Statement made on 20 October 2011 by Senator Roméo Dallaire
Hon. Roméo Antonius Dallaire:
Honourable senators, when I was commander of the brigade in Valcartier in the 1990s, we were in Bosnia and had received instructions not to publicize suicides or, in fact, any deaths in Bosnia. The government did not want that information known. It wanted to minimize the impact of missions where members of the Armed Forces were killed or injured.
In continuation of yesterday's debate and in light of the known impact of these missions on our soldiers and their families, I wonder whether the government would consider specifically approaching the Minister of Defence and, by extension, cabinet, to ensure that those who committed suicide as a result of a psychological wound from a mission overseas are recognized the same way as the more than 157 other individuals who lost their lives during the mission.
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