Thank you, Madam Chair.
One of the responsibilities of dealing with work here at committee is the power of the committee to demand the production of papers from government departments. We know a number of memos and briefing notes have been accessed by the media through access to information requests, and those have now been published. I believe most committee members would agree that there is probably a paper trail in the minister's office, the deputy minister's office, the PMO, and the PCO over the report that Gary Walbourne gave to the minister back in March 2018. I think it's pertinent to the study to look at the exchange of information and to find out why no action was taken on the report of sexual misconduct allegations against General Vance.
You'll also notice that the motion mentions a time from April to May 2019. We need to look at those documents as well. As we all know, General Vance received a significant boost in salary at that time. We should find out why and look at his performance review that was submitted from the minister's office to the PCO for consideration as a Governor in Council appointment. We should look at whether or not that reflects the issue of the allegations that the former defence ombudsman brought to the attention of the minister. From all the communications, we know that others in the minister's office and the deputy minister's office were aware of the allegations. I think it is pertinent to all this to know what happened.
The critical information is correspondence and communications. As Gary Walbourne pointed out, he was summoned to the PCO. We need to know how that took place. All the paper and electronic communications are critical to the study, especially as we look at process and ensuring a transparent and fair process free of interference for sexual misconduct allegations that are brought forward. We also want to make sure they are being respected within the chain of command, including at the political level, within the minister's office and the PMO. That's why Elder Marques is part of the correspondence.
With that I would like to make sure that everybody can support this, because I think it's germane to our study on sexual misconduct and improving the system to protect our women in the Canadian Armed Forces.