Committee
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Add search criteria
Results: 1 - 15 of 277
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
I'll try to split this with Anthony.
As the Atlantic contingent here, General, I just want to congratulate you on the job you have done for the Canadian Forces and for Canada. Newfoundlanders are particularly pleased with your efforts and what you've done for the country. Danny Williams seems to be quite happy that you don't have any political ambitions in Newfoundland.
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
I'd like you to answer Steven's question. A lot of the families think their husbands—and in some cases their wives—are away much too much, much too long, for pre-training, training, and they come back and they train more, they're training somebody else to go, and they're at their second or third deployments.
Mentally, it's very stressful for all concerned. We're just wondering how many deployments our relatively small forces can take before there are very serious repercussions on the mental health of those families and their ability to stay together as a family. Maybe you could answer that and Steven's question.
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
You've seen quite a few soldiers coming and going over the last number of years. We were out to Wainwright, and some there are being trained for their second and third rotation. Maybe you've come to some conclusion on just how much psychologically a soldier can actually take in a situation like Afghanistan.
How many rotations do you think a human being can take in Afghanistan, particularly on the front lines in Afghanistan, and still have a reasonable expectation of having his health in his remaining days?
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
It's to anybody. You can all answer it.
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
But they're in a profession where not going has other connotations. There are other pressures associated with their decision to go or not. There could be a price to pay for voluntarily staying home while others are gone.
As you say, there should be 18 months separating a rotation. But when we were in Valcartier, the wives there told us the members were gone 12 to 18 months--on rotation, in training, or training somebody else--which really puts a heavy stress on them. They don't see their families for an extended length of time. It also puts a heavy stress on the families. The children are missing their father or their mother for extended periods of time.
I don't think there's a healthy period here that you can....
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
There's nobody shooting at them in the oil patch, though.
LCol H. Flaman: No.
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
We're hearing in the American experience that the rotations are so long, going on for such a long period of time, that the stresses and the casualties, not only out in the field but in their minds psychologically, particularly in the families, are utterly destroying most relationships.
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
But you know, six months in a non-combat period is quite different from eighteen months in a combat period.
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
It's the health of these people and the services that are available to them that we're trying to get at here. Is there anybody to advise them when maybe they want to go but they shouldn't go?
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
Thank you.
Needless to say, we don't envy you your jobs. They're pretty important at any time, but particularly now.
We're looking for recommendations from you, given your experience and your positions, about how to improve things for our soldiers. For example, it's been suggested that maybe Cyprus is not the best place for decompression; maybe it should be closer to home, where they don't have to go through seven time zones after they finish the decompression before they see their families. In fact, we were told there's more PTSD inside the wire than outside, and maybe they should be given more attention and decompression than people who are outside the wire.
Do you have any comment on this, or is there anything else you might suggest that might improve the health of our people over there and the health of their families back here?
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
We're picking these things up from our visits to Wainwright and Valcartier and so on. These things are brought up to us.
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
[Inaudible--Editor]
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Maybe Major-General Tabbernor could explain to us the status of the reserves when it comes to their care after they come back from duty in Afghanistan or wherever.
We have heard from witnesses, especially early on in our hearings, that the reservists were not being treated the same as other soldiers. We understand that this has been corrected.
With respect to the follow-up for reservists when they return and go back to their regular jobs, what connections do you have with them? Are they out of sight, out of mind, or is there a system put in place to see how they are coping? A lot of times mental sicknesses don't click in till six months later or longer. What kind of system is set up for making sure that these people are coping properly?
On a recent trip to Afghanistan I was well taken care of in my hour of need by a reservist from Peel Regional Police, so I have a special interest in how they do when they get back here.
If you could elaborate on that, General, it would be appreciated.
View Joe McGuire Profile
Lib. (PE)
Thank you.
Results: 1 - 15 of 277 | Page: 1 of 19

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
>
>|
Export As: XML CSV RSS

For more data options, please see Open Data