- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- North Island—Powell River
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 65%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $145,542.18
- Government Page
- May/7/24 5:36:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member and I have a shared passion for the people who have served our country.
I am disappointed to see not very much for veterans. We have definitely seen Persian Gulf veterans coming forward. I know at committee, which I sit on, there have been multiple motions trying to get to that study to showcase the reality and to acknowledge that these veterans are not receiving the amount of resources they need to make due in a way that is respectful. We have to acknowledge their service and the detriment of that service, regardless of whether it was called a war or not.
I hope to get this done quickly. I hope the government will work with us, but I know collectively that we will be pushing this forward because it is about time that the Persian Gulf veterans are treated the right way. My grandfather was a Korean vet, and it took those veterans a long time to get acknowledged as well. Service is service, and we need to acknowledge that sacrifice.
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- May/2/24 7:01:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am the spokesperson on the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs, and one of the things we just finished studying and we are now working on the report for is around women veterans. It was so interesting to hear from them about when they had that moment of making the decision to stay or to leave and what the impacts were.
One of the things I have had frank conversations about is the fact that we are not back in the fifties or the forties anymore. It is a totally different world. We need both people in the family working to sustain ourselves, so how do we make sure both people have an opportunity? Child care comes up and housing comes up. Things that matter to everyday Canadians matter to military people. Their work is very unique and we have to honour that and find ways to support them, and government needs to be a key part of that. If it is not, it is obviously never going to get done.
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- Apr/29/24 5:31:04 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the work I do with the member on the veterans committee, so my question is going to be around that issue.
We have done a report in this place around marriage after 60. We know that many veterans who find love after 60 cannot leave a pension for their survivors. We also know that in 2019, the government made an announcement saying there was $150 million it would be sharing with women who were already in that circumstance. There are many very impoverished women who looked after veterans during the hardest parts of their lives and got absolutely nothing upon their passing. I was saddened to see there was no mention of that in this budget.
When is the money from 2019 actually going out to these vulnerable women?
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- Apr/16/24 3:13:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in the past two years, there has been a 50% increase in denied claims for veterans seeking disability benefits. This is shameful. They served our country, risking their lives and safety in the process, yet the Liberals keep turning their backs on them, just like the Conservatives did for years before. This is an issue of respect and livelihood. Many veterans are struggling and they rely on these benefits to make ends meet.
Do the Liberals plan on fixing this or will they keep denying veterans their dignity?
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- Dec/11/23 3:06:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the delay-and-disappoint Liberals are letting veterans and their families down yet again. This time it is because they failed to eliminate the “marriage over 60” clause that puts veterans' spouses, mostly elderly women, into poverty. When I asked the Minister of National Defence what has happened with the $150 million the Liberals promised for a veterans survivors fund, after four years, he could not give me an answer.
Our veterans and their families deserve better, and so I am asking the minister again: Are any of the veterans' families receiving the promised survivors benefit?
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- Dec/5/23 11:55:27 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have worked with the member for many years on the committee, and I respect him deeply.
I think Leger was very clear. It is unfortunate that the government did not do its homework to make sure there was a verification process and to make sure the people who gave the input were serving members, veterans who served or their families.
Here we are, in a place where there is more chaos when there should be something we are all proud of in this country.
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- Dec/5/23 11:54:22 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the member. We have spent many years together on committee and have served veterans in our roles. I deeply respect her commitment to veterans.
I cannot say what the outcome should be. What I do agree with is that it should be veteran-centric, so we need to go back. Obviously, this is unfortunate. Afghan veterans have been waiting for this to happen, and they have not seen it happen because of so many mistakes.
I hope the government would roll back and do this right, and make sure veterans are acknowledged for the important work they have done on this monument.
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- Dec/5/23 11:52:25 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the reality is that I am not a pollster, but I am pretty darn sure that people who do that work would know exactly how to do it.
It is important, and it is respectful to veterans to make sure there is no perception that this might not be the case. That is my concern. I hope those 12,000 folks who came forward and shared their thoughts and opinions are veterans. The government keeps telling us they are veterans, but there is actually no way to measure whether they are veterans or not. That is what is leading us down this path.
My advice would simply be this: Please be thoughtful in the process. Ask experts to help when needed, and let us respect veterans as decisions are made.
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- Dec/5/23 11:41:38 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for London—Fanshawe.
I feel it is absolutely critical to start this speech by recognizing Afghan veterans for their tremendous service. It is a very hard process to go through. I think it is also important to recognize their families, because the truth is that when it comes to the military, it is not only the members who serve but also their families. I just want to recognize them and thank them for their service today.
As the member of Parliament who represents the 19 Wing in Comox, I also want to take an opportunity to thank its members for their tremendous service. They have done a lot of incredible things for our region for many years. When they are needed, they show up to work.
I remember spending time with some of the search and rescue service members, and I talked to one woman in particular about her ability to deal with situations like jumping into the water and how she does that when it seems so terrifying to me. She said they train so that when they are called, they just do the work that needs to be done. That outlines the reality that people who serve this country work hard, practise hard and prepare themselves to do things that the majority of us could never imagine doing.
Here we are having this discussion today about a monument and the process that unfolded to have that monument. I know that so many have been waiting for this monument. People want a place in this country where they can go to acknowledge history, acknowledge their service, acknowledge those who never came home and acknowledge the loved ones who were left behind.
What is very clear is that the process has been unclear. We heard from the minister that there was not a clear awareness or understanding of how to connect to veterans directly. Of all the situations, that is the one that concerns me the most. We need the voices of veterans who served in Afghanistan and their loved ones' voices to be clear.
We keep hearing from the government that this is what it is doing and this is about focusing on the people who served. However, as we know, the process that unfolded was not clear. We know there was no verification process to ensure that the people who were giving their opinions were in fact veterans and their loved ones. This provides the perception that it was not done correctly, and that is very concerning to me.
I think when we look at how processes unfold, it is important that a connection is made with veterans. As we have heard again and again from veterans, this is something the department is not doing effectively. For example, when rehabilitation services for veterans moved to the PCVRS, many veterans did not know that was happening. They saw changes to their services and they did not understand why. The intake process was long and they were often retraumatized by having to share their stories again. We heard from folks who were providing rehabilitation services, in some cases for 40 years, who were excluded from the process.
Again, it was not clear, and part of the problem was that the method was not explained to service people, to veterans and to their families, which is very concerning. This is not how it should be for veterans. They should be getting the services they need.
What I have talked about repeatedly at the veterans affairs committee is that we need to see veteran-centric services. We hear about things like sanctuary trauma, and I think that is something we need to be taking seriously. The veterans who are trying to access supports and services from Veterans Affairs feel like they are being retraumatized instead of being provided with the services they desperately need. Those things need to be addressed, and a lot of the training that people are doing at Veterans Affairs, good people trying hard to do the work, is not as effective as it could be in making sure there is an understanding of what people need, what veterans need and what their families need when they call.
We talked to the minister several times in our committee, and one thing I brought up to the minister, over the last four years that I have served in that role, was that there was no direct contact with letters, phone calls and follow-ups.
If this were a department that, I would hope, focused on service delivery, then those things would be happening. If that were the case, then we would not be having this debate right now. There would be a clear process that would show that Afghan veterans and their loved ones had given the feedback and that a decision had been made that respected their rights, but we do not have that information.
We know Leger came out, very clearly, and said this is not a method that is clear and that it is not consistent. It becomes this thing where we are going back and forth, and the ones who are really hurting through this process are the members who served and their loved ones. That concerns me greatly.
Here we are, again, looking at this reality. We know, in the last Conservative government, that veterans really struggled. They were really frustrated. Their offices were shut down, and access to services became a bigger and bigger concern. I heard, then, about sanctuary trauma. I heard from veterans that they were frustrated. They kept trying to get support, and they could not. It just seems that what we are hearing in the House today is the Liberals and Conservatives fighting about who was worse, and we are not talking about what needs to change for veterans so that debate does not continue to happen.
This brings me back to what I keep hearing in my office from survivors of veterans. They are mostly women who are mostly in their late seventies to early nineties. They are calling my office and talking to me about the survivors benefit. They are asking me about the announcement the Liberal government made in 2019 of $150 million that it would give out to those, mostly women, who were rejected for survivors benefits because they married their spouses after age 60. Even though they cared for them, in some cases for 20 to 30 years, they got absolutely nothing when their partners passed away.
That $150 million was allocated and was supposed to get out the door to start supporting those women in order to respect the veterans who served our country and to respect the women who cared for them as they aged. We still have not seen a single cent of that go out to those survivors. That was four years ago, and I am still getting phone calls from those ladies who are struggling every day to make ends meet. They are seniors. They are going to their MPs and asking for help. They are asking when that money is coming out the door, and they do not know.
What do I hear from Veterans Affairs? I hear that it has not figured out the process. Those women, who cared for senior veterans and helped them to the very end of their lives, are getting zero dollars, even though they sacrificed in support of the sacrifice their partners made.
The challenge is that here we are again, and we see, again and again, the repeat of unclear process and not very good communication with veterans and their families. We see a department that may have good intentions but somehow is missing the mark, and we need to see better. We see sanctuary trauma, where veterans are coming forward talking about being traumatized while trying to access a service they need.
It also reminds me that, right now in committee, we are doing the largest study that committee has ever done, and it is the first study it has ever done on women veterans. What we are hearing from women veterans is horrifying, and it repeats this pattern of their being left out, of not being able to access the services they need and of not being acknowledged as having health and mental health challenges while they served. When they get to Veterans Affairs, they have to prove the things they went through. There is no acceptance of the fact that when the military, the army, the air force and the navy, opened up, they did not have the processes in place to support women. We need to do better by veterans. They definitely deserve it because they served us so well.
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- Dec/5/23 11:26:02 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have some concerns about this. We know very clearly, based on the testimony from the minister herself, that this was never verified and that it was actually veterans answering those calls.
I am wondering if the member could talk about how we need to talk to veterans a little more inclusively and maybe reflect on the fact that, during the Conservatives' time in government, we heard very similar concerns that veterans were being disrespected and were not being listened to.
What does the member think should be different, and why should veterans believe the Conservatives when they have repeatedly betrayed veterans as well?
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- Dec/5/23 11:05:39 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I do agree with my friend from Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound that this should be a non-partisan issue. With regard to the people who sacrificed their lives for us in Afghanistan, we know that not only did we lose them there, we lost them when they came home. This really matters.
When the minister was at the committee, I asked her how they verified that the people who answered the surveys were veterans and what the process was for doing that. I trust veterans, but perception matters. We hope that it was the veterans and their families that made these voices and opinions heard, but there is no way of knowing that.
I think that is why this concern is here, and it is very real. I am wondering if he could respond to that, knowing that the minister said they did not have a process on whether people who answered the survey were veterans.
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- Dec/5/23 10:32:33 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for bringing this to the House today. He and I sit in committee together and share similar concerns with respect to these issues. My question specifically is around the fact that this is not the first time we have seen the department be very unclear in the process of communicating information. The department officials are saying they reached out to veterans, but everything was done in a way that was not measurable in order to make sure that those were in fact the veterans and those were in fact the family members. Could the member talk about methods that this department might use to actually talk to those veterans and, specifically for this, to the Afghan veterans and their loved ones?
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- Nov/1/23 4:36:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member and I work together on the veterans committee, and I enjoy working with her. However, I do wish that we were actually debating the Ukraine trade agreement, as we were hoping to do.
I have looked at the recommendations of this particular report. Right now, we are doing a very important study in committee about women veterans, and I see that recommendation 2 talks about having the “Government of Canada work with Ukraine and other international partners in support of the documentation, investigation and prosecution of sexual- and gender-based violence committed during Russia's war against Ukraine, and provide support to survivors.
All too often in war, women and children are targeted very specifically. I wonder whether the member agrees with this, and how she thinks Canada can better support it moving forward.
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- Jun/19/23 3:15:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister gave $560 million to a company owned by Loblaws to deliver services to veterans, but the rollout was a disaster. There was poor communication to service providers and veterans, as well as a lack of training for workers.
Veterans and their families are the ones paying the price. The Liberals' outsourcing to private companies is not working, and the government is not listening. Will the minister continue to ignore veterans, or will he cancel this botched contract?
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- May/15/23 2:51:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, women veterans feel invisible. The Liberal government does not hear their experiences, stories or pain. Virtually no research is being funded about military women's health issues, including mental health. While New Democrats welcome the recently announced mood and anxiety treatment guidelines, the unique challenges of female veterans must be considered.
Will the minister commit, today, to including women veterans in creating these guidelines so that women who bravely served our country could finally be seen?
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- May/12/23 11:27:20 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the poppy helps us commemorate the sacrifice and bravery of the women and men who served in the Canadian Armed Forces. Canadians are proud to wear their poppy in remembrance, but not Conservative premier, Danielle Smith. She is picking a fight with veterans to try to score political points for herself. It is shameful.
Will the minister stand up for veterans and condemn the remarks of Danielle Smith?
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Mr. Speaker, I have put forward a private member's bill on this, and I just want to remind people that we do not have to wait for my bill to be in the order of precedence. Actually, the government, at any point, could take leadership and address this issue in a meaningful way. My bill is just one suggestion. The government has the power to do that.
The other thing I want to draw the member's attention to is that the veterans committee did do a study, at my request, on this very issue. We talked to veterans and their spouses, who talked about the reality of the “gold-digger” clause. I might add that women across this country are very offended by that name. I have heard from so many of them who say that they are absolutely not gold diggers. They did not marry veterans for their money; they married veterans because they cared about them.
I think there are a lot of acts we can do, but we definitely want to see the veterans survivors fund. That money needs to move and go to these people.
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- Apr/20/23 2:44:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadian families are worried about accessing services during the PSAC strike. The union is ready to work with the departments to ensure that veterans can maintain that access, but the minister refuses to talk to them. In fact, the minister has not met with the union president for over two years. This is disrespectful and puts our public servants and veterans at risk. What is he scared of? Will the minister do his job by talking to the union or will he continue to ignore his responsibilities to both veterans and the union?
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- Apr/17/23 7:29:24 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am here today because I asked a question in March and I feel the question was not answered. I want members of my riding of North Island—Powell River to know that today I am standing up for the over 2,300 RCMP women who, between 1974 and 2019, faced terrible sexual assault, abuse and harassment in the RCMP. These brave women came forward and told their stories. The Merlo Davidson suit came into play, and we now have a decision that allows these women to be compensated for the terrible, violent abuse they survived.
What is sad about this is that Veterans Affairs has seen fit to claw back some of their disability pensions. I am reminded of some time I spent at the veterans committee today, where we are studying, for the first time ever in this place, women veterans. One of the women who testified today talked about having a survivor focus, which is moving forward in a way that focuses on the survivors' realities and making sure that everything is built around supporting them so they can do better. I thought that was such an important value, which we need to look at, not only in the military and the RCMP, but also in all of Canada. When a victim comes forward, they need to be supported.
In this ruling, through the Merlo Davidson suit, we see six levels of compensation. I really encourage Canadians to look at the six levels because they show just how vile the abuse was. Every time one reads a different section, they can read just what these women lived through. They have this terrible situation. Some of them from 1974 did not feel they would be listened to and did not come forward until much later. They can finally be acknowledged, and what they see happening is their disability pensions being withdrawn from them again. This is abuse.
We know that it was incredibly brave for these women to come forward to share their experiences. Doing so will hopefully make the pathway safer for women RCMP in the future. The justice who gave the report described the women as having to endure shocking levels of violence. These women experienced extreme brutality while protecting our country, and now we are seeing that same government deny them what they are rightfully owed. VAC is literally making these women who served this country suffer all over again. The minister needs to make it right.
I have heard commitments that a letter would be sent and the claw backs would stop. I am going to come back to what I said in the beginning. If this were survivor focused, this would not have happened in the first place. If we had that culture in these organizations, including this one, this would not have happened. These woman would have been supported and given what they needed, and we would not have seen VAC abuse them again.
Today, I want to know when the government will return the clawed-back dollars? We cannot just stop the claw back. We also need to get the monies that were taken wrongfully from them and return them as appropriate. Women in this country served our country through the RCMP and suffered while they were serving, and that has nothing to do with their disability claims.
Will the government make it right?
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- Mar/27/23 3:09:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Veterans Affairs has been clawing back pensions from women RCMP veterans. These women experienced extreme brutality while protecting our country, and the government is denying what they are owed as directed by the Merlo Davidson lawsuit.
The New Democrats have been calling for these clawbacks to stop and, after months, finally the minister agrees. These women deserve action.
Will the minister apologize to these women, stop the clawback and reimburse the money they are rightfully owed from their pensions?
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