Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombud Act

An Act to establish the Office of the Ombud for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces, to make related amendments to the Contraventions Act and to make consequential amendments to certain Acts

Sponsor

Lindsay Mathyssen  NDP

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of Nov. 9, 2023

Subscribe to a feed (what's a feed?) of speeches and votes in the House related to Bill C-362.

Summary

This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament often publishes better independent summaries.

This enactment establishes the Office of the Ombud for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces and sets out the Ombud’s powers, duties and functions. It also makes related amendments to the Contraventions Act and consequential amendments to certain Acts.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

April 17th, 2024 / 5:20 p.m.
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NDP

Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

Thank you.

Mr. Walbourne, in your opening statement, you mentioned that you are highly supportive of my bill, Bill C-362, for which I am very grateful. It means a lot. It was because of listening to a few ombudsmen on this issue that I put it forward.

The creation of a truly transparent office for the CAF and DND ombudsmen is the main thrust of the bill, of course. That independence could play such a key role. What specific tools could help in making the military more accountable on things like a culture change?

February 26th, 2024 / 11:50 a.m.
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NDP

Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

To build off Madam Normandin's questions, when the minister was here at committee, I asked directly whether changes to those pieces of independence, especially around the ombudsperson and their office, which I was calling for in my legislation, Bill C-362, will be made within the changes he has indicated he will be making. Unfortunately, he said they were not, so I'd love your comments on that.

Mr. Joshi, you talked, in reference to independence, about the importance of independence in your office and the changes that Justice Fish and Justice Arbour were asking for as well. Do you believe those will come forward in future legislative changes? Have you heard anything? How important are both of those things for both of your offices?

February 12th, 2024 / 11:25 a.m.
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NDP

Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

Thank you to the minister for appearing today.

I too would like to send my condolences to Mrs. Kramp-Neuman and her family. With a parliamentarian in the family, I understand what that can do in terms of being a public face.

Minister, just to pick up from where Madam Normandin was speaking, I'm very excited to hear that you believe in the independence of the ombudsman. In fact, I'm sure you know that I tabled a bill just last fall, Bill C‑362, to establish the office of the ombudsman for defence and to have him or her, whoever it may be in the future, report directly to Parliament.

On your statement saying that you would like to take that to Parliament, you could, absolutely. I, sadly, am not very early on the list of precedence for private members' bills, but certainly the government could introduce that at any time. To adopt that bill would give the ombudsman the truly independent view that he himself has asked for and that his predecessor asked for.

École polytechnique de MontréalRoutine Proceedings

December 6th, 2023 / 5 p.m.
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NDP

Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

Madam Speaker, I too would like to rise today and honour the memory of the 14 women who were murdered 34 years ago at École polytechnique de Montréal. These women, studying to become engineers, were trailblazers in a male-dominated field. They were going to change the world. They were going to build, create and inspire other women to follow in their footsteps, but they did not have the chance. Their lives were cut short by an act of unspeakable misogynistic violence. I too want to say their names as my colleagues have here today, because this provides that memory with power in this place.

Today we remember Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne‑Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne‑Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St‑Arneault, Annie Turcotte and Barbara Klucznik‑Widajewicz. We will remember them.

These women were killed because they were women. They were killed by a man who was consumed by hate. He shouted, “You're all a bunch of feminists, and I hate feminists”. Then he opened fire in a classroom.

It is just as true now as it was then that hate kills. Gendered violence is still a clear and present danger to the safety of women, girls and gender-diverse people; moreover, that violence is rising. In the last year alone, three women in my city of London, Ontario, have been killed by the men in their lives. We lost Carolyn Carter, Caitlin Jennings and Tiffany Gates to femicide. Across Ontario, 62 women and gender-diverse individuals were killed by a man in their life. Anova's emergency shelter for abused women and their children in London has helped 342 women in our city this year, but the shelter was forced to turn people away more than 2,400 times because of a lack of beds.

The experience is the same for so many organizations fighting on the front lines against gender-based violence. The London Abused Women's Centre, Le carrefour des femmes, Atlohsa and My Sister's Place are all seeing a rise in demand for the support and services they provide. The people who work in these organizations are incredible. They are doing everything they can to save people's lives. Of course, that rise in demand is not just happening in London, Ontario. Across Canada, more than four in 10 women have experienced intimate partner violence and a woman or girl is killed every 48 hours.

Yesterday, we received new numbers from Stats Can showing that more women have faced sexual violence and gender-based violence in the military. After years of repeated promises for systemic change and an overhaul of the toxic culture, after so many false starts from senior leadership in terms of making those reforms, the sexual misconduct crisis is only growing.

In this country, there is a hard truth that, if I went missing, it would mean something different than it would if an indigenous woman or girl went missing. In Canada, indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing compared with any other woman in Canada. It is important that we take today to remember the victims of violence against women, but that is not enough. Year after year, government after government has kept women waiting on action for systemic injustices.

There are real, tangible solutions that we can take up in this chamber to support women. Today is a day for us all to find the political courage to act. My colleague spoke about that action that we need to see now. It is possible. We hold that position here today. We have bills from my NDP colleagues, such as Bill C-332, to criminalize coercive and controlling behaviour, from the member for Victoria. Over 95% of victims of intimate partner violence report coercive behaviour and control as a precursor to physical violence. We can take a meaningful step towards ending femicide with this bill by allowing women to speak out early.

On other important changes, I have two bills, Bill C-362 and Bill C-363, that would give women in the military access to justice. Since Justice Arbour's recommendations came forward, we have heard from every party in the chamber that members want to end the rampant abuse and cover-ups that protect perpetrators and hurt survivors of military sexual trauma. We can come together and pass all of these bills.

Finally, in the spring, we unanimously passed the motion from my colleague, the member for Winnipeg Centre, to create a red dress alert system to find and protect indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. We can act to create that system.

On this National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, I hope we all reflect on the actions we can take and the responsibility we have as parliamentarians. We must renew our efforts to end gender-based violence with the urgency it requires and demands.

Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombud ActRoutine Proceedings

November 9th, 2023 / 10:10 a.m.
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NDP

Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-362, An Act to establish the Office of the Ombud for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces, to make related amendments to the Contraventions Act and to make consequential amendments to certain Acts.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce my private member's bill to give the Office of the Ombud for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces more independence.

I would like to thank the member for North Island—Powell River for seconding this bill. She does a tremendous job as NDP critic for veterans.

Over two decades, many Canadians have raised serious concerns about Canada's military culture, including cases of sexual misconduct. Despite the Deschamps and Arbour reports, hearings in Parliament and appeals from survivors, the Liberals have failed to address these systemic problems.

My bill would establish that the Office of the Ombud would report directly to Parliament and not the Minister of Defence. This independence is essential to ensuring that Canadian Forces personnel and DND employees can trust in the process and receive help. Importantly, Canada's current military ombudsman has asked this government to make his office completely independent.

The Liberals have refused to take action, but we have done enormous work to address the challenges within the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces. This bill is an essential step.

I thank the advocates who have helped to get us to this point, and I encourage the government to support this bill.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)