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Futures Forum Keynote: Lieutenant-General the Honourable Roméo A. Dallaire — Transcript

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0:00[Music]
0:10and welcome and thank you very much very
0:15much president and say senior leadership
0:19of the faculty and thank you to Michael
0:23Royce said for sorting out and getting
0:25me here and inviting me and having the
0:28support of the university to bring me to
0:30this conference because there's nothing
0:33more challenging in fact we have more
0:36simulating and actually coming to a
0:37conference where people want to look
0:40into the future so many spending so much
0:43time as mulling over the past and in
0:46fact often crying in their beer about
0:49the present and when you see those who
0:52want to try to shape the future who want
0:56to actually influence the future and
0:59simply not survive it well it's kind of
1:01a great great opportunity and I hope to
1:04maximize it this afternoon
1:06I would like right off the bat if you
1:09please to recognize one person who has
1:13become a very very significant factor
1:18and my ability to express what I live
1:22what I sense and what I hope can
1:25influence others in writing and that is
1:29my co-author who has been a tremendous
1:32researcher for over ten years well over
1:3410 years and that is Miss Jessica
1:37Humphries who's here
1:46so I have no merit whatsoever in those
1:49books
1:49and Jessica and I have worked on two
1:53books so far though for the first one we
1:56work was the one after the child soldier
2:00excess from the shake hands and it was
2:02on child soldiers they fight like
2:06soldiers and die like children where the
2:10mythology and the sort of the
2:14imagination of youth comes crashing with
2:18the reality of being abducted and and
2:20brought into the world of destruction of
2:25human beings abuse of human rights and
2:26particularly of children and so the book
2:29tries to explain what happens by those
2:33who face such scenarios of children in
2:36armed conflict used as weapons of war
2:38and then the last one is has been in
2:41fact a retrospective of the last 20 odd
2:46years of having an injury but we called
2:50an operational stress injury and how do
2:53you handle that injury and I would argue
2:57that for many many years it was far more
2:59how to survive and stay alive with that
3:04injury not only stay alive physically
3:06meaning that I'm still breathing but
3:09stay alive as a human being and not
3:10turned into a zombie either by over
3:14medication or by simply disconnecting
3:16with humanity
3:17as the reality of humanity was simply
3:21too overwhelming we're working on a
3:23fourth book the third one with Jessica
3:27and this one is going to be looking at
3:29the strategic dimension of how we
3:31prevent conflict how in fact do we get
3:34ahead of the game how do we how do we
3:36stop the bad guys from actually resting
3:40initiative from us and surprising us
3:42every week with some new horrific
3:44scenario of how to massively abuse human
3:47rights and how to in fact create
3:51situations of conflict that have at the
3:54car not only the civilian population
3:58as perpetrators both as victims but also
4:02have as instruments of war meaning the
4:06use of their children the generational
4:11problem of using children as weapons of
4:14war and the impact that has not only
4:16immediate but into the future in the
4:20middle of any refugee camp they in fact
4:23Syrian refugee camp less than three
4:26kilometers from the Syrian border - last
4:30year again when the year before we were
4:33in there looking at the impact on the
4:37refugees of the conflict and while we
4:41were there the second time young
4:44thirteen-year-old boys were being
4:46recruited by social media to go over two
4:49kilometers to the border and join the
4:52Free Syrian Army for no other value but
4:55to sustain the fight because the
4:57children wouldn't be able to win the
4:59battle but they will sustain the fight
5:01they were nothing more than cannon
5:03fodder to keep it going
5:05adults using children as weapons of war
5:10to fight adult Wars by using children
5:13and so the trauma of the children is off
5:17the scale but the trauma on the soldiers
5:23have faced these children starts to
5:26reach similar levels about three months
5:31ago I'm live in Quebec City and in a big
5:33shopping center and walking down one of
5:36the big corridors and is very smart
5:38looking gentleman comes to musical
5:40thirty-five well-dressed and so and he
5:42says motion and I'll he said I'd like to
5:45introduce myself I'm Sergeant so-and-so
5:47and I said I said lovely to meet you I
5:50said what's your regiment saw so I said
5:52so how many years you've been serving
5:54said twelve years I said how many tours
5:57have you done said five between Bosnia
6:01and Afghanistan I said five years five
6:05years at the minimum six months after
6:07nine months per tour
6:09Plus them two to three months
6:11preparation
6:11before out of 12 years I said that's
6:15half your career being in combat you
6:19know we have veterans now that had more
6:23complex ambiguous and ruthless combat
6:28time than we'll work to this and they're
6:32walking amongst us so as he described
6:35that I said well what was your job in
6:38the battalion and that's where all of a
6:42sudden in a nanosecond
6:45in a nanosecond his eyes watered up he
6:49became the stammer he couldn't stay
6:52straight his knees were shaking he was
6:54actually crumbly he's extraordinary
6:58didn't he look perfectly normal before I
7:02had broken him down by that question so
7:04I brought him aside and we we spoke for
7:06a few minutes and he saw that we
7:07stabilized he said you know my god he
7:09said I've been back from Afghanistan for
7:12four years he said I have not been able
7:16to hug my children he was involved in
7:21trying to prevent suicide bombers from
7:23blowing up our convoys and the suicide
7:27bombers were children have been
7:29recruited girls 12 years old mentally
7:33handicapped children thrown into the
7:36battle imagine the ethical dilemma it's
7:42legal of Defense but the ethical dilemma
7:47of having to implement that decision
7:53that rule of engagement to protect your
7:56own to have to destroy a child but
8:00imagine the moral impact of having done
8:04it and so for many many years
8:07ladies and gentlemen when I was
8:10suffering and we were just barely trying
8:14to figure out what this injury was
8:16because we had lost all capability we
8:20had nothing we had sent the game forces
8:23in
8:24to war we had shifted gears we used to
8:29be an army that was in garrison
8:31preparing for in Germany and back home
8:35we had lots of big exercises in all
8:37Alaska we weren't preparing to go to war
8:40to fight the Russians in the Cold War
8:43and our little sideline of peacekeeping
8:45got all the publicity and it was
8:48essential but it was pretty classic
8:51stable peacekeeping because it was two
8:54countries deciding they won't fight
8:56anymore
8:56and they got a signed document they
8:59needed a referee to make sure it works
9:00so we were there as the referee no no
9:03red card no no penalty box but we can
9:05help them because so between two states
9:08you had the sort of classic wars and
9:11then it would stop and then to help the
9:13implementation of the solution and
9:16that's what we were doing three percent
9:19of our time ninety seven percent of our
9:21time was preparing how to kill Russians
9:24although people thought we were in fact
9:27the world peacekeepers and then when the
9:31Cold War ended and we saw a complete
9:34change in peacekeeping this is where we
9:37stumbled into this new era then in fact
9:40we had imploding nations and failing
9:42States and in most circumstances it was
9:46not people from other countries killing
9:48people in continuing with their own
9:50people
9:50it was Rondon slaughtering Rwandans and
9:53Congolese sorry Congolese and the same
9:56thing in Syria and same thing in Libya
9:58and Myanmar in Colombia civil wars the
10:05most horrific method of warfare
10:10civilians killing civilians with
10:13government forces mixed in there with
10:16militias mixed in there with all kinds
10:20of extreme elements that have a great
10:23opportunity to finally settle scores and
10:26that's why these civil wars will off the
10:29scale in the abuse of Human Rights
10:31that's why they end up by being mass
10:34atrocities that's why all of us
10:38to achieve that they invented these new
10:40weapons one is the use of children to
10:43fight for and if you're ready to use a
10:45child 9 10 12 or 14 to conduct killing
10:50and slaughtering and you're ready to go
10:52to the extreme because how do you stop
10:54them and what we're stopping you if
10:56you're ready to do that
10:58you're obviously ready to go further so
11:01you've got that sort of that dimension
11:04of classic warfare that had been
11:07completely changed in civil war by
11:10introducing these new weapons like
11:12council but the other one was rape
11:15another moral dilemma rate begins rape
11:21in order to create horror and when you
11:26create horror you instill fear and when
11:29you instill fear you break down the
11:32social structure because no one knows
11:34how to respond and when you do that you
11:37gain control on the population and so
11:39that's how the extremists were able to
11:41move four million people in trying to
11:46achieve their balance so we're in this
11:49sort of context of extreme violence of
11:54extreme abuse of human rights and in
11:58fact of mass atrocities and even
12:00genocide and what we were treating was
12:03essentially the physical wounds because
12:07that's all we have that's all really
12:10what we knew and so how many of you have
12:13not seen the movie mass or the series
12:17and look at what mass did to physical
12:22injuries extraordinary the mass that in
12:26fact was operated out of out of the kind
12:30of hardware we used during the
12:32Afghanistan war they've got something
12:34like 98% chances of surviving of actual
12:39survival end of minimizing the injury my
12:44question to you is where is the mass for
12:49the psychological injury
12:51what did we create in order to attenuate
12:56that injury how to stop the bleeding of
12:59that injury how to stop it getting worse
13:02and ultimately how do you stabilize the
13:07patient who's been injured in that way
13:09and in fact attempt to bring that person
13:11back to a reasonable level of civility
13:15and ability to return to a civil
13:21environment because many of us who have
13:26been injured in these conflicts are
13:29still in the conflict were still living
13:33the conflict I have a Dutch nephew who
13:38fought with the Dutch forces in
13:40Yugoslavia and so my gay cousin said
13:45would you mind talking to my son who's
13:49suffering from PTSD and I said sure so
13:52we Skyped and he sat there and father in
13:55his chair
13:56and he was not there he was in
14:00Yugoslavia because he had the flag he
14:03had weapons he had memorabilia he had
14:06all kinds of junk he was even dressed
14:08like he was when he was in in in
14:11Yugoslavia he was still there and this
14:16is not something unusual that we
14:19actually continued to live the trauma
14:22and it comes back and it can be
14:26triggered so easily be the trauma caused
14:29by an accident or an incident my rape my
14:33abuse or being one of more depth like a
14:37moral injury that is in fact caused by
14:41engagement in your work as a first
14:44responder or in fact as a military
14:47person in operational theaters this sort
14:52of scenario of injury is revealing it
14:56that reliving it isn't something that
14:59simply disappears
15:03I came back from Wanda been gone a year
15:07and had three months of the genocide and
15:12civil war I was given two weeks leave
15:17after the first week my commander I was
15:20deputy commander of the army the
15:22commander called me in because we had a
15:24big budget problem and we had to
15:26implement it and as deputy commander the
15:29army year the resource manager and so
15:32his statement to me was he is a fine
15:34officer where's Romeo welcome back to
15:39the real world
15:40and by the by he said don't worry about
15:44that stuff he said with time and work he
15:47said that's going to disappear and
15:49you'll be able to carry on that sort of
15:53of stiff upper lip and stuff
15:58that's that's Hollywood crap that is not
16:03reality because it doesn't disappear it
16:07does not disappear the best you can do
16:11is build the prosthesis to live with it
16:14to attenuate it sometimes even to build
16:18upon it but there are many times when
16:22Apple's thesis is not there the physical
16:26prosthesis you have a decision whether
16:28you want to wear it or not the mental
16:31prosthesis that you try to build not
16:34knowing things to avoid knowing that you
16:37don't go to grocery stores because if
16:39you see the opulence in the aroma of all
16:41the fruit and vegetables it immediately
16:43triggers immediately triggers a
16:45teleprompter it's got you back at
16:47feeding stations where people have been
16:50dying and trying to get food and when
16:52the food we give them is cow corn which
16:54they can barely eat and yet they're
16:55trampling each other and at the end of
16:57the distribution is always bodies of
16:59women and children travel today or
17:02you're in the middle of a of a sort of a
17:05square village square and and people
17:07have been just blown apart because it's
17:09a great target to be used and but the
17:11few fruits and vegetables that might be
17:13there most of rotten you see so many
17:16body parts that's what comes back so I
17:18don't go to the grocery stores or it
17:21can't go a barbecue because you smell
17:24too many bodies being burned or you
17:27don't enter in any conversations of
17:29certain types or maybe it's just your
17:32wife has pissed you off or in other
17:36cases your husband has made you movie I
17:40lost one of my officers who joined me at
17:43the start of the genocide one of the
17:45twelve I lost them because he was under
17:49treatment but it had a sort of reversal
17:53because it's not a constant there are
17:55times when others pressures and stresses
17:58make you just that much more vulnerable
18:00to be fatigued could be simply the
18:03stress is continuing to build up and so
18:05you become vulnerable there's no sort of
18:07steady state of the of the injury and so
18:12his life was getting a little tired of
18:14his isolationism which is a sign of that
18:17injury I mean how do you talk about
18:19things that you've seen try to do it try
18:23to try to describe a really ugly movie
18:26to your parents and find out how long do
18:30you want to listen to it or something
18:31really horrific and so imagine if you've
18:36lived it and you're trying to
18:37communicate that to the family of course
18:39they have enormous difficulty in
18:40listening to it because they know you
18:42and they're emotionally attached and
18:44they know what is doing and so you can't
18:46get that voicing out of that situation
18:50and so it's very difficult to be able to
18:54handle the day-to-day and so she was a
18:57little perturbed and she gave him a
19:00little bit of a tongue lashing coming
19:01home from work that night it been
19:04stresses and strains and the daughters
19:06the two children who suffer immeasurably
19:09in such families because they don't know
19:13what dad or mom is going to do next they
19:17don't know it's bad and mom is happy or
19:19sad they don't know if within the
19:21nanosecond they could jump from one the
19:23other how do you continue
19:25we live in a mid-year where you're never
19:26sure what the speed of of mine what the
19:29state of calm of serenity or in fact of
19:32trauma is in the family and so we've
19:36seen children of injured veterans like
19:40that turning to suicide themselves
19:43because they can't handle it the schools
19:46can't handle it they don't know the
19:48children don't talk about its value it's
19:50not a nice injury where that is drunk or
19:54taking drugs or beating up or trying to
19:56isolate themselves from the family the
19:59community is not structured for that
20:02imagine the challenge you have within
20:04the university context of trying to
20:08discern and get ahead of the game with
20:10your students when we can't even figure
20:13out how to do it within the families of
20:16most evident scenarios so she then
20:23decided that she went to calm down the
20:26girls and went to bed with them and the
20:29next morning when she woke up barely ten
20:32feet away from where they were sleeping
20:34not 100 miles I think
20:37bori 10 feet away while they were
20:40sleeping he hung himself in the bathroom
20:4515 years after this injury does not
20:52disappear this injury is made up of all
20:56kinds of boxes and sort of all kinds of
20:59drawers that given a certain stimulus is
21:03not will reopen and your vulnerability
21:06as to how you can handle that reopening
21:09whether you can control it or whether
21:11you can actually manage it
21:13I had a corporal who the example that I
21:19using one of us so many he'd already had
21:23a few tours under his belt he ended up
21:26in a wonda near the ending part of the
21:28war and so they were patrolling
21:32patrolling in this village where the
21:34people had been totally slaughtered
21:38the village that's been slaughtered has
21:41no noise there are no birds it's weird
21:44it's as if the smell of blood or
21:46something affects them there's no
21:48there's no noise says if even the wind
21:52stops it's deafening that's why many of
21:59us never go to our bedroom because we
22:01just can't handle the sound of silence
22:04and so this corporal was part of this
22:09patrol and he the village had been wiped
22:12out but the church was still standing
22:13and this was quite unusual because
22:17extremism pushes people to doing the
22:21most horrific things and it's not just
22:24far away let me bring you to a recent
22:29operation here in Canada of an
22:31insurrection called the oka crisis some
22:34of you might remember near Montreal for
22:37about 600 the First Nation people were
22:39blocking the road they sent in the
22:41police one of them got shot because they
22:43were trying that simply Bulls the way in
22:45and so they pulled back in in this
22:48country when the police don't succeed
22:50and then you call in the army and we
22:53have to succeed because if we don't
22:54succeed there's nobody else behind it no
22:56that's not true there's media and
22:58politicians but even so few academics in
23:02there - I don't so there is no option
23:06when we are committed we must win but
23:10the question is do you win in order to
23:12create a northern island and start
23:13blowing away your own people how do you
23:15do it and alike and so we negotiated and
23:20took their time and one of the things we
23:22negotiated was getting out of that end
23:25place that we had surrounded by 3,500
23:29troops
23:31demonstrating overwhelming force
23:34we had artillery there we had air
23:37defense systems there that attack
23:39helicopters there was no way they were
23:42getting out of there but there was a
23:45high risk of some idiot
23:47making a mistake and so we said why
23:49don't you that
23:50see elderly pregnant women and children
23:54out there are no value to you on the
23:58contrary a high-risk that may be one you
24:00own guys cleaning his weapon shoots one
24:02and then the whole place goes up we
24:05don't want martyrs
24:07so we negotiate we got this negotiate
24:10maybe agreed about two hundred and
24:12some-odd they come in cars and we warn
24:14the village bill it's pretty sizable
24:18town full spy that we would be driving
24:20through there escorted but driving win
24:23their cars to a safe place and as they
24:26were doing that driving - you can hear
24:28people yelling at the cars because did
24:30they had to do two hours more day of
24:33driving because they couldn't have
24:35access to this bridge to Montreal and as
24:38the convoy kept going in to the village
24:41people were yelling rather and then a
24:43couple of idiots started throwing stones
24:45at the car and then they became bricks
24:47and then it became blocks of cement and
24:50then became big rocks and in the end
24:53near the end of the village we are
24:54filmed of not only those those rocks
24:58smashing the cars in which elderly and
25:03children and pregnant women were but we
25:06got film of the people who are doing it
25:09who have such rage in their eyes and
25:12actions that they're ready to kill if
25:15they were able to open the door they
25:17would have killed because they were
25:21driven by what had affected them they
25:25were ready to kill because they had
25:28spent a couple months doing two hours
25:31more day of driving that's here so we're
25:36in Ronda we're in this village system we
25:40thought miss church is there and the
25:42extremists used the churches as a place
25:45for to congregate the people that they
25:48found that they were going after this
25:49disease and so by convention churches
25:52our admissions are protected sites so
25:54you said go in there you'll be safe and
25:56once they were travel back full its
25:57surrounded for a couple of grenades in
25:59and then fly
26:00and you know sort of row by row they
26:02simply kill people and he slaughtered
26:04them every one of them was a
26:05slaughterhouse this one had not been hit
26:07yet for some reason so the sergeant was
26:10in charge of patrol beefs down the door
26:12and there's a couple hundred people
26:14still alive and he calls my headquarters
26:17and he says we need transport to go move
26:21these people a safe place and as he's on
26:23the radio doing that for one side
26:24there's a dozen children ten twelve
26:27fourteen sixteen you open fire on him
26:30I'm the patrol the people he's
26:32protecting and as he's reeling from that
26:33the other side boys there's a dozen or
26:35so girls who are there as human shields
26:38behind which other boys and girls are
26:40shooting at him the question is is what
26:44does the sergeant do doesn't have a day
26:47for him he's got seconds as bullets are
26:50flying and people already dropping
26:52so this corporal that I mentioned was
26:56part of that patrol and had been done
26:58other missions and on a great day or on
27:02a day where he ran at a gas or somebody
27:06in a store was really lippy atom or I
27:08found had triggered a memory he falls in
27:15to this state not because he wants to
27:19because there's another person in there
27:22he doesn't want to fall in this state
27:24but the person outside falls into the
27:27state because we don't have control on
27:30it we don't have control in that person
27:33how many times have I scared the
27:35daylights out of my own family and
27:37seeing and doing it consciously I my
27:42inner eyes are watching what I'm doing
27:44as I'm pounding the table and scaring
27:47the kids and yelling and screaming and
27:49escalating that and I'm saying to myself
27:52stop but I can't the injury has affected
27:57us to the extent that that other person
27:59has taken control and is unstoppable and
28:06so he relives he relives that incident
28:14among so many other he literally hears
28:19the sergeant giving the order to fire he
28:23feels he feels not the memory of allah
28:28he feels his finger pulling the trigger
28:32that's a part of the injury this injury
28:35may be psychological but it affects your
28:38body physically somebody claps their
28:42hands and you jump a little afraid what
28:45happens why do you jump it well jump
28:47because something unexpected happen so
28:51your body reacted your mind reacted and
28:55so you might even have a sore stomach or
28:58you you you get completely disconcerted
29:02your body is physically affected by the
29:06State of Mind physically affected it
29:08really hurts an advert warming so he's
29:12pulled the trigger and he's looking
29:15through the sight digitally clear much
29:19clearer even Bali than what happened
29:22because Allah is not under stress or
29:25duress of battle he's at home or
29:28somewhere just standing there and he
29:30sees through the sight and head of a
29:33child exploiting was that the right
29:36answer by the sergeant to do that and
29:40can you live with that moral trauma of
29:43not only seeing children being used as a
29:46weapon but having to kill a child that's
29:49there under duress and God knows what
29:51and so twenty years later there are
29:59mornings where I can wake up just like
30:02the Holocaust survivors of seventy years
30:05ago where you're actually back there you
30:09actually smell here and feel exactly
30:13what you felt and smelt and her
30:16in the theater and it last very short a
30:20couple seconds at most and so ladies and
30:23gentlemen
30:24we're not playing with a injury to which
30:28we sort out by throwing just a bunch of
30:31pills at it and hoping for the best we
30:35face an injury at first we got to work
30:38that better ways of preventing or
30:40reducing the impact and that's why at
30:43the end of Afghanistan war we got
30:45together and decided that things though
30:47we stumbled into that war would
30:49absolutely no capability maybe we should
30:51do some research on this because there's
30:54going to be another war and so maybe we
30:57should research on how to help the
30:59troops reduce the impact of potential
31:04physical ethical and moral dilemmas that
31:09create the traumas that ultimately
31:13affect them so how do we do that
31:15so getting ahead of it which is what
31:17you're working on how do you reduce that
31:21trauma how do you anticipate it what are
31:24the signs that you can start picking up
31:27on in the students so that the continued
31:30engagement that they're doing is not
31:33going to exacerbate itself till they
31:35crash and then what do we do about them
31:39once in theory we got the mass for the
31:43body where's the mass for the brain the
31:46emotions so where is it and how do we
31:50build that and is it just a presence is
31:52it just peer support what is it is it
31:55just ad Hawking it and hoping for the
31:57best is it the most horrific scenario
32:00that many of us in these Darwinian
32:02organizations being first responders or
32:05military and so on where we have no
32:07tolerance for those who can produce 100%
32:10where we're very visual people we can't
32:13see the injury it's hard to sort of
32:15accept it so how in fact can you ensure
32:19that when they're injured in theater
32:22that you're actually helping them
32:23immediately and then of course how do
32:27you recover subsequently
32:29how do you identify those who have been
32:31injured and to a depth and what is the
32:35program to help them there also we need
32:37research to do that because there's so
32:41much to learn and it was set by your
32:42panel there is so much to learn each
32:46environment has its own stresses every
32:51human being goes through the stresses
32:54and in so doing how it affects you in
32:57the scale is of different types and
33:01different scale yes but it's not because
33:04you are the smarter or dumber than
33:06somebody else which was of course the
33:09immediate sort of response we had in our
33:12Darwinian organization that only the
33:15dummies will get this injury only the
33:17weak ones will be injured
33:19psychologically well we discovered very
33:23clearly that it wasn't the dummies or
33:26the weak ones that every one of us can
33:29be affected by a traumatic experience or
33:33by a dilemma that rips the heart rate
33:35out of your whole sense of moral being
33:38your values your way of living and
33:40creates a trauma to which you may not be
33:43able to recover or sustain and so that
33:48research is critical in the meantime
33:51however we've got a job to do because
33:54you can't close down the shop and say
33:55wait give me another two years and then
33:57we'll see how we sort it out you got you
33:59got walking wounded among you that are
34:02walking wounded among you I see some
34:04people with military there with uniforms
34:06and ribbons on what is the extent of the
34:09walking wounded there what is the extent
34:11of the walking wounded you're first
34:12responder what about those students are
34:15sort of kind bombs there but we haven't
34:19been able to discern because we haven't
34:22gotten that tool yet to be able to pick
34:24it off over our advancements but we
34:28haven't been able to pick them off and
34:30as we've been able to really identify
34:33the extent of that to not let that
34:38injury fester and get worse and
34:40ultimately do it
34:42worse this injury can be fatal
34:49people die of this injury and because of
34:56that we discerned that if it's not
34:59treated it gets worse and worse and
35:02worse it doesn't disappear it's like a
35:05cancer it keeps growing inside you've
35:08got to get at it early and you got to be
35:10able to discern it early if you even
35:13want to prevent it from happening and so
35:15there are solutions you're working on
35:18some by being here in the farm and
35:20debating it and trying to get a feel for
35:22it and there are those who are the
35:25fundamental research and trying to grasp
35:28how do you reduce the impact and how do
35:32you handle those who've been impacted so
35:34it doesn't get worse and those who have
35:36been injured ultimately when you can
35:38pull them out how do you in fact you
35:40bring them back to a certain level of
35:41normalcy well some of the things is
35:43killing the stigma is changing the
35:46culture and that's taking us 25 years in
35:49the Army and we still have the idiot
35:55some of them reach some pretty senior
35:58ranks who say you know that won't happen
36:03to me and really it's because they
36:06couldn't handle it or all the
36:08preconditions only when I went public in
36:141997 it's because I was being told that
36:19those who had been injured
36:20psychologically in one day which we had
36:22had a bunch of suicides I've been told
36:25by the professionals that it wasn't
36:27really only that there were other
36:29factors and because of that we could not
36:32say in front of the public in government
36:35that it was because of that that they
36:37died of that and ergo were taking
36:39casualties afterwards and so I shifted
36:44the thing around they said yeah it's
36:45because of that because that's what
36:46happened to me
36:47that's why I tried suicide four times
36:50that's why I crash for over six months
36:53turn into a zombie
36:56totally because the injury had gone that
37:00far so there are some solutions and the
37:03first solution is is to make people feel
37:08that if they're injured and if they go
37:12and seek professional help that they're
37:15actually in I am in I got a psychiatrist
37:20and I got a psychologist 14 years I'm an
37:25in person why why why why not talk about
37:29my site as a psychologist you talk about
37:32if you got an ingrown toenail you talk
37:34about the doctor and whether you screwed
37:35it up or not if you're pregnant you talk
37:39about their bitter garden so I mean you
37:41talk about your doctors for a whole
37:43series of pubs even talk about your
37:45barber when he done here's a good job
37:48why why not talk about your
37:52psychiatrists and your psychologist what
37:54makes them taboo I'm just bordering on
38:01this stage now not falling off here but
38:05others days starting to look at those
38:10who are injured now who are not speaking
38:13up and saying you're not speaking up now
38:19you're not changing the culture shifting
38:22the culture taking the courage to face
38:25those who don't believe you are putting
38:28at risk those are the reserve after you
38:32because they won't get the care they
38:34need because you didn't speak up and get
38:38the system changed to help them learn
38:40and their families are going to be
38:42suffering because we didn't do enough
38:44and so hold ourselves accountable and so
38:50ladies and gentlemen the first thing is
38:53is to consider yourself in the second
38:57thing is to go to the three sort of legs
39:02of the stool to keep you there sitting
39:05upright one is
39:07personal health you can't beat it
39:10without professional help and in the
39:15professional help
39:16well it's not always easy imagine when
39:20we created all our clinics and everybody
39:22went nuts about oh we got 19 clinics
39:25here and 20 clinics here and all kinds
39:27of clinics for the veterans and so on
39:29and then when we went in to look at the
39:31people in the clinics they were very
39:33professional therapists but they knew
39:35absolutely nothing about the military
39:37didn't you know how to talk to the
39:39soldier and one of the worst things you
39:42do is the soldier walks in and he starts
39:44explaining you say excuse me what's that
39:46actor than me the guy walks out if you
39:51don't understand the culture the lingo
39:55you think you're going to understand the
39:58impact it's had and so build the
40:01credibility use we convince them to use
40:04sergeants and SEOs to give them some
40:07sort of cultural adaptation so they
40:10understood the words we also got them in
40:12the field so they got their boots dirty
40:14and showed that they were credible in
40:17front of the troops that they weren't
40:18afraid to be in the field and so the
40:22first thing is to go to the therapist
40:24and that is not easy because those
40:29sessions are murder
40:31you got a really is hell and sure you
40:37come out of those hurting and it's very
40:42difficult to sustain that hurt and adapt
40:46to it fill the next round which may be a
40:49week or two or three weeks later so how
40:52do you sustain that well I'll come to
40:54that in a moment but what I want to do
40:56is a little anecdote about my therapist
40:59because I think they're due to give a
41:01little bit of a hard time
41:04here I have therapist or a psychiatrist
41:06who worries about me not sleeping and
41:10worries about the traumas and worries
41:12about the dreams and the nightmares and
41:14so it gives me pills so that I don't
41:17dream and in fact that's not a bad idea
41:21I can Poli if I don't find other reasons
41:24to stay awake
41:25I might be able to sleep however I got a
41:28psychologist who's pissed off who needs
41:32the dreams in order to get me so I
41:35understand what's going on so every now
41:38and again for years I used to stop
41:40taking the pills for three or four days
41:41get a bunch of dreams and then go
41:44magazine so they got a few things to
41:48sort of get back but the therapist the
41:52therapy is critical you got to go
41:55through that hell those sessions the
42:01second thing is is that if medication is
42:04required then you take it I'm very proud
42:08of the chemical departments in our
42:10universities because we produce great
42:12dope and assume that marijuana we're all
42:16going to be built up so what the hell
42:17we'll have a break on medication is not
42:23a crutch but even if it was a crutch so
42:26what you're injured you've been injured
42:29so what's wrong with it I got diabetes I
42:33think insulin every day does that make
42:35me a lesser person you don't want to see
42:40me without my medications it can be very
42:44ugly and so it's true the person that
42:48came back from Africa Rhonda was not the
42:51person that had left not the person my
42:54wife had married and nor were they the
42:57same because they had lived the mission
42:58with me because of the media and so
43:00they're constantly watching when we get
43:03killed or injured or so on and the same
43:04thing with policemen when they go out
43:06every day in firemen the minute that
43:08happens bingo the stress level raises
43:11and that has an impact
43:12on you so the families are now living
43:15the missions with us that families need
43:17treatment and support to not only the
43:20individual who's deployed and so that
43:24medication is a fundamental requirement
43:28and it doesn't make you a lesser person
43:31on the contrary it gives you an
43:34opportunity to reach a certain level of
43:37normalcy in which you can build on
43:40because without it you're like this and
43:43so people who tell me I don't take pills
43:47because I don't want to be someone else
43:50and I saying hey you know maybe we don't
43:54like you the way you are
43:57maybe you do everybody a favor if you
44:00just think it's all so second back in
44:04leg days if medications required and
44:07take it took two over two years to get
44:11the right balance because there's no
44:12PTSD pill so they got to work at it and
44:16you got to work through it and the third
44:19one is where I really want to end
44:22because this is very much in your hands
44:25it's in the hands of the leadership of
44:27the institutions on organization and
44:29it's in the hands of every member and
44:32that is peer support and they touched
44:35upon it peer support the first thing of
44:40peer support is to make someone realize
44:43that they're not alone sorry we will
44:48perform the third book we wanted to help
44:51them explain to others that they've not
44:55alone but that injury many of us live
44:58with and the circumstances and impacts
45:01we all live with that and so they can
45:03help cling to their families or the
45:05families can understand the community
45:07can understand those around them can
45:09understand the dark side of this injury
45:12and so making them feel not alone and
45:18isolated because that's the fastest path
45:20to suicide that's the first element the
45:26second element of peer support is
45:28availability when you're injured
45:31psychologically you need to talk when
45:35you're having a great day we can't stop
45:37you from talking when you're injured
45:41between those sessions of hell sometimes
45:44with it with the therapist you gotta you
45:48know to relive some stuff you have to do
45:50your homework that the therapist wants
45:53you to do - to continue to work at it
45:55and so you need somebody that you can
45:57call up another human being a warm body
46:03it doesn't ask one stupid question that
46:07is willing to spend
46:08for hours with you at Tim Hortons and
46:11all they do is they listen and we laugh
46:15with you they might cry with you but
46:19they don't ask one question they let you
46:22talk whether you understand what's being
46:25said or not is totally ear on it it's
46:29the ability to be able to communicate
46:31with another human being that you trust
46:33and that you can let out the horrors my
46:42father joined the IRA in 1929 it's six
46:46years overseas came back had very
46:50serious problems from alcohol to
46:52physical abuse and so on and every
46:54couple Saturdays or suddenly Saturday
46:57afternoon it had enough and then he'd
46:59bring me to the Legion sometimes give me
47:02a quarter those days we could buy a lot
47:04of stuff with a quarter and I'd spend
47:06the afternoon there and I'd look and
47:07he'd be sitting with his buddies they'd
47:09always be six or seven of them around
47:11these little small outbreak tables
47:13remember the good old days and we had
47:14patterns you know we could do this so
47:16then sawdust on the ground and so on and
47:19it would try to talk about full of beer
47:23and you look there and they're right to
47:27be one of them crying and the other ones
47:29providing them solace and support or
47:33they'd be laughing so hard they'd be
47:34falling off their chairs because of some
47:37sort of anecdote of some thing that
47:39happened some terrible thing that
47:41happened but when you look back at it
47:43the dummy did this and then you start
47:44laughing that evening not because my
47:49father was pissed that evening we knew
47:53we things would become dad had had his
47:57therapy it was the only therapy the
48:02Legion his peers we lost a lot of young
48:08people in the late 40s and 50s who were
48:11the street people even though we got
48:133,000 veterans down the streets in those
48:15days we hadn't by the tens of thousands
48:18and they were the rugged ups
48:19they're the ones who died
48:21in the streets frozen because there was
48:24nothing there for them and the bottle
48:27was her friend and so with that sort of
48:31peer support you can actually save lives
48:36you can actually attenuate the injury
48:39you may even prevent it from happening
48:45we created a peer support against the
48:48will of the therapist professional
48:50because they were worried we'd get
48:51involved into this stuff we didn't note
48:53but in fact there was a good management
48:56of information and so on and so the peer
48:59support volunteers did their thing and
49:02at one year they estimated that we have
49:05prevented the suicide the day attempt
49:07suicide attempt today by peer support
49:10not family maybe an uncle from way back
49:14or something it usually colleagues
49:17people they don't even know but they
49:19sensed our friendly and understand so
49:24the peer support recognizing those who
49:27might be injured and having that
49:29volunteer a sense of community to
49:36prevent the injury from getting worse
49:38and that peer support is the critical
49:42element to complement the professional
49:46help and to complement the medication
49:49were required without it without it the
49:54vulnerability we have is always with us
49:57and there were years where I didn't know
50:01what I was going to live two hours two
50:03days two months because I never knew
50:05what something might come up it from a
50:09tribunal be it from talking name from
50:12being alone and so ladies and gentlemen
50:16you're in some pretty serious stuff here
50:19but what I find extraordinary and what
50:23Michael has been bringing to your
50:24institution is that you're challenging
50:28it you're innovating
50:32connecting with human beings innovate we
50:37don't have all the answers so push the
50:41envelope but sell the product these
50:44people have been honorably injured
50:48they're not sick they're not weird
50:50they're not mentally handicapped in the
50:53most pejorative way we like to use they
50:56have been injured that a car accident
50:59it's been an incident it's been a family
51:02thing it's been the horrors of war and
51:05that injury that physical injury has got
51:08to get the same care the same sense of
51:13urgency of care as the physical injury
51:16we won't let an arm bangle where we let
51:20a brain will absolutely work and so
51:23ladies and gentlemen we've got stop the
51:28flow of losing members of our families
51:32members of our teams losing members of
51:37our forces even diplomats to an injury
51:42or weed that fester and ultimately it
51:46took their lives it's one thing to die
51:48on a battlefield it's something else
51:51come home put your family through the
51:54stresses and strains for three or four
51:56years and then end up killing yourself
51:58and the impact that that has had and
52:02when they're alone that's what they do
52:04and so to you I applaud applaud the
52:09dynamic and the desire to get ahead of
52:13the game
52:14prevention prevention find them early
52:20look in their eyes their actions their
52:24work ethic their reactions and if
52:29they're just off center there's
52:31something there that needs help and
52:34don't treat them as leopards to treat
52:39them as your injured buddy who is
52:43seeking although not able to do it
52:45help now then with a comment that came
52:49from our professional people at one
52:51point to the chain of command which I
52:55hold accountable it's a leadership thing
52:57it's an atmosphere you create in your
53:00organization to want to help others and
53:02it's holding people accountable and
53:04supporting them so we had the medical
53:06people you know sort of saying that it's
53:12normal to have these suicides we're
53:15within the norm no ladies and gentlemen
53:20there is no norm on people killing
53:23themselves
53:24there's just abandonment to just failure
53:30there's just no communication as was so
53:34ably stated here and when that fair that
53:39therapist came to the chief defense task
53:41that I was there and said well we're
53:43giving them everything we can but nobody
53:45comes they don't talk to us well no you
53:49idiot part of the problem is is that you
53:51don't talk about it part of the solution
53:54is trying to extract that from them and
53:56make them feel they can talk about it
54:00and not that they're being humbled to
54:04being laughed at and are being treated
54:06as less than what they really are
54:10honorable injured colleagues that
54:14deserve and have the right for your
54:17support thank you very much
54:20[Applause]
54:41general Dallaire unfortunately has to
54:43leave but before he guess we wanted to
54:46give him a little token of his
54:48attendance and thank you so much for a
54:50heartfelt let me thank you I hope this
54:54will fit in my baggage but very thank
54:58you so I'll take it all the Box ok when
55:01you put a microphone in front of a
55:02retired general who's been also an
55:04apprentice politician you're in for a
55:05long haul I would like to end as I do so
55:09often I try to put the following I don't
55:12think there's more honorable time to
55:14serve our people like my father said
55:16you're joining the army you're serving
55:19the lands back from say thank you you're
55:21serving so serve so I think that the
55:24time is right it's opportune to serve
55:27locally and internationally but those
55:30who serve ask two things or the fellow
55:32citizens one that when we come back
55:36although first one is is when we go give
55:40us the tools to succeed and have the
55:43same strength of character as the
55:45families and the individuals to sustain
55:47the fight and to be able to succeed and
55:49bring peace and security and humanity
55:53and human rights to others who are being
55:56massively abused and don't pull out when
55:59it's politically cute especially when we
56:01spilled blood that's the first thing be
56:05honorable about the Commission and
56:07sustain it the second one is is when we
56:10do come back and body bags or injured
56:14that we treat them and we treat their
56:18families with dignity and with respect
56:21and they don't have to fight again to
56:24live decently as injured veterans in
56:26this country we owe a covenant between
56:30the people of this country and those who
56:34put their lives of yours voluntarily to
56:37ensure that the rest of us can live
56:39decently we have a covenant not a
56:42contract a coveted cradle-to-grave and
56:46is only one we will treat them in their
56:49families in that fashion will we be able
56:52to say
56:53responsibly that those who pay a very
56:56high price
56:58well we respect them and we're going to
57:00try to take care of them and make their
57:02life that much easier those who survived
57:04and those who continue to live and so
57:07this talent and all along that highway
57:11have been exemplary in your support to
57:16the forces and to the families so
57:19continue to develop it and inculcated in
57:21others and remember that on the 11th of
57:25November or on the peacekeepers day the
57:2929th of May or the Canadian peacekeepers
57:31day the 9th of August will be a day to
57:34commemorate but it will be held for
57:37those who've served because we don't
57:40commemorate we don't have memories we
57:45literally relive what we experienced and
57:49it is a very very difficult thing thank
57:53you very much
57:55[Applause]

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