Maslow’s pyramid of needs gives us a basic understanding of what a human needs to thrive.

At the base are food and shelter. When we ascend the pyramid we get health and financial stability. When we leave the military, either voluntarily or due to injuries, that pyramid gets rocked.

For those of us who are injured, the role of our veteran administrators is to ensure our care and provide financial stability because the implied contract is that we did the country’s dirty work, so you help us when we take a knee.

In Canada, that contract has been broken. Our rehabilitation has been farmed out to private equity and Loblaws.

Dealing with this causes ample emotional strife especially when they threaten to remove your injury benefits. It threatens to knock out the base of your pyramid. You can’t focus on improving your VO2 max when you’re thinking about whether you’re going to be living in a tent or not.

That’s why I went to Parliament to share my disgust with the current situation veterans are placed in when we’re injured.