Struggling soldier fears he won’t get to stay
Army Sgt. Mason Birt knows he is messed up, but he feels he's being obstructed in getting a long-term posting to his home province for muchneeded mental health treatment.
Birt, originally from Nova Scotia, joined the reserves in 2005 and the regular force in 2006. He was a combat engineer before applying in 2012 to go to Joint Task Force X, which is the Canadian Armed Forces' intelligence unit.
The 32-year-old served in Afghanistan in 2008-09 and in northern Iraq from 2016-18. He's been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, operational stress injuries, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, anxiety, and now depression.
“I was consumed by death constantly,” Birt said in a telephone interview. “I seriously didn't think I was going to make it.”
More than a year ago, he was posted to Canadian Armed Forces Transition Centre Kingston and medical officers formulated a posting request for him to be posted to Halifax for treatment that is expected to take years.
He sold his home because he couldn't stand to be alone in the house. He bought a camper van and was living in the vehicle with his dog and cat outside the home of friends he served with, since August.
Birt said everything was set up for the posting in January, but it still hasn't come through, and he blames Cmdr. Helga Budden, the head of the Halifax-based CAF Transition Unit for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, who he said sat on his file.
He said he tried to set up a meeting with her, but she would not agree.
Birt said he was told in September, again, that everything had been approved to get an attached posting to Halifax but, again, it didn't get through Budden
He sent her an email that he calls “very pointed,” but not extreme. Still, it prompted a unit investigation and his medical file had to be re-evaluated for the third time.
“This is a situation where it's not a sergeant crying out for help and people are disagreeing, I'm talking full-on colonels, psychiatrists, colonels of units, I've had the base chief here trying to hold me on a leash for what's going on,” Birt said. “Everyone knows that what's happening is unlawful.”
His frustration reached the point that Birt reached out to top brass at the Department of National Defence about the situation.
Last week, Birt did receive clearance to come to Nova Scotia for a medical leave until Jan. 2. A leave, though, as opposed to a posting, means no financial assistance and he still has to continue to report to Transition Group Kingston, Birt said. He's now self-isolating in Hubbards and when that is over, will stay with family while in Nova Scotia.
Last Friday, just as he was about to head out to Nova Scotia, he received an email from Brig.-gen. Dyrald Cross, commander of the transition group, advising him to apologize to Budden and to not talk to the media.
“And I'll tell you here, right now – I swear to you, you can put this in this article as much as you want – I swear to you on my life that if the ombudsman of the CAF, the director, comes back somehow not good, and all this other jazz, or if anyone else in terms of generals tries to say I need to apologize, I will literally die before I f------ apologize to that person,” Birt said.
“This is the Motherland and I've never been happier to be back here but I will not do it. I will not do it. I don't care if the 5F dishonorably discharge me or put me in Edmonton in cells,” Birt said. “I did not do this much stuff in my career to end like this.”
The general's email also said that his chain of command was “well and truly engaged in ensuring that the conditions are set to enable the best possible outcomes of the treatment plan established for you by the Canadian Forces Health Service Group.”
Stephany Lura, a CAF public affairs officer, said Budden is not the one holding up the posting, it's the whole process.
“We're working on that case,” Lura said. “We're making sure that this is taken care of, but we cannot talk to specifics because of privacy. But we're engaged.
“The care and support of ill and injured military members and their families remains a priority for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the Department of National Defence,” Lura said in an email. “Whether our personnel are on the road to recovery, rehabilitation, returning to duty in the CAF, or transitioning to civilian life, we are committed to assisting them in their journey”
She also said Budden “is not the approving authority for a member's posting.”
Things are moving for Birt. He has an appointment with his doctor on Dec. 21 and he said a major specializing in psychiatrics has already started to get a plan together for his needs.
“You can say this from the bottom of my heart: 33 Health Services in Kingston was a Dumpster fire that I've never seen before,” he said.
“But from what I'm hearing here in Halifax – I've had the head nurse call me, she said … 'you need anything, you call me, everything is good to go, here's your appointments, this is going to be your doctor, we've got one of the best CDS in the whole country, we're going to look after you.' – I was like, OK, this is good.”
Still, there's the cloud hanging over him that he might not get to stay past Jan. 2.
Birt said he wants to raise awareness of the difficulties of the administrative component of how military members get home.
“I'm not trying to bash the CAF, and I'm not trying to bash civilians' perceptions of the CAF,” he said. “The thing is, it's not the CAF in general, it's the bad apples that have taken this agenda that they pushed and turned it into their own thing.”