National Defence Committee on Nov. 18th, 2010

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Congratulations to you, sir, on your recent appointment.

[Glenn Stannard]

Thank you.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

I have a couple of questions of interest to me and maybe to other members of the committee. First of all, how is it decided whether a military person appears in civil or military court? Could you share that with us? If a person has done something criminal, and he or she is a military person, it seems that the person appears sometimes in the military court and sometimes in a civilian one. How is that determined?

[Glenn Stannard]

You would have to ask the authorities. That's beyond our purview. We don't get involved in that at all. We're not in that function. We don't involve ourselves in the courts. We have hearings, potentially public interest hearings. But we're not involved in the issue of laying criminal charges for disposition in either the civil or military courts.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

I didn't know that.

I have another question, on the Afghan show. We've heard everything all over the world on that one. Who are the people who file these accusations of abuse? How does that happen? Is it just that suddenly someone says, “Well, this person was abused”? How do you know that?

[Glenn Stannard]

This is very public, so I will answer the question.

The complaints that we're dealing with were filed by Amnesty International Canada and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. They're the complainants in these matters, which we're hearing in the public interest. Anyone can file the complaints, under the current legislation. It could be you; it could be anybody here.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

What's the reverse of that, sir? You file the complaint, and then you find that you filed it against a person who was innocent. Now you're hanging out of the window, are you not?

[Glenn Stannard]

We don't find innocence or guilt. We make recommendations. We're not an adjudicative body. So we're not adversarial in that sense.

We make recommendations. In the public interest hearing, the recommendation report will go to the Chief of Defence Staff, because the former Canadian Forces provost marshal is the subject person. So the report would go to the Chief of Defence Staff, with copies to JAG and copies to the minister.

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Thank you.

Thank, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Maxime Bernier]

Thank you.

I will give the floor to Madame Faille.

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Earlier my colleague discussed your mandate with regard to systemic problems. Problems have been identified with regard to the Report on Plans and Priorities that your agency has submitted. In particular, specific and systemic problems are associated with assistance provided by military police to persons suffering from mental disorders and the active offer of police services in both official languages.

Could you tell us about the second point? What are you going to do to ensure police services are offered in both official languages?

[Glenn Stannard]

Are you referring to the services of the Military Police Complaints Commission?

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Yes.

[Glenn Stannard]

Let me start from my point of view, my purposes.

Unfortunately, I am not bilingual, but all of my staff meet the requirements of being bilingual within their positions. Since I am not bilingual, I am currently addressing that through French language training. On how good I will get--it will be some time in the future. But I think it's important for two reasons. I think it's important that my staff see me making that effort, and it's something I want to do.

I can tell you that our staff have an official language champion. The commission has that. Our meetings are in both French and English. We ensure that when a French language investigation is required, we do that.

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

I understand that you are making efforts at your office.

I want to ask you how, in general, you are going to go about providing military police service. What concrete actions are you going to take to ensure better services provided in both official languages?

I'll give you an example. It may be specific training in the mental health field. What concrete action do you intend to take to respond to systemic problems?

I'll also ask you the same question my colleague asked earlier. Do you feel any pressure from the government to limit your ability to intervene and to correct systemic problems in the Canadian Forces?

[Glenn Stannard]

I have not dealt with the French language systemic issues since I've been in. My time has essentially been spent on the public interest hearing and the other investigations. But clearly I would like to discuss, with my general counsel and chief of staff, researching information you're referring to with the systemic issues. That is a matter I could research. I'm not familiar with that particular piece, but I'll get back to you.

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

You can answer us in writing. I didn't want to trap you. I'm a member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, and we follow up the reports and priorities that you establish and publish on your Internet site. So that's why I'm asking you questions.

I would like to have a response in writing concerning your action plan in that regard.

[Glenn Stannard]

Yes.

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

I have no other questions.

[Glenn Stannard]

I would be more than pleased to do that.

[Meili Faille, Bloc, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Maxime Bernier]

Thank you, Ms. Faille. I want to thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Stannard.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for being with us this afternoon. I wish you success in your new challenge.

That completes the business of our Standing Committee on National Defence.

This will end our meeting number 34. We'll see the members next Tuesday.