National Defence Committee on Dec. 7th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Karen McCrimmon]

I will call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 10 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format pursuant to the House order of September 23, 2020.

The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website.

Right now, we'll welcome our witnesses.

I'd like to welcome all our witnesses today.

Your presence is very important to us. We appreciate the time you've set aside for us.

We have four witnesses today.

We have Rear-Admiral Geneviève Bernatchez, who is the judge advocate general. With her today is Colonel Jill Wry, deputy judge advocate general; and Colonel Rakesh Jetly, senior psychiatrist, director of mental health, Canadian Forces health services group.

We also have Ms. Kyndra Rotunda, professor of military and international law at Chapman University.

We'll go in that order for the opening statements. Once the opening statements are completed, we will hand it over to the committee members for their questions.

I would ask Rear-Admiral Geneviève Bernatchez, judge advocate general, to begin, please.

[Rear-Admiral Geneviève Bernatchez, Judge Advocate General, Canadian Armed Forces, Department of National Defence]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I will keep my opening remarks brief. Please allow me to begin by introducing myself.

[Terry Dowdall, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I have a point of order.

We're getting an echo.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Michel Marcotte]

It might be because someone has a speaker on their computer turned on and that will produce some echo when they talk.

Rear-Admiral, are you in the same room as Colonel Jill Wry?

[RAdm Geneviève Bernatchez]

I am, yes.

[The Clerk]

Maybe you could check if there's a speaker running in the background.

RAdm Bernatchez, perhaps your French interpretation channel is the problem.

[RAdm Geneviève Bernatchez]

I've deactivated the interpretation.

[The Clerk]

Okay.

We're going to do a check.

I have been told that our echo problem might be coming from any computer. When someone turns a mike on, it just creates feedback.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Just as a point of interest, whenever there's been an echo it's coming on the floor audio where Chair McCrimmon is.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karen McCrimmon]

Are we still having the same problem or is it getting fixed?

Do you want me to continue speaking?

[The Clerk]

Yours is fine.

Could you talk for five seconds, please? We'll do a sound check.

[RAdm Geneviève Bernatchez]

Yes, Mr. Clerk. There's no echo now. Do you want me to keep talking?

[The Chair, Liberal, Karen McCrimmon]

One moment, please.

Thank you, everyone. Unfortunately, we haven't fixed the issue.

It might be related to your computer, Rear-Admiral. Someone from the team will reach out to you and try to get this fixed.

In the meantime, I'll ask Colonel Rakesh Jetly to give his opening remarks and then Rear-Admiral Bernatchez. Hopefully, we'll fix this problem in the background.

Colonel Jetly, please go ahead.

Colonel, perhaps you could unplug and then plug back in again. We're not getting any of your feed at all.

[Colonel Rakesh Jetly, Senior Psychiatrist, Directorate of Mental Health, Canadian Forces Health Services Group, Department of National Defence]

Can you hear me now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Karen McCrimmon]

Yes. Thank you.

[Col Rakesh Jetly]

When my teenage kids aren't around, I have one of these tech experts do it for me. It's fantastic.

All right. Let's try again.

I'm hearing an echo here.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Definitely the echo is coming through the floor audio in the committee room. It lights up every time Colonel Jetly is speaking. It lights up over on the floor audio as well.

[Col Rakesh Jetly]

I'm a bit distracted hearing myself twice.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karen McCrimmon]

Stand by.

Colonel Jetly, perhaps you could help us out here. You can continue, but we'll have you start again. I want to hear your feed coming through, and then perhaps we can hunt it down here in the committee room. They seem to think it's here in the committee room. Just give us your audio feed, and maybe that will help us find it.

We're now having trouble with interpretation.

Stand by, please.

Colonel Jetly, could I ask you to speak again, please. It doesn't matter what you say; just speak for 20 seconds.

[Col Rakesh Jetly]

Okay, I'm going to start talking.

I am hearing a bit of an echo. I look forward to getting this thing going. Technology is always a challenge for all of us as we try to adapt to this new normal.

I am hearing an echo. It distracts me. I'm not sure what it does for the rest of you. Even though I do like my own voice, two of me, what a concept.

Madam Chair, would you like me to speak some more?

[The Chair, Liberal, Karen McCrimmon]

No, that's fine, Colonel Jetly. We're not able to solve the problem right now.

We have a choice. We can see if there's another room vacant. There's no other committee room vacant on the fourth floor, but there might be one on the third floor. Otherwise, we could ask if the witnesses could join us on Friday. Those are our options.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Madam Chair, what if by some coincidence the House rises beforehand?

[The Chair, Liberal, Karen McCrimmon]

We're still covered until Friday. We can still have our committee meetings until Friday. As far as I know, that was agreed to with the whips. Past that, there has been no agreement.

[Terry Dowdall, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

Just to follow up on Cheryl's comments, I'm wondering if we can actually find out for sure if that's the case.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karen McCrimmon]

I'd like to ask our witnesses if they are available on Friday to determine whether we should even investigate that option or not.

Colonel Jetly, are you available on Friday?