Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, I would like to begin by thanking the committee for inviting us to testify today as part of its study of sexual harassment in the federal workplace. The Ombudsman, Pierre Daigle, has asked me in my capacity as Acting Director General of Operations, to provide you wi

Status of Women committee  There's nothing from our office, either.

Status of Women committee  We do provide recommendations on an individual basis. In my initial remarks, I mentioned that we receive about 1,400 to 1,500 complaints on a yearly basis. All these are individual cases that we address. In most cases, we try to resolve the issue at the lowest level possible by c

Status of Women committee  The report that we produce on a systemic investigation becomes public.

Status of Women committee  It really depends. Over the history of the office over the last 10 years, I would say a couple of dozen reports have been produced. This year we have been fairly active. Concurrently, at this time, we've just published two recent reports and we're working on three more systemic i

Status of Women committee  Yes. We have just published two reports. The report on operational stress injuries for regular forces was published at the end of August or early September, and two weeks ago the ombudsman released a report on reserved care. We're currently working on three specific ones. One

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  Do you mean individual cases?

Status of Women committee  When people call us, we open a file. They either call, they send an e-mail, or they send a complaint online.

Status of Women committee  They're not happy with an issue within the CF or DND, because we also cover all civilian personnel.

Status of Women committee  I wouldn't say we're the final appeal, because we have no authority to take any decision. Once again, we're there to provide recommendations to either the Canadian Forces or the Department of National Defence. That's about the extent of our mandate. A lot of our work is done to i

Status of Women committee  I would say, out of the 1,500, a very large proportion are resolved within 30 days. Through alternate dispute resolution, communication, or calling the chain of command, we find positive resolutions. There are about 200 cases that are investigated on an annual basis. Out of those

Status of Women committee  It really depends on the type of complaint. If I go specifically for harassment, for example—

Status of Women committee  —we're not allowed to review the decision of the CF or DND, the decision-maker, to say that this was considered as harassment or it wasn't. The only thing we're allowed to review and make recommendations on is the process, so it's about procedural fairness: was the member treated

Status of Women committee  Once again, somebody would call us about an issue with harassment. The first thing we would do is inform them about the process, give them the reference that exists within either DND or the Canadian Forces, guide them through the process, explain that they have to make a harassme