Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to be able to appear before your committee today. As you know, I became Commissioner of the RCMP less than two months ago. When my appointment to the position was announced on July 6, 2007, I said: It is critically important for the RCMP to c

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I became commissioner Mr. Gauvin was no longer the chief financial officer, and I instigated no investigations into his actions prior to my becoming commissioner.

Public Accounts committee  First of all, with respect to the honourable member's question, during the conduct of Mr. Justice O'Connor's inquiry I was in a number of different positions--I think three, actually--over the relevant period. I was an official of the Privy Council Office, first the assistant sec

Public Accounts committee  Well, Mr. Chairman, there's one question and several statements. I'm happy to respond to the question, but I guess I look to you for some direction with respect—

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think the process with respect to redactions is well known. The government of the day took decisions. The decisions were subsequently challenged before the Federal Court. The Department of Justice, on behalf of the government, explained to the court w

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. First of all, the work that Ms. Duxbury did is very important work. We do have more recent relevant data. The RCMP has been quite engaged in conducting comprehensive surveys of its employees, and if I can, I will just give you a couple of those results. The surveys t

Public Accounts committee  I would certainly agree with the premise of your question. We need to have mechanisms and processes in place to support the kind of culture that I referred to in my opening comments, a culture of fairness and respect. It should not only be dependent on individuals. Of course, you

Public Accounts committee  They received commendations from Commissioner Busson prior to my arrival. I've taken no further steps.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much. I must say that when I indicated I was struck by the positive response I have received, that applies not only to members serving in detachments in other places across the country, but also to the senior executive. There have been a number of changes to th

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I should clarify. I hate to be bureaucratic on you, but I was in fact the associate deputy minister, not the deputy minister. And I did deal with former Commissioner Zaccardelli, including in the context of his dealings with the minister.

Public Accounts committee  I will say the following. Mr. Day is certainly very respectful of the independent role of the police. In very many cases it is quite clear where that role begins and ends, and in other cases it is less clear. I am not in a position to talk about the specifics of situations or the

Public Accounts committee  Certainly there were discussions about issues relating to the RCMP while I was national security adviser both to Prime Minister Martin and then subsequently to Prime Minister Harper. The O'Connor inquiry was going on. I don't recall the matters that the committee is seized with t

Public Accounts committee  I'm reminded of an interesting exchange I had with a former minister of the Crown in Mr. Chrétien's government, in which I indicated that my role was not to protect the minister but to protect the Canadian public. I think my job as a bureaucrat is to provide frank advice to the m

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, I don't think it's appropriate for me to indicate on what matters I did or did not provide advice to the Prime Minister.

Public Accounts committee  I was with the minister when he made the announcement on behalf of the Prime Minister. Since the day the announcement was made, I've spoken with the minister by phone once and I saw him in person twice.