Veterans Affairs Canada should contact former military members who were sent to Somalia, Rwanda and other countries in the 1990s to determine if soldiers who took the anti-malaria drug mefloquine now need mental or physical services, a Commons committee says.
The veterans’ affairs committee, which on Tuesday released a report after nine months of studying veterans’ mental health, also recommends the department co-operate with researchers who are willing to study the effects of the drug, which some veterans say gave them permanent brain damage.
But Conservatives and a New Democrat who hold a minority of seats on the committee say the report does not adequately portray the effect of mefloquine on veterans and their families, and that the Liberal majority’s recommendations are too weak.
Both of the opposition parties wrote supplementary reports saying the government should ask an independent body to establish or rule out a connection between the drug and the actions of Master Corporal Clayton Matchee and Private Kyle Brown in Somalia in March of 1993 that ended in the beating death of Somali teenager Shidane Arone.
They want the government to initiate a long-term study of the neurotoxicity of mefloquine – the Department of National Defence recently concluded there is no evidence it causes permanent neurological and psychiatric problems despite the anecdotal evidence from Canadian vets and concerns expressed by armed forces around the world.