Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. Yes, actually—and this might also address some of what Mr. Desilets was trying to ask me. At the time, there was no mechanism for me to make any sort of complaint whatsoever. Those were Wild West days. One of the members pointed out the Somalia affair

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. I was tortured for three days and had a bayonet stuck in my chin. Absolutely, yes. There was no doubt in my mind that they would have killed me if I went out on that deployment to the Gulf if I sailed that day. So I made a plea to the chaplain for compassionate release, an

Veterans Affairs committee  I would ask you that question: What can you do? I've told you my experiences. I myself do not know where I go with this if I want to see whatever kind of justice done. I mean, you have to remember that this was over 30 years ago. Some of my attackers are dead. Some of them have

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I think so. Certainly, how they're doing it now is an improvement to when I released. You got a one-way ticket and, boom, I'm at the airport: Now what? Nineteen years old and completely shattered.... Now, with the introduction of transition services, CAF has recognized t

Veterans Affairs committee  Right, a little earlier, and identifying where problem areas might be, but to say that “now you've finished up your transition services and everything should be fine” I think is naive. Yes, there should definitely be some follow-up, but meaningful follow-up. I myself, if I can us

Veterans Affairs committee  Who is?

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. As a single woman, I'm responsible for the entire burden of home ownership or home maintenance. As a disabled veteran, I don't have any assistance to help with that, and because I am single, I don't quality for the caregiver benefit, which is a tax-free monthly benefit that

Veterans Affairs committee  —absolutely need to be re-examined.

Veterans Affairs committee  Certainly. As I mentioned earlier, I had almost 30 years of experience without being a VAC client, not even knowing that “VAC” was even a thing, that it existed. Once becoming a VAC client, I was housing insecure in all its forms. Again, various non-profits, or VAC, said that t

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not quite sure what the question was, other than—

Veterans Affairs committee  I've been asking for a personal support worker—which is essentially that—with my caregivers from the day I became a VAC client and was assessed, and all of that. So we've been asking since 2018. It's not been provided. VAC will not. They say they don't do that. They say maybe the

Veterans Affairs committee  Correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  No. That's right. Actually, I have spoken to several people at VAC in administrative positions, and they have told me that the presumption is that the veteran has informal supports baked in. Any funding such as VIP services or whatnot is really just to be an addendum to to that.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't know what DND was thinking. There was the tribunal. The human rights commission tribunal had determined...just months before I was aggressively recruited into the trade that I went into, although I wanted navy. The tribunal said that, yes, it was open to all women—all t

Veterans Affairs committee  I hope that answered your question.