Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for coming today, Ms. Sinclair.
I think that the work you're doing is quite remarkable and interesting. I think there are some real challenges there. At least that's what I saw when we were in Ukraine.
You touched on young people who were part of the volunteers and advisory group helping to advise the reform of defence in Ukraine. We saw some of that. We saw and heard from some of those people. We heard the passion and the progressive ideas that they have.
One thing we also saw was the entrenched former Soviet Union ways of running the military, which is still alive and well. We also heard about Canadians asking those former Soviet Union types, “Why don't you meet up with these people and follow some of their recommendations?” It seemed as though the response that they were getting was, “No, they don't understand. They don't know what it's about. They don't really understand defence the way we do. We've been doing this forever.”
I can't help but wonder, when you try to break down this corruption.... I asked about this of the former panel; I'm not sure if you were in the room. Is part of that entrenched upper echelon of the defence sector really genuine about their attempts to reform? Are they doing it more out of appeasement, due to the fact that the allies who are there really want it and they know they have to appease them?