Thank you, Mr. Leung, and Mr. Chair.
I am in absolute agreement that being proactive as opposed to reactive is a far more comfortable place to be. In fact, about a month and a half before the articles came out in L'actualité and Maclean's, we had reacted to our most recent climate survey from 2012 that, although the indications were that it had receded tremendously in recent years, sexual harassment wasn't acceptable. I came out with my statement to my commanders and to all men and women in uniform that we needed to do better in this area. Also, given the indications that there might be some barriers there and some lack of standardization in the way we respond, I indicated that we needed to work in those areas as well.
In fact, the chiefs of defence before me had a list—I won't take the time to provide it to you—of proactive programs put in place: victims services programs in 2000; a harassment resolution policy in 2001; the members' assistance program in 2002; sexual misconduct reporting in 2008; and prevention of violence in the workplace. Each of these bolsters a healthier workplace and gets the chain of command directly involved in providing not only the sense of a healthy workplace but also one in which he and his subcommanders and non-commissioned officers provide the example.