Thank you, Madam Chair.
I again want to thank Mr. Walbourne for his candour, his service for so many years to Canada and especially his time as defence ombudsman.
There's no question that, with your testimony today, it's clear that Minister Sajjan failed to take actions on these allegations of sexual misconduct by former chief of the defence staff General Vance. Your testimony proves that the minister failed to live up to his own standard of zero tolerance for sexual misconduct in the armed forces. Really, the question now comes down to the Prime Minister having to answer how this is acceptable conduct by a member of his own cabinet.
I am disappointed with the attacks coming from Liberal MPs here, trying to muddy the waters, trying to attack your credibility on decisions you made and how you handled these allegations.
I just want to remind everyone that under the National Defence Act, it says right in section 4 that the minister “has the management and direction of the Canadian Forces”. That's all the Canadian Forces. He has four people who report directly to him: the chief of the defence staff, the deputy minister, the judge advocate general and the ombudsman. As long as the CDS is in position—I know the Liberal colleagues know this—there's no way anyone is going to seriously investigate the CDS as long as they're sitting in the chair. We know that there was going to be some cover-up.
Mr. Walbourne, you said that you met with Janine Sherman from PCO. Did she ever tell you how the Privy Council Office was informed a day later? Did it come directly from Minister Sajjan, or did it come from somebody else in his office?