(Return tabled) Question No. 864 Ms. Kirsty Duncan: With respect to mental health and suicide in the Canadian Forces (CF), including regular forces, reservists and veterans, as well as among Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) veterans: (a) what does history and research show from the First World War (WWI) and the Second World War (WWII), regarding the percentage of Canadian veterans who suffered some degree of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and how it might have impacted their ability to (i) hold down jobs, (ii) maintain relationships, (iii) overcome substance abuse, (iv) maintain their will to live; (b) how are suicides tracked for CF regular forces, reservists and veterans, including RCMP veterans, (i) has the tracking method ch ...[+++]anged over time (from 2000 onwards) for any of these groups, including name changes (e.g., suicide versus sudden death) and, if so, how, why and when, (ii) how are suicides tracked among veterans who may not be known to Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) and who may be under other types of care (e.g., in hospitals) or in homeless shelters, prisons, etc.; (c) what are the identified gaps in tracking for each of the identified groups and, for each gap, what action items (i) are planned (including predicted start and completion dates, and necessary funding), (ii) are being implemented (including predicted completion date and necessary funding), (iii) have been completed to address the problem; (d) how are suicides investigated for each identified group today and, for each group, for the years 1990 to the present (or years available), (i) what percentage of victims were known to either the Department of National Defense (DND) or VAC prior to the suicide, or to the medical, social-aid or prison system, (ii) what percentage had attempted suicide before, (iii) what percentage suffered from an identified Operational Stress Injury (OSI), including PTSD, anxiety, depression or substance abuse, (iv) what percentage suffered from acquired brain ...

(Return tabled) Question No. 424 Ms. Kirsty Duncan: With regard to the current pandemic of new influenza A (H1N1) virus in Aboriginal (First Nations, Inuit, Metis) communities in Canada: (a) what were the containment measures taken to slow the spread of the virus within households, between households, and among communities; (b) what were the control measures taken in more remote areas to flatten the epidemiological peak; (c) what was the average length of time from symptoms to treatment for those Aboriginal peoples who required a st ...[+++]ay in intensive care unit (ICU); (d) what percentage of hospitalizations, ICU cases, and deaths were among Aboriginal peoples, and how do these compare with the Canadian population at large; (e) what was the average length of time on a ventilator and the mean length of stay in an ICU for Aboriginal peoples; (f) what specific measures are being planned to reduce the time to treatment, hospitalizations, ICU, and deaths; (g) when will the results of the preliminary investigation in First Nations communities be available, specifically, (i) how many Aboriginal communities in Canada have a revised H1N1 pandemic influenza plan, (ii) how many have tested their plan, (iii) how many have necessary supplies in place; (h) what specific actions have been undertaken to address the fact that only two of 30 communities in northern Manitoba had a pandemic plan, and none had been tested; (i) where did the Minister of Health obtain the 90 percent figure she used in her August 28 response letter to Drs Bennett and Duncan; (j) what funding have Aboriginal communities requested, and what additional funds have been made available to Aboriginal communities for pandemic planning and response in 2009; (k) is there any encouragement to identify vulnerable people, such as pregnant women and those with underlying medical conditions, to take additional precautions, specifically, (i) how many communities lack necessary clean water for infection control measur ...

(Return tabled) Question No. 27 Mr. Todd Russell: With respect to tax treatments offered to the fishermen from Atlantic Canada and Quebec: (a) were the fishermen who accepted the Atlantic Fisheries Groundfish Retirement Package and who permanently gave up their fishing licences in the years 1999 and 2000 advised in writing by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to report, at the time of filing their income tax, that the retirement lump-sum payment was to be counted as revenue from a capital gain and, if so, (i) why, (ii) why did the Department of Fisheries and Oceans issue this advice, (iii) how many fishermen did the Department of Fi ...[+++]sheries and Oceans give that advice to; (b) why did Revenue Canada or the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency agree to give certain other fishermen a different tax treatment than the one outlined above, for the same retirement years; (c) how many fishermen received that different tax treatment; (d) why did the Minister of National Revenue and the Federal Minister of Fisheries advise these former fishermen (or their survivors in the case of deceased former fishermen) to appeal to the Regional Director of Taxation in St. John’s for a review; (e) has the Regional Director of Taxation informed the affected individuals that he will not accept their appeals and, if so, why; and (f) did Revenue Canada or the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency reach an out-of-court settlement in 2007 with a certain number of fishermen who had appealed their tax treatment and, if so, (i) why, (ii) why were the fishermen involved in that out-of-court settlement required to sign a secrecy or non-disclosure document, (iii) how many fishermen were involved in that out-of-court settlement?

My proposals are the following: 1) Extend fuller protection from reprisal to private sector contractors and grant recipients who report public sector wrongdoing, by providing them with access to the reprisal complaint process available to public servants; 2) Expand the definition of what constitutes reprisal in order to cover more than only employment or work-related forms of reprisal; 3) Extend the jurisdiction of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner to include the Canadian Forces, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and the Communications Security Establishment; 4) Add an education/communication mandate to the role of th ...[+++]e Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, which, once that mandate is legislated, would enable the provision of adequate funding and other resources for that task; 5) Enable investigations of public service wrongdoing to extend beyond the public sector when relevant; 6) Authorize the commissioner to access, in the course of an investigation of public service wrongdoing, any relevant information, including departmental documents protected by solicitor-client privilege, and cabinet documents; 7) Regarding access to information, without being excessively technical here, my position is threefold.

Just what is meant by coordination and uniform police and judicial cooperation is perfectly clear from the confidential Europol document leaked recently which, under the telling title ‘European Best Practices on Handling Information Sources’, sanctions the use of grasses and sting operations by agents acting for the police who will go unpunished even if they help commit the crime!

Essential reforms in the State Security Courts have still not been carried out, the situation of torture and abuse has scarcely improved, especially in the southeast, due largely to difficulties in prosecuting the members of the security forces who are responsible for these acts.