I said what I mean, and I mean what I said. I'm a veteran. I witnessed it. I've spoken to them. I met numerous times with Verna Bruce and Suzanne Tining, ministers and deputy ministers. I've been at this a long time.

It's very convenient that Charlottetown is.... I'm not saying they have to come to Ottawa. They could be in Sudbury. They could be somewhere else, but not hidden and tucked away on a little island so conveniently far away that it's too far for a veteran to know they're being served properly.

The other thing I wanted to mention before the break, sir, was about when I was there in 2006 and the ombudsman's office was being created under Pat Stogran. I stayed an extra day in Charlottetown to meet with our science department under Dr. Pedlar. I was shocked, because there is no science department.

Not only is there no science department, but when we look at all this beautiful science that's happening around the world on Gulf War illness, presumptive illness, diagnosis illness, cancers and treatments, not just for Gulf War vets but for depleted uranium, Kosovo, Somalia, Afghanistan, you name it, it's not just Gulf War veterans we're speaking about here. It's modern combat veterans as a whole, and I was appalled that here we were being judged and denied and ridiculed and minimized and delayed. You know, treatment delayed is treatment denied, and all they basically wanted us to do was go away and disappear.

I must say, the only thing that's fast-tracked in the system, sadly, is cannabis. You can have as much as you want, basically, because it doesn't have to go through Charlottetown.

Sometimes, when I speak with certain veterans.... Are we being asked to be silent and stoned in the basement of a place and just be basement rats tucked away conveniently? No, we want a life. We want at least a bit of quality of life. We want to be part of a society. We want to be members of our families. We want what you all have. We sacrificed. We understand that, but why does the true war happen, when one comes home, against the government and the country that sent us there in the first place? I don't get it.

To bring it back to you, sir, in Charlottetown, when I was there for that extra day with Dr. Pedlar and saw that we do not have a research department, the other thing I witnessed that must change was when I was alone at a local pub, minding my own little business. What was being chit-chatted about at the table beside me were different cases. Where's the confidentiality here? As a registered nurse, I understand the importance of my nursing notes and the legal aspect of medical documentation, and when it's chatted about at the local pub, I'm sorry, sir, but that is crossing the line.

I will just come back to this: Where's the accountability? I'm not disrespecting the people who work there. The problem is greater than the people who are there.

Thank you.

Transcript

Discussions (0)