Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
It's good to see the minister here today. I too was disappointed that he didn't make the Maritime Security Challenges conference in Victoria last week.
Let me say that there are two clear improvements over the previous legislation, and I want to acknowledge both of those. One is recognizing the special circumstances of aboriginal members who served in the forces and may come into conflict with the code of conduct. The second is adding to the section on crimes motivated by hatred, gender identity and expression. I do thank the minister for those two improvements.
It's a little ironic that the minister comes to us and asks for timely passage of the bill when it's taken three years to get here, but I don't want to be churlish, so I'll just set that aside at this point.
We've had a very long process to reform the military justice system. It's taken nearly 20 years to do. It took a bill in the last Parliament, and this bill completes a lot of that, especially when it comes to improving victims within the system. I want to acknowledge that this is a very important part of what the bill does.
There's one piece that I think both bills have missed in the overhaul of the military justice system and adjusting offences and penalties. This is particularly evident to me in light of the new suicide prevention strategy that was introduced a year ago. We still have members of the Canadian Forces dying by suicide at a rate of just over one a month. I appreciate that the chief of defence staff and the minister are both saying that zero is the goal. I acknowledge that.
The Canadian military has tried to remove barriers to getting help for those who are contemplating self-harm. The military ombudsman identified that there are a lot of obstacles to getting even the help that exists. The families of those who died by suicide have identified one barrier, which is that self-harm remains a disciplinary offence under the military code of conduct.
I will, as I told the minister, be moving an amendment to delete paragraph 98(c), which makes self-harm a disciplinary offence. I've spoken with members of the Canadian military at all levels, and it passes the nod test with them, especially because the disciplinary sanction isn't really used. It's not seen as something effective at this point. The families point out that people are still trained to this code of conduct that identifies a possible disciplinary action as a result of self-harm. What I'm proposing does not remove the section on malingering or exaggerating illness to deliberately avoid service; it would simply remove self-harm as a disciplinary offence.
I asked the minister in the House, and he said he would consider it. I'm going to ask him again today if he will support the amendment to remove self-harm as a disciplinary offence from the military code of conduct.