Good morning, Chairman Dubourg and honourable members of the committee. Thank you for your invitation to appear before you and make submissions on indigenous veterans' experiences.

My name is Richard Blackwolf. I am the national president of the Canadian Aboriginal Veterans and Serving Members Association. I am a Métis veteran of the Cold War era, having joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1959, serving for a combination of 38 years in the navy and the Department of National Defence.

The Canadian Aboriginal Veterans and Serving Members Association, or CAV, is incorporated and has functioned as a nationwide indigenous veterans advocate for the past 54 years. This year, 2024, marks the 212th year that indigenous men and women have voluntarily enlisted to serve in the armed forces of Canada.

For time, I will move ahead.

In a quest for information, to gather information on our veterans' experience, both in the armed forces and after being released from the armed forces, we sent out 2,000 requests for their personal experience.

In terms of transition to civilian life, indigenous service personnel retiring after a full career with a pension and good health have experienced the least problems in transitioning to civilian life, as expected. Indigenous personnel who are forced to leave the military early in their career, largely because of medical problems, have experienced the most problems transitioning to civilian life. These are summaries of the many hundreds we've received.

A soldier reported that she was forced to leave the army because of PTSD. She received mental health treatment while in the army, and after she was released she received no mental health support from Veterans Affairs. With two young children to support, her need for mental health stability for employment is of the utmost importance, creating an immediate need for her to receive the appropriate mental health treatment. We have advised her to contact the veterans ombud for help in obtaining Veterans Affairs assistance.

In terms of veterans' housing, indigenous veterans returning to their first nations reserve have experienced the least problems in housing. Indigenous veterans forced to leave the military, being discharged mainly for health reasons, having no reserve to return to and having no likelihood of employment, are at the highest risk of becoming homeless and drug-addicted in urban centres.

In terms of shelters and food banks, our national website is currently being rebuilt after an 11-year run of 1.3 million visitors. Our veterans service page will provide indigenous veterans and their families with a comprehensive listing of shelters, health clinics and food banks available in the provinces and territories.

In terms of Veterans Affairs, the most frequent complaints received from indigenous veterans arise from the disconnect between Veterans Affairs' invitation to open an account and make application for disabilities benefits, which appears on their web page, and how then they find their applications being subject to “delay and deny” discouragement tactics. The sense of personal integrity of indigenous veterans with health and mental health issues can be severely impacted by the experience of feeling disbelieved, essentially being called a liar by Veterans Affairs when they receive rulings in letters denying them entitlement.

We consider this standard practice of denied entitlement rulings on first applications for disability benefits to be a deliberate breach of the right in the Veterans Bill of Rights to be treated with respect, dignity and fairness.

In my own experience of sending a Veterans Affairs application for disability benefits for hearing loss and tinnitus, the first result was the same thing: “We regret to inform you that you have been denied entitlement for hearing loss and tinnitus.”

Two years later, it's the other way around. It took two years, but hearing loss entitlement is granted at five-fifths for tinnitus and hearing.

In summary, the 2015 stakeholders meeting held at the Citadelle in Quebec City was considered the best and gave us cause to believe that there would be positive changes at Veteran Affairs.

The main cause for delays in the processing of applications for disability benefits cited by Veteran Affairs was the interface delay in the progress of documents between DND records and Veteran Affairs. The delay was caused by the Privacy Act. The CAV made two proposals to expedite the transfer of records from DND to Veteran Affairs: an amendment to the Privacy Act and for the Minister of Veterans Affairs to also be the deputy minister of the national defence.