Caleigh Wong, Veteran
Photo Credit: McCall MacBain Scholars
Esprit de Corps Magazine April 2024 // Volume 31 Issue 3
Let's Talk About Women in the Military – Column 61
By Military Woman
Question:
How did the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs (ACVA) study on the “Experience of Women Veterans” end the 2023 year?
Answer:
Caleigh Wong, a reservist with five years of service including a tour in Latvia, testified at the twenty-first meeting, held on December 5, 2023. She shared a number of personal experiences of racial and sexual discrimination. Often feeling more like a tolerated guest, instead of a valued team member, she wasn’t made comfortable to speak up against the sexual misconduct and misogyny happening to and around her, especially with so few precedents of institutional justice for those that do speak out.
She also observed that those complaining the most about the ‘never-ending’ discussions on these topics, were all too often the same people tolerating and normalizing inappropriate behaviours in the military workplace.
She emphasized the need for more than an “add women and stir” cultural and attitudinal shift within the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), calling for more internal and external champions, including the ACVA members themselves. She challenged a reconfiguration of what it means to be a “good soldier.” For example, a “good soldier” by definition does not rape. Anyone. Ever.
Stephanie Hayward shared her harrowing 2009 experience of sexual violence during her basic training course. Despite her documented service-related trauma, her Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) disability claims were repeatedly denied, leading her into homelessness.
Only after an intervention by a social worker during a 2020 PTSD-related hospitalization, were her VAC disability claims, including for Critical Injury Benefit, finally accepted. However, VAC still forced her to continue the fight to access the Veterans Independence Program (VIP) and coverage for pelvic floor therapy. As a single mother, she also noted that social assistance provided better supports for her children then what they have now through VAC’s coverage of her service-related injuries.
This situation underscores why VAC’s Table of Disabilities must be further updated to address women’s and sexual assault survivor’s health issues and streamline their access to needed benefits more equitably.
The Members of Parliament Blaney and Bennett both highlighted government’s apparent inability to link sexual trauma with poor pregnancy labour outcomes, postpartum, and/or perinatal mental health issues. MP Bennett noting “…the data isn't there even while people are serving, so VAC doesn't seem to know that this should be compensable. We're hearing a lot that there should be a presumptive approach in terms of compensation.”
At the twenty-second meeting on December 7th, 2023, VAC representatives acknowledged women Veterans as their fastest growing group of new clients. In support of the approximately 75,000 women Veterans, VAC recently organized women’s roundtables on employment, homelessness, and the establishment of an advisory council. The Joint CAF-VAC Steering Committee recently added military/Veteran women issues as a standing agenda item to improve on issue coordination between the two departments. VAC acknowledged ongoing research gaps for women Veterans, especially regarding reproductive health, but did not share (yet) what its plan is to address this longstanding source of data inequity.
VAC’s Chief Medical Officer, herself a Veteran, clarified her previous ACVA comments of May 4, 2023, regarding women being able to send their health-related complaints to a 1-800-Cyd-Courchesne number. There is, in fact, unlike in the US, no dedicated contact or support phoneline for women Veterans. VAC has however introduced a new women Veteran’s section to its monthly e-newsletter, “Salute!”
A representative from the CAF Transition Group explained his mandate to support the ill and injured members and their families, including through the Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) program. With approximately 150 staff and volunteers, OSISS completes around 2,000 peer support contacts per month, primarily to Veterans and their families. OSISS supports all those with operational stress Injuries (OSI), i.e. persistent psychological difficulty from military operations, training, domestic or international operations, or burnout from military life stressors. The CAF Transition Group member acknowledged that military sexual trauma (MST) can result in an OSI.
Representatives from the Sexual Misconduct Support and Resource Centre (SMSRC) outlined their programs, including a 24/7/365 support phone line available at 1-844-750-1648. VAC again acknowledged for themselves, and Atlas, that SMSRC is the “lead for all matters of military sexual trauma.”
All groups, VAC and Veterans alike, eagerly await the final recommendations from this important “Experience of Women Veterans” ACVA study to be released in 2024.
Update:
2024. VAC has initiated an email address specific for women to use if they have women specific issues to discuss.
