Jane Hall, Veteran at her daughter’s graduation
Photo Credit: Jane Hall
Esprit de Corps Magazine March 2024 // Volume 31 Issue 2
Let's Talk About Women in the Military – Column 60
By Military Woman
Question:
What else has been happening at the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs (ACVA) study on the “Experience of Women Veterans”?
Answer:
Jane Hall, from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Veteran Women's Council, was first to testify on the nineteen meeting of this study, held on November 28, 2023. She shared that 2024 would mark the 50th anniversary of RCMP women and thanked all those that had helped to pave the, sometimes rocky, pathway to that achievement.
She shared some long-standing statistics of higher attrition rates for RCMP women versus men. She cited one of the causes for this differential being the ongoing presence, in some locations, of an unhealthy workplace culture. She reminded the committee that the Council’s “Addressing a Crisis in Leadership” 2014 report provided, yet unimplemented, recommendations on how to address these issues.
Hall further explained the differences in attrition rates as being related to inadequate systemic supports to optimize female-sex specific needs for uniforms, equipment, and physical and psychological illnesses and injuries. She urged Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) to provide more research and supports for female RCMP Veterans, especially related to psychological and reproductive health needs. She also urged the government to focus on the action recommendations to come from this ACVA study, as organizational and systemic changes for uniformed women are already long overdue.
Jessica Miller, a retired military medic who now runs the Veteran Farm Project, was next to testify. She named it as a failure of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) senior leadership not to have better recognized and supported military sexual trauma (MST) impacted members. This collective leadership inaction around prevention of CAF members’ sexual misconduct related workplace injuries and illnesses served to create and sustain a culture of silence around the issue. The institutional silencing around MST topics has resulted in deepening and furthering of the harms caused by CAF to its own people. This culture of silence around MST then follows and impedes many MST impacted members’ ability to optimally transition to a life outside of the military.
The Veteran Farm Project was started to give women Veterans a safe space to heal from their service-related traumas and rebuild their lives through connection with nature, community, and peers. Miller called for more VAC research and supports for grassroot organizations, like hers, to help empower and foster MST impacted women Veterans’ long-term well-being. She urged VAC to do more research into the effectiveness of the programs it funds. She knows first-hand that programs like the Farm Project work and that similar project to hers could be reproduced elsewhere – if given the chance.
Veterans Transition Network (VTN) testimony encouraged VAC to ensure its research and programming better included the unique challenges and experiences of women Veterans especially around social isolation and family care responsibilities. VTN also challenged government to more robustly recognize and address members’ sanctuary traumas caused from the institution’s response/non-response to various events.
The twentieth meeting of this study was held on November 30, 2023, and began with the testimony of Nina Charlene Usherwood, a 42-year military Veteran. She shared some of her military struggles, including discrimination, that she believes contributed to, if not caused, her physical health issues, including diabetes.
She recommended government prioritize an update to the Employment Equity Act, further empowerment of the Defence Advisory Groups (DAGs), and improved data collection processes, including specifically for those identifying as transgender.
Vivienne Stewart, RCMP Veteran Women's Council co-chair, shared her personal disappointment in how many years it was after her resignation from the RCMP before she learned that she was a Veteran, eligible for VAC programs and services.
She criticized VAC for not having better information dissemination methods and operating too much like an insurance company, instead of a service provider. She also questioned past VAC interpretations of the Merlo-Davidson Class Action Settlement which, to her as a lawyer herself, unnecessarily negatively impacted many RCMP Veteran women, including former RCMP Constable Krista Carlé. RIP.
More robust RCMP (and CAF) exit interviews and VAC intake interviews were also recommended. Indeed, if government captured and actioned more lived experience feedback, Veterans may start to feel more respected, understood, and supported.
