Canada failing soldiers with PTSD

Soldiers paying a heavy price


BY KRIS KOTARSKI, FOR THE CALGARY HERALD APRIL 4, 2011 2:22 AM


In one of the most heartbreaking stories of the 2011 election season, the CBC reported domestic violence on Canadian military bases has climbed steadily in recent years as soldiers who carry physical and psychological battle wounds return home.

This sad piece of news did not come from a stumping parliamentarian or the Department of National Defence. Instead, it came from a freedom-of-information request that revealed a military police report that was shelved and later downplayed by Canada's military bureaucracy.

According to the report, military police noted a five-fold jump in reported cases of domestic violence after troops returned from a heavy combat tour in Afghanistan to Ontario's CFB Petawawa in 2007.

Although this should serve as yet another reminder that too many of Canada's soldiers (and families) look to be suffering from the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder, Canada's military is keen to make this issue go away.

Col. Jean-Robert Bernier, deputy surgeon general with the Canadian Forces, dismissed the report, noting "some methodological flaws in the way some of that military police data was collected and analyzed."

If you find such a dismissal a little odd considering the gravity of the statistics unearthed by the investigation, you may wish to call your local federal election candidate to ask what he or she thinks about how Canada is handling post-traumatic stress disorder and its veterans.

Is suicide interesting enough for our public debate? In 2008, the CBC cited research by Laval University doctoral student Maj. Michel Sartori, who obtained military police records that showed the suicide rate among Canada's regular forces and reserves doubled from 2006 to 2007, rising to a rate triple that of the general population.

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Soldiers paying a heavy price

Canadian Superman saves lives on way to Afghanistan

Soldier en route to Afghanistan saves family from fire

VICTORIA — A B.C. soldier deploying to Afghanistan Thursday made a pit stop on his way to the airport, saving two people from a house fire in the Victoria area.

Master Cpl. Carol Bastien was en route to the airport early Thursday morning when he noticed flames consuming the balcony of a family home.

M. Cpl. Bastien leapt out of the car, ran into the house, woke the family, battled the blaze and then called the fire department — all before rushing to the airport where a plane was waiting to take him to Afghanistan for his first tour of duty.
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Soldier en route to Afghanistan saves family from fire

Canadian Supreme Court reinstates veterans’ class-action suit

Supreme Court reinstates veterans’ class-action suit


By Janice Tibbetts, Postmedia News December 23, 2010

OTTAWA — A class-action lawsuit against the federal government for clawing back the disability payments of injured military veterans can go ahead after the Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday refused to throw out a legal challenge from a former Nova Scotia soldier.

"We're one step closer to having our day in court," said Dennis Manuge, the lead plaintiff in the suit, who served in Bosnia before he was released from the military on medical grounds.

The former corporal received the high court's unanimous approval for up to 6,500 veterans — more than half of them with mental-health problems — to sue the federal government for millions of dollars.

Their victory comes at the end of the year in which the government was under attack from the former veterans' ombudsman, Pat Stogran, who spent his final months in office, chastising the federal government for what he described as a "long-standing and deeply rooted" practice of treating veterans unfairly.



Read more: Supreme Court reinstates veterans’ class-action suit

Soldier's mother says military let her son down

Soldier's mother says military let her son down
Goldstream Gazette

Two and a half years after her son’s suicide, a Victoria woman’s struggles with the Department of National Defence have finally been acknowledged at the highest level.

A long-awaited apology came only after Sheila Fynes made a trip to Ottawa to share her story with the national media.

Backed by Victoria MP Denise Savoie, Fynes spoke out about the military’s handling of her son’s post-traumatic stress disorder (a psychological condition sometimes seen in soldiers who have served in a battle zone) and subsequent mistreatment of the family.

“We believe that there has been a concerted effort on the part of the Department (of National Defence) to tarnish our son’s reputation and memory to absolve it of any responsibility,” Fynes said. “Our hope is that never again should a soldier or soldier’s family suffer as ours has.”

On March 15, 2008, Cpl. Stuart Langridge, then 28, hanged himself in his barracks at CFB Edmonton.

He had served tours of duty in Bosnia and Afghanistan starting in 2002 and had an outstanding military record until 2006.

Troubles started in 2007.

According to files compiled by Savoie’s office, Langridge was medicated for an anxiety-related issue in March. Until his death a year later, he struggled with substance abuse and attempted suicide six times.

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Soldier's mother says military let her son down

Canada:Veterans' Affairs social workers face "burnout"

Veterans' Affairs social workers face "burnout"


By Kevin Dougherty,
Montreal Gazette July 20, 2010

QUEBEC - Canada's soldiers returning home from the war in Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder face new obstacles because of caregiver burnout at Veterans' Affairs, the federal department charged with caring for them.

Magali Picard, vice president of the union representing Veterans' Affairs employees, told reporters Tuesday that DVA social workers have a case load of 40 clients, compared with a case load of 20 in a provincial CLSC community clinic.

And in the Quebec City office, serving the Valcartier Canadian Forces Base, while department norms say there should be 24 social workers, there are 16.

"Several have left for professional burnout," Picard said.

That means soldiers, suffering from PTSD, can wait four months before seeing a social worker, a necessary step in getting them back into society and back on the labour market.


Read more: Veterans Affairs social workers face burnout

Soldiers with severe PTSD have trouble finding help in Canada

Soldiers with severe PTSD have trouble finding help
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 25, 2010
by Louise Elliott, CBC News
Shawn Hearn, like many Canadian soldiers battling post-traumatic stress disorder, is having a tough time getting proper treatment back home after serving in a war zone.

Hearn, who served in Bosnia as a sniper in 1994, and those involved in helping soldiers with PTSD say changes to the treatment system need to be made.

And there's a lot on the line. Hearn recently attempted suicide and has been fighting hard to get the treatment he needs.

Hearn came back from Bosnia a different person. At first he didn't know why. He speaks in Guelph, Ont., near the Homewood private treatment centre where he says he's finally getting help.

"Basically I began to notice changes, my family began to notice changes, and in 1997 I ended up in hospital with an overdose," he says.

After that overdose, Hearn remained in the army another three years. In 2000, he was finally diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He left the military and began to try to understand his symptoms: severe depression, flashbacks, night fears.



Read more: Soldiers with severe PTSD have trouble finding help

The Stigma of Mental Illness

“The backbone of our organization is to try to eradicate stigma within the Canadian forces in regards to mental health injuries,” Lively said. “We’re taking those negative experiences and reusing them in a positive way to educate our peers and colleagues.”

Returning from Front Lines: The Stigma of Mental Illness
By Cindy Chan
Epoch Times Staff

OTTAWA—Three months after Steven Lively returned from central Africa in 1996, the former Canadian forces soldier started experiencing constant panic attacks, migraines, and anxiety.

It was two years following the Rwandan genocide. He was in Africa to observe the survivors who had fled to neighboring countries and were trying to return to Rwanda.

“It was a feeling of complete helplessness,” he said. “You come home from a mission and before you know it you’re overcome with a very strong sense of guilt.”

He encountered mass graves and other horrors of human suffering, including children and babies dying.

Yet, due to the military’s rules of engagement to guard the soldiers’ safety, “There was absolutely nothing that I could do. I was unable to stop and provide any kind of assistance.”

The resulting guilt manifested as depression, anxiety, nightmares, and flashbacks, along with other severe symptoms that included headaches, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome.

“I didn’t understand all these things that were part of post-traumatic stress disorder that we now know. Back then, I had no idea what was happening to me,” said Lively, who now works with the Joint Speakers Bureau (JSB) of the Department of National Defence (DND) to provide education and awareness on mental health and operational stress injury (OSI).
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http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/31006/

Canada has 6,000 Afghanistan veterans on disabililty

Afghanistan veterans on disability now 6,000
Forces, Veterans Affairs reluctant to disclose casualty records after eight years of war.
By TIM NAUMETZ

More than 6,000 Canadian Forces members and discharged veterans who are receiving physical or psychiatric disability benefits from Veterans Affairs Canada have either served in Afghanistan or have a disability that has been related to their service in Afghanistan, the department says.

The majority of the soldiers receiving benefits are likely suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or war-related psychiatric conditions, according to global figures the department and the Canadian Forces provided The Hill Times. They also do not appear to be included in Afghanistan combat or non-combat casualty figures the Canadian Forces compiled, even though the veterans and serving members who have psychiatric conditions likely have them as a result of serving in the Afghan war.

The Canadian Forces said a week ago 529 soldiers were wounded in action from 2002—when Canada first sent troops to Afghanistan as part of a U.S.-led invasion following terrorist attacks in the United States—to last Dec. 31. The Forces said a further 913 troops had suffered "non-combat" injuries.


But the Veterans Affairs Department, in a series of email exchanges, told The Hill Times roughly 2,200 Canadian Forces "clients" are now receiving disability benefits related to their service in Afghanistan. The department said a further 4,100 veteran clients have Afghanistan service identified in their records "but their benefits are not necessarily related to the Afghanistan mission."
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http://www.hilltimes.com/page/view/afghanistan-02-08-2010

Canada looks at caring for veterans as a human rights issue

That is what it all boils down to isn't it? Replacing income because a combat veteran suffers for having served, having risked their life, having already paid the price few others will come close to understanding, leaving them without enough money to live off of, should be considered nothing less than a human rights issue. They are disabled and should be treated as disabled with the medical care and financial support they need just like anyone else but unlike anyone else, they would not be disabled unless they risked their lives for the sake of everyone else in the country. So how is it that they are forced to fight yet another battle to make sure they do not have to suffer even more for suffering in the first place?

Disabled vets wage new war

By SEAN BRUYEA
Thu. Jan 21 - 4:46 AM
It has become a sad truth that the path of an injured soldier to receive disability benefits in Canada is a minefield of obstacles. Today, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear about some of them.

When Canadian Forces members are injured on duty, they receive pain and suffering payments from Veterans Affairs while keeping their full salary. If soldiers are so disabled as to be unemployable, they are kicked out of the military and paid 75 per cent of their salary through a long-term disability plan held by the Canadian Forces. Then, in some seemingly petty act of revenge, the Canadian Forces insurance plan deducts amounts for pain and suffering paid by Veterans Affairs.

No other long-term disability income plan in Canada is allowed to deduct Veterans Affairs payments for pain and suffering. This is why Nova Scotia resident Dennis Manuge has brought his case to the Supreme Court; his case represents more than 4,000 disabled soldiers similarly affected. I am one of the 4,000.

The National Defence ombudsman has called the deductions "profoundly unfair" and said that "the inequity might very well be serious enough to attract the protection of human rights legislation" including "the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which identifies physical and mental disabilities as prohibited grounds of discrimination."
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http://thechronicleherald.ca/Columnists/1163449.html

Afghanistan vets fear for future care

OttawaCitizen: Afghanistan vets fear for future care

OTTAWA — Canada's Afghan veterans are raising serious concerns about their future and whether they will be taken care of by the government in the decades to come, says the country's Veterans Ombudsman.

Retired Col. Pat Stogran says the problems revolve around the New Veterans Charter and some of the provisions in that legislation. One concern is that Afghan veterans who are wounded now receive a lump-sum payment. In the past, former soldiers got a monthly disability pension, he noted.

"I have some significant misgivings about that," said Stogran, a veteran of Afghanistan and missions in the former Yugoslavia. "Personally, my instincts tell me the last thing you want to do when a young soldier comes back from overseas, perhaps with an operational stress injury, or with a dependency on alcohol or drugs, is give him $250,000 to self-medicate."

The money is meant to recognize and compensate Canadian Forces members, veterans and their families for a service-related disability. The award is a tax-free lump-sum payment with the amount depending on the extent of the injury. The maximum amount is slightly more than $267,000.
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Afghanistan vets fear for future care
linked from
http://www.icasualties.org/OEF/index.aspx

Military launches mental health campaign

Military launches mental health campaign

Despite criticism, general says system still one of the world's best

By David Pugliese, The Ottawa CitizenJune 25, 2009

The head of the Canadian Forces will launch a mental-health awareness campaign today as concerns grow that the nation's military personnel are not being cared for properly and that numbers of post-traumatic-stress casualties from Afghanistan could increase in the future.

Gen. Walt Natynczyk, chief of the defence staff, says the system already put in place by the government and military is one of the best in the world.

But the mother of a soldier who committed suicide in Edmonton after enduring mental illness and post-traumatic stress is challenging Natynczyk's claims.

"Obviously it's not one of the best in the world if we have soldiers dying," said Sheila Fynes, mother of Cpl. Stuart Langridge, referring not only to her son's death but other recent suicides in the military.

"We have met some individuals along the way who are caring people, but the system failed our son before he died and continues to fail his family since."

Langridge was diagnosed with PTSD symptoms as well as depression, and was abusing alcohol and drugs. In a one-year period, he tried to kill himself six times before eventually hanging himself in a barracks at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton last year.
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Military launches mental health campaign

Canadian Court links soldier's MS to post-traumatic stress

Troy Fleece For The National Post
The Federal Court ruled Dennis Patterson should receive a military pension for the multiple sclerosis he claims was caused by post-traumatic stress he suffered in the military.

Court links soldier's MS to post-traumatic stress
Veteran should receive pension for illness: ruling

Tom Blackwell, National Post
Published: Tuesday, September 08, 2009


A recent court ruling has raised unusual new concerns about the post-traumatic stress that afflicts a growing number of Canadian soldiers, concluding that such anxiety may have helped cause multiple sclerosis in an air force veteran.

The Federal Court said a review board should reconsider granting Dennis Patterson -- who flew missions to such hot spots as Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda -- a pension for his MS, given the possible link to on-the-job stress. Such pensions are meant for injuries or diseases triggered by military duty, much like the benefits awarded by civilian workers' compensation boards address workplace injury.

Multiple sclerosis is usually considered a chronic illness and the neurological disorder's exact causes remain somewhat of a mystery, but experts say stress can at least spark individual attacks or make symptoms seem more intense.

In Mr. Patterson's case, the "uncontradicted" medical evidence was that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) actually prompted or exacerbated the MS, Justice Russel Zinn of the Federal Court ruled recently.
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http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1970275

Canadian Army Officer wants to hear from Afghanistan Veterans

Last week an email came in asking me to put a Canadian Officer in touch with veterans from Afghanistan. I responded that I couldn't do that because of privacy concerns but I offered to put up a post about it. You're on your own on this one. It could be a scam but I really doubt that. I think it's just one soldier reaching out to others.

Good afternoon Kathie from raining but still beautiful CFB Petawawa.


"Canadian Army officer seeking any candidates who recently arrived back from Afghanistan or who has done tours there. He is an Information Officer and is interested in finding out as much as he can from the men/women who had served in theatre. His name is 2Lt Phillip Vu-Tran. His email address is phillip.vu-tran@forces.gc.ca or his work number is 613-687-5511 ext. 4666"

Suicides by soldiers tragic in Canada

Suicides by soldiers tragic
By PETER WORTHINGTON, SUN MEDIA

Last Updated: 14th July 2009, 3:57am
Last week the Toronto Star ran a disturbing front page headlined story about suicides in the Canadian military, and cited evidence that the stress of overseas missions may result in criminal acts by returned veterans.

The renewed concern about suicide and stress disorder among the military has intensified since Maj. Michelle Mendes, a fast-tracked and respected intelligence officer, committed suicide shortly after arriving in Afghanistan in April.

Now research is underway among veterans, dating back to the Korean war and peacekeeping, to see if there's a pattern of what they went through that may have affected their later lives.

Soldiers who commit suicide has always been a puzzling phenomenon that is rarely diagnosed except by hindsight. Maybe it57;s incomprehensible, except that it happens and is always tragic and seemingly unnecessary.

DND prides itself in noting that the suicide rate in the military is lower than the national average, but this is misleading because military personnel are screened before they are accepted, and are not the average.

A harsh reality is that since 1995 when the UN's peacekeeping role in the Balkans was turned over to NATO to become more aggressive, through 2008 and the "war" in Afghanistan, more Canadian service personnel have committed suicide than have been killed by enemy action - 145 suicides to 124 killed in action (at this writing) in Afghanistan.
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Suicides by soldiers tragic

Healing the hidden wounds of soldiers

Healing the hidden wounds of soldiers

Craig and Marc Kielburger

In yoga, the warrior pose represents the spiritual strength of the person performing the move.

As Lucy Cimini slowly leads her students into the posture at the Central Mass Yoga Institute, it takes on new meaning.

The men standing firm-footed with their arms outstretched are not your typical yoga students. They are warriors – actual ones, not just spiritual.

Cimini’s Yoga Warriors program, which was started for veterans of Vietnam and has grown to include those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, uses the tenets of the meditative discipline to teach coping strategies for post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Men come out the service and they are just so stressed out,” she says. “It’s very hard to get veterans to come forward and join a group like that. When they’re in it though, they know it actually helps them.”

Help can be one of the hardest things to ask for, especially for veterans. PTSD has often held stigma in the armed forces. Historically, it was referred to as battle fatigue or shell shock before being officially recognized as an illness in 1980.
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Healing the hidden wounds of soldiers

PTSD Canadian Military: Wife talks of different husband coming home

Warrant Officer Roger Perreault and his wife Fran are open and honest about what sometimes comes home instead of how they were before they left. If you are a wife, try to focus on what she says about all of this and then maybe you'll understand your husband did not come home as a "wife beater" but a dream leaper totally unaware of where he is or what he's doing to you. Then maybe our own PTSD veterans will stop being sent to jail instead of treatment. It's not their fault and it's not your fault but if you understand what is going on, then you learn to deal with it differently. Mine? We have not spent an entire night together in bed in 25 years unless we were traveling and it was a king size bed leaving plenty of room in between us.

Home is new Afghan war front
Combat vets continue battle at home
(June 12, 2009)


More than 26,000 Canadians have served in Afghanistan. In the first of a three-part series, we tell the story of one soldier's troubled return


David Bruser
Staff Reporter


Warrant Officer Roger Perreault trained 20 years for his chance at a combat tour.

The army engineer knew how to blow up walls and bulldoze new roads – important work in a war zone where doors are booby-trapped and old roads are lined with hidden bombs.

Perreault took those critical skills and a good-luck charm aboard a bus full of soldiers departing CFB Petawawa on Aug. 1, 2006. His mission: to build a route for the Canadian infantry in Panjwai district, Afghanistan.

"My great-grandfather was an engineer in World War I," Perreault says. "I had his cap badge. I brought it over there for good luck."

Perreault's wife, Fran, remembers his departure day very clearly, because her family would never be the same again.

"On Aug. 1, I put one man on that bus. Nov. 3, a different man came home. He looked like my husband. He talked like my husband. But it wasn't my husband. Part of him is still over there somewhere and I don't know if I'll ever get it back."

Warrant Officer Roger Perreault hits his wife.

"He doesn't even realize he's done it, even though I wake him up at that point. He gets off me, rolls back over. The next morning he asks me why I have bruises on my neck, why I have black eyes."

On occasion Fran has had to rely on makeup and scarves so she can leave the house for the base, where she manages a cleaning company.

"I'm a pretty small woman. He's a pretty big guy. He would cry. He would be ashamed. I would say, `Don't worry about it. It's not your fault.' He really took it hard."

It's after 8 p.m. on a Tuesday in Petawawa. The Perreaults live a couple of blocks off base. She sits at the dining room table, the family collie, Sapper, panting nearby and the four kids padding about the small, two-storey house. In a few days, Fran and Roger will mark their 16th wedding anniversary.

"I did get strangled one night." Fran says. "I woke up, I couldn't breathe. I kneed him in the stomach. I had marks on my neck. I covered it up with turtlenecks and makeup. My closest friends understood. They've dealt with the same things.

"He wasn't doing it to be vindictive or mean. He was someone else in his sleep. He'd been dreaming he was under attack."
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Home is new Afghan war front

Veterans share trauma for others to heal

Veterans share trauma
ALEX LEDUC, Freelance
Published: 9 hours ago
They spend every day listening to real-life horror stories told by Canadian Forces veterans.

As they listen, counsellors Pierre Trépanier and Gérald Jean are keenly aware that a tale that hits too close to home could trigger their own traumatic memories.

"At first, each story would affect me," said Trépanier, 45, a former sergeant. "But I realized that I need to build a wall in front of myself ... it's not because I'm cold, but it's not my story."


Trépanier's job is to hear these stories from local veterans who have long needed to vent about living with the psychological traumas of military service.

As if that wasn't challenging enough, the veteran does this while battling his own post-traumatic stress disorder, which he came home with after 14 years of service in the Canadian Forces. It went untreated for a decade.

"I'm going to burn out if I work too much. We have some boundaries here. If I'm not respecting them, I'm going to fall down again," said Trépanier.

This veteran of NATO missions in the 1980s and 1990s is an essential part of a growing peer support network for those suffering from psychological injuries like PTSD.

Combined with new treatment facilities and sensitization efforts from Veterans Affairs Canada, formal and informal peer counselling has encouraged a wave of inactive veterans to come forward and seek help for their often long-ignored psychological injuries.
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Veterans share trauma

PTSD on Trial:In Canada Afghanistan veterans

" ... I killed a man. He couldn't have been more than 50 metres away from me, lifts his rifle and tried to take a shot at me and I just happened to be quicker than him and he paid for it. I feel like I am a murderer. I killed a man. He was a brother, a son; he was somebody's husband. He didn't deserve that."
PTE. MATTHEW KEDDY

An Afghan veteran's rage

Since returning, Pte. Matthew Keddy, shown in Afghanistan a month before killing an enemy combatant at close range, has been convicted of assault. Print


Combat vets continue battle Home is new Afghan war front Between:Home is new Afghan war front

More than 26,000 Canadians have served in Afghanistan. In the first of a three-part series, we tell the story of one soldier's troubled return. "

When Canadian military training backfires ... on us

An exclusive Star series investigates how the war in Afghanistan is creating a dangerous new class of offender in Canada – and finds growing evidence in jails, courtrooms and homes across the country

Jun 13, 2009 04:30 AM

David Bruser
STAFF REPORTER

Pte. Matthew Charles Keddy sits in the prisoner's box, his second court appearance in as many weeks.

Already charged with beating up his girlfriend, he's in court this time following his arrest on the Reversing Falls Bridge in Saint John, N.B., for violating a restraining order.

In recent days, Keddy has seen the inside of a jail and a psychiatric ward. And in the weeks to come he will be brought before two other judges, plead guilty to assault, listen to his girlfriend's tear-soaked impact statement, and spend five more days in the psychiatric ward.

This is a lonely moment for the 26-year-old infantryman and veteran of the Afghanistan War. On this day, no one from the military shows up on Keddy's behalf, which riles Judge William McCarroll as he tries to set the terms of Keddy's pre-trial house arrest.

From the courts. Each of these eight men served their country in Afghanistan, and had trouble with the law upon their return to Canada. Some have been convicted, some are awaiting trial. Most of those convicted received house arrest or probation, not jail time.

Douglas Kurtis Brown:

The former Edmonton police officer awaits sentencing after being found guilty in April of four counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm. He was off-duty and driving his BMW when he ran a red light and collided with a pick-up truck. The truck was thrown onto its side, and an occupant was pulled from the flaming wreckage moments before it exploded. One victim needed bones set, another skin grafts to treat burns, another stitches and a psychologist.

A military official confirmed for the Star that Brown had served in Afghanistan for six to nine months and returned a troubled man, underwent counselling and saw his marriage fail.

Jeffrey Robbie Barwise:

Earlier this year in Brandon, Man., Jeffrey Robbie Barwise pleaded guilty to several charges, including possession of narcotics and careless storage of a Glock 22 and Remington Express 870 pump-action shotgun. His court appearance followed a bizarre incident in which Barwise, who had no prior criminal record, was found at his home by CFB Shilo Military Police shot through his right hand. His friend was found shot just above the right knee. The MPs theorized the two were drinking and maybe doing drugs and tried to practise a manoeuvre in which they disarm each other with live ammunition.

The court heard Barwise, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, served in Afghanistan in 2006 and saw his friend shot in the neck and paralyzed. Barwise avoided jail time. He was sentenced to two years' probation, required attendance at all substance abuse and mental health counselling appointments, 100 hours of community service or a $1,000 charity donation, and a five-year firearms ban.

Yuri Miljevic-LaRoche:

In the early morning of Sept. 12, 2006, Miljevic-LaRoche's car struck Claire Paquette as she rode her bike to work. The impact broke Paquette's collarbone. She had to have surgery on her back, spent four days in a hospital, had no memory of the accident and missed nine months of work. In a Breathalyzer test, Miljevic-LaRoche blew more than twice the legal limit.

He admitted drinking but denied being inebriated, claiming the rising sun momentarily blinded him. The court also heard that the 29-year-old had never been arrested before, and that he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after Afghanistan.

A Quebec jury did not believe Miljevic-LaRoche’s version and found him guilty of drunk driving and drunk driving causing bodily harm. Though the prosecutor asked for at least nine months in prison, Judge Claude Champagne sentenced the soldier to a year of house arrest followed by 12 months probation, a ban on alcohol consumption and an 18-month ban on driving a motor vehicle.

Ronald Anderson:

Last summer in Oromocto, N.B., the sergeant and veteran of two Afghanistan tours was arrested after his wife reported to police that in a profanity-laden tirade he threatened to kill her, blow up her mother and shoot her father in the head, and that he would get away with it because of his mental illness.

Anderson pleaded guilty to unsafe storage of firearms (14 hunting guns), and a judge found him guilty of uttering a threat.

Judge Patricia Cumming said Anderson’s offence was “serious,” yet she discharged him conditionally, meaning he would serve 12 months’ probation and keep a clean record.

Travis Schouten:

He says that in April 2007, after leaving a bar in Pembroke, he rolled his car in a ditch, injuring one of the passengers. Schouten awaits trial. Court documents from White Water Township show he faces two charges - drunk driving and dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

Matthew Keddy:

The private from CFB Gagetown pleaded guilty to assault.

The assault plea stemmed from an incident in which he pushed his common-law girlfriend, cracking her tailbone.

He avoided jail time, and was sentenced to three months of house arrest and 12 months’ probation.

Richard Donald Malley:

On a Saturday night in March 2007, just a few days after Malley had returned from Afghanistan, he was on the back patio of Dooly’s Bar in Miramichi, N.B., drunk and feeling slighted by comments made by another patron. The 21-year-old soldier repeatedly hit the man in the face, causing potentially permanent damage to the man’s eye.

Malley’s father told the court his son’s behaviour had changed “significantly” since he came home, that he often found his son “sitting quietly by himself frequently in tears.” Malley had witnessed two friends die on a rocket grenade launcher attack, and a military superior suspected the young man might have post-traumatic stress disorder. Malley admitted he drinks too much since coming home. He has an infant son to care for.

Malley, who had no prior criminal record, was sentenced to six months’ house arrest, followed by a year of probation, continued attendance at counselling to treat his PTSD, and a five-year firearms ban.

Winnipeg man (to protect the identity of his child victims his name cannot be published):

The 24-year-old soldier pleaded guilty to assaults that caused a total of 19 broken bones in his triplet sons. The man told investigators that he squeezed the premature infants to stop their crying and that he sometimes picked them up with one hand. His lawyer offered evidence that a recent tour in Afghanistan was a "stressor." The man spent nine months in pre-trial custody. He is serving the remainder of a three-year jail sentence in Headingley Correctional Centre.

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http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/650299

Afghanistan stress drives military families to seek help

Great article that shows how the stress of deployments adds to the stress on families and the legacy of PTSD

Afghanistan stress drives military families to seek help
Apr 19, 2009 02:41 PM
Sue Bailey
Alison Auld
THE CANADIAN PRESS

CFB Petawawa– The stress of multiple tours in Afghanistan is showing, as military families on this sprawling base and across Canada seek help in growing numbers.

At the Phoenix Centre for Children and Families in nearby Pembroke, Ont., the military caseload has soared to 71 families – up from 12 before the deadly Kandahar mission began more than three years ago. Another 26 are on a waiting list.

They're grappling with issues ranging from anxiety-driven child behaviours like bed wetting and aggression, to domestic violence, depression and marital breakdown.

Petawawa is an epicentre of reverberating effects from repeated exposure to an always tense and sometimes horrific war zone. Thirty-eight soldiers of the 117 Canadian troops killed in Afghanistan since 2002 were based here.

Soldiers are trained for up to a year for tours they voluntarily accept. Many are heavily decorated veterans of missions in Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo and the Golan Heights.

But Afghanistan – particularly the volatile South where Canadians have been punching over their NATO weight since 2006 – is different. It involves dodging massive roadside bombs while taking fire from an enemy that is as ghost-like as it is resilient.

"There has always been a risk attached to deployments," said Pam Sampson, whose husband Warrant Officer Brian Sampson has six tours under his belt in hot zones around the world. He heads to Kandahar in September.

"This one is different because I am scared," she said. ``Before, I was worried about how I was going to manage on my own, and it was difficult not seeing him for six months. Whereas this time, I'm scared. You know, I'm scared that he's not going to come home alive."
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http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/620970

Canadian Military:Mental toll on soldiers skyrockets

Mental toll on soldiers skyrockets
More than 1 in 5 returning from Afghanistan suffer psychiatric problems, documents show

Apr 14, 2009 04:30 AM
Allan Woods
OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA – More than one in five Canadian soldiers and police officers deployed to Afghanistan leave the force with post-traumatic stress or other psychiatric problems, and that figure is rapidly rising, the Toronto Star has learned.

By the end of last month, the number of soldiers and police officers discharged from the military and RCMP for psychological strain after tours in Afghanistan had reached 1,053, representing an increase of more than 50 per cent from 2008, a spokesperson for Veterans Affairs Canada told the Star.

The increase had been predicted in documents released under the Access to Information Act.

They had revealed that as of April 2008, 700 Canadian soldiers and Mounties who had served on the Afghan front lines – 19 per cent of all forces deployed – had qualified for medical release from the Canadian Forces or RCMP with a "pensionable psychiatric condition," but warned of a dramatic hike in those numbers.
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http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/617978