Statement made on 14 December 2010 by Senator Roméo Dallaire
Hon. Roméo Antonius Dallaire:
Honourable senators, the unique physical, mental and social context of military service intimately defines how military personnel, veterans and their families deal with health throughout their lives. Currently, the number of Canadian Forces casualties and the breadth of their health problems arising from military operations are greater than those at any time since the Korean War.
Pre-1997, the Canadian Forces and Veterans Affairs Canada had no capability for handling operational stress injuries. The impact on the Gulf War veterans is a prime example of how we were not able to sustain those casualties or to try to attenuate the impact of their injuries and ultimately treat them in a manner I would consider to be fair.
Since then, the Department of National Defence and Veterans Affairs Canada have been building and putting together a series of clinics across the country to meet the pressing demand of operational stress injuries.
For the first time, a national network of researchers from universities across all provinces of Canada has been launched to advance military and veteran health research aimed at addressing the unique health and OSI needs of military personnel, veterans and their families.
A jointly led initiative of Queen's University and the Royal Military College of Canada, the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research will include all interested Canadian universities in facilitating new partnerships, collaborations, funding and access to data and studies of the population. The announcement follows the highly successful Canadian Military and Veteran Health Research Forum hosted recently by Queen's University and RMC, and attended by more than 250 delegates and special guests.
Representatives from 20 Canadian universities, Canadian Forces Health Services, Veterans Affairs Canada, Defence Research and Development Canada and other military and veterans organizations met recently and reached consensus on the need to work together to establish a coordinated, sustainable, pan-Canadian academic military and veteran health research program. The universities and government representatives are committed to working collaboratively to build a national research institute.
Honourable senators, this institute means that we will not stumble into the next generation of casualties blindly as we stumbled into the post-Cold War 1990s era of conflict and conflict resolutions with the vast numbers of casualties in the thousands that have not been treated. This institute has the potential to benefit numerous Canadians including first responders like police, humanitarian workers, people employed with non-governmental organizations and journalists. The network will facilitate collaboration with both industry and the international partners to provide solutions to operational stress injuries.