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Status of Women committee  I will try to round up a few of those. I'll start with Seamless Canada. Seamless Canada is a wonderful Canadian Armed Forces organization or body that is working with provinces and territories to help families who are mobile across this country to remove the barriers that come with asking Canadian Forces members to uproot every few years.

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

Status of Women committee  It won't be up to me to determine what the mature level of it is, but we'll certainly take that on notice and we'll provide that if we can.

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

Status of Women committee  That's a great question, Madam Chair. I'll give you the infantry officer answer: We need to attack all levels at once. However, at some point, as I think I said earlier, the beginning of a career is important, and we need to grow good people—good leaders, good followers—from the get-go.

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

Status of Women committee  I regret that I can't answer that question with certainty. That is a question for the Judge Advocate General. It's a legal question, and it's probably very situationally dependent. I wish I could give you more than that.

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

Status of Women committee  Where things need to change is in people's understanding. Their knowledge and their education and how well they are able to understand the topic need to change. Previously I was making reference to ensuring that leaders, trainers and students actually understand what sexual assault actually is.

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

Status of Women committee  I agree with you. We are very well aware that child care is a contributing element to women serving in the Canadian Forces. In fact, 34% of women have indicated that child care is one of the elements. It's not the only element, but it's one of them, and it's near the top. We have recently undertaken some work to figure out what it would take to be able to deliver a child care capability in the Canadian Armed Forces.

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

Status of Women committee  That exercise is ongoing right now, so at least in military personnel command, we're looking at all the systemic and institutional frameworks that provide the support to people across the Canadian Forces, with a view to looking at where the strengths are and the gaps at the same time, so that we can reinforce where we are strong and address where we are weak.

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

Status of Women committee  That's a very timely question, Madam Chair. We are in discussions, at this point, on assessing how we can better serve victims who suffer sexual misconduct arising from service. Those conversations are maturing. I have great confidence in our health services enterprise. By default, their job is to determine a program of care for whatever the injury might be.

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

Status of Women committee  If I recall—and I don't have the stats top of mind—one of the statistics speaks to sexual assault during basic training. Everyone has a right to feel safe during basic training or any training. We owe that to those who serve their country. We need to look at that. I had a discussion today to prepare myself.

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, I'll take a shot. There is value in an independent structure. Whether it's a structure for reporting or a structure for looking at the Canadian Forces, I think all of those options need to be on the table. In terms of the feeling that perhaps there is an interference by Canadian Forces leadership in the uniform or the chain of command, I think it speaks to something that I will be taking on as a role in trying to bring more of the human attributes into leadership development than the bureaucracy or the technical or theoretical aspects of what we have as our leadership models.

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, can you hear me?

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

Status of Women committee  I will attempt to answer the question quickly. How confident am I? Here's why I am confident and encouraged. We're actually having some meaningful discussions on cultural change. We are listening to people at all levels, from the top down, across, and up and down in the Canadian Forces.

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

Status of Women committee  I am not an expert in the field of military police or sexual misconduct reporting, but to your question in terms of senior leadership allegations, the system is based on a process that is applied evenly to all members of the Canadian Forces, regardless of rank. The issue of the product that General Eyre had asked for was essentially an aide-mémoire or something that he could have in order to ensure that he was very clear on the process.

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan

Status of Women committee  I will make an attempt to see if I can respond. That's a really complicated question about leadership and how we integrate process into the profession. The profession is a.... It's hard to put a hand around it, because we operate on values and an ethical framework. Of course, what we have here is seemingly leaders who are supposedly representing this framework and these values and they're not living up to it.

April 22nd, 2021Committee meeting

MGen Steven Whelan