowed them. It's that I have to come up with the resources to pay for them on my own—

Status of Women committee  —and I don't have that ability.

Status of Women committee  Yes, and I believe that victims in the Canadian Armed Forces need their own lawyers. If you're going to go, you need to have your own lawyer. You need an advocate. You need someone to protect you when you're going through that system.

Status of Women committee  I hope that they will correct the damages and the harm that was done to me and they'll lift the discrimination. I hope that will happen. I can't afford legal representation. What I've done is I've tried to do it myself. It's hard. I have a background in human resource management.

Status of Women committee  Yes, humiliate and beat people up: that's not going to work.

Status of Women committee  I see the difference. I see it where they.... In the Canadian Armed Forces, in the training, they had policies and procedures that were put in place to try to protect against injuries, but the leadership just wasn't following them. An example would be that you're only allowed to

Status of Women committee  It's an online group that was formed by Marie-Claude Gagnon. It is a group that's a safe place for people who have experienced the hostile sexualized culture to go to and to get peer support from. It's where people understand what happened—or they have some sort of an understandi

Status of Women committee  My experience is that the Sexual Misconduct Response Centre is there, but it functions very similarly to the ombudsman's office. You can call them up, and they'll do basic crisis intervention with you, but they're going to be directing you back into the chain of command. That has