Statement made on 19 October 2011 by Senator Roméo Dallaire
Hon. Roméo Antonius Dallaire:
Honourable senators, last week was Mental Health Week, during which we saw a number of innovative ideas across the country. I would like to make special mention of the efforts of CTV's Canada AM.
Throughout that week, for nearly two hours at a time, Canada AM held discussions on the subject of mental illness and the ramifications that it has in the country. One particular day, a Wednesday, they spent two hours discussing suicide. The debate was whether to hide suicide or whether to recognize that this mental health issue can, for those who are affected by it and/or those who are suffering from operational stress injuries, bring on death — of course, at the sufferer's own hand.
This is breaking new ground. This is recognizing that we are taking casualties, among our youth and our middle-aged, and in areas of employment where strength of character must be demonstrated, such as our police officers, firefighters and soldiers. We are recognizing that these injuries and these casualties are real and that there must be an instrument of prevention brought forward through more progressive research.
We have lost 157 soldiers in Afghanistan. That is not the real figure. We have lost probably over 187 soldiers in Afghanistan, for there is anecdotal evidence that says that at least 30 have committed suicide since they have returned due specifically to the injuries that they incurred through trauma and operational stress in the field. That is the real figure, and that is the continuing figure.
Under that concept, I can again take the opportunity to applaud an innovation and an initiative by the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, Col. (Ret'd) Donald Ethell, who created the Circle on Mental Health and Addiction. What an extraordinary idea: a circle, instead of something confrontational, in which all the players — civilian, therapeutic and those who are potential clients — get together to fight the stigma of mental health problems in their society, to help people to come forward and also to push therapists to sell their product.
It is interesting to note that there have been massive advances in the institutions of our society. Probably one of the most conservative institutions, the military, has made massive advances in recognizing operational stress injury and in trying to diagnose and cure those suffering from that injury.
That Darwinian organization has taken itself in hand and has significantly reformed itself. How come the NHL cannot even come close? How can people — dinosaurs — articulate comments like those we heard on CBC, made by a well-known gentleman who is talking through his hat, who is talking the way the commanders in the 1980s and 1990s talked about this operational stress injury, calling the soldiers "wimps," while in fact they were the bravest of the brave?