Summertime Sunset
Photo Credit: Military Woman
Esprit de Corps Magazine August 2024 // Volume 31 Issue 7
Let's Talk About Women in the Military – Column 65
By Military Woman
Question:
During the summer of 2022, there was a “Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer” Military Woman column about various things to think about, discuss, and even debate with friends and family. Is there a similar list of musings for the summer of 2024?
Answer:
Sure! In the same spirit as the August 2022 column (Volume 29 Issue 7), here are some questions to ponder while sitting around the campfire.
Should the defence world be expecting the possibility of some major paradigm shifts in our near future?
It certainly feels like important society level changes are happening around the world, Canada included. Especially for some of the defence related decisions to be made in the next year or two they seem likely to impact Canada’s place in the world for decades to come.
Is it time for Canadians to formally redefine how much is “too much” for injured and ill Veterans to ask for?
It will soon be the appropriate timing to sunset legacy programs originally created for the Veterans of the Great Wars, that have since become very complex and piecemealed programs when applied to other Veterans. With a federal election happening on or before October 2025, it is an opportune time to challenge political parties to hold an Inquiry (or Royal Commission) into the best way forward, if elected, to ensure a more sustainable and effective approach to supporting Veterans. Together, we could reimagine a more transparent, accountable, cost-effective, simpler, equitable and coordinated support system for all Veterans. If not, especially with Canada’s ongoing military recruitment and retention struggles, the alternative discussion might need to be about mandatory national service, also known as conscription.
When will the federal government move beyond the men-only occupational hazard research of the 1970s to obtain updated research, inclusive of women workers and workplace reproductive hazard considerations?
Government related policy decisions, including claim adjudications for Veterans, that are based on research that did not include women cannot be assumed as fair or evidence-based to then apply to women. More research, in specific on women in the military workplace, is required.
Is it time for the Department of National Defence to update its approach to assessing the human health hazard risks related to federally contaminated sites on military bases?
The lessons learned from CFB Gagetown and Agent Orange, and a growing number of other base-related environmental contamination concerns, have yet to be optimally collected and publicly communicated for the common good of all those who have worked and lived on these sites.
Could all three levels of government work together to ensure at least one flexible-hour daycare option was always available to support operational and essential workers (i.e. ambulance, fire, police, dispatchers, medical staff and military members)?
Given the shortage of family doctors, could the federal government do more to ensure continuity of medical care after military release?
Could the federal government fund a new billing code to allow family doctors to meet for an hour or two, instead of 15 minutes, with newly released military members so as to ensure Veterans a more seamless transfer from federal to provincial health care responsibilities?
With almost a third of Canadian women Veterans living alone, is “Veterans and their family” an inclusive phrase?
Is it time to follow the US example of “Veterans and their family, friends and caregivers?”
Could the federal government automatically provide all military (and RCMP) members with mental health benefit supports for two years after release?
Why does VAC only offer mental health benefits to Veterans after they submit a claim for a diagnosed chronic mental health condition? Why instead couldn’t VAC treat mental and physical health as two sides of the same coin, and also offer mental health benefit coverage for those with physical condition claims, such as chronic pain? Better yet, why wouldn’t government provide mental health benefit supports to any Veteran that asks for such help? Why not proactively support all Veterans that self-identify as suffering from things like moral injury, military sexual trauma, grieving, burnout, compassion fatigue, institutional betrayal, combat-related stress reactions, and life transition stresses?
Can women Veterans (military and RCMP) come together to help government prioritise which recommendations from the recent “Invisible No More. Experience of Canadian Women Veterans” study to implement first ? Nothing About Us Without Us.
What are your summer musings?
