Thank you.
I agree with Mr. Bezan and the last speaker, that the emphasis needs to be on protecting women in the military so they can feel safe. As I mentioned in the last meeting, we need to work on the systems and the problems. We had a number of academics mention the problems, and procedures were mentioned already today, which was good. People can proceed with various investigative sources and avenues, but when a call comes in to Defence, the exact direction where and how it should go is one thing.
The major thing the academics said was it's the changing of the culture, and I want to make sure we stay on that focus. I'm worried that we're.... There are a lot of witnesses. I won't mention them now. I may ask to amend some later, but I think there are a number of witnesses who could offer a lot more on how we answer the suggestions the academics made on how we could protect women better. A lot of it's related to culture, to appointing more women to senior positions in the military. I think that needs to be our focus: how we can fix these systems and make them independent enough that all members of the forces, but particularly women, feel protected.
I think there would be a better witness list or additions to the witness list that would maintain the focus on that. Some of these witnesses are related to a specific case or cases, and I don't have a problem with that, but I think it's far too narrow and we should be incorporating witnesses who can deal with the structural problems, the avenue and procedures, as well as the various legal investigative methods and routes that are available and any improvements that need to be made to them. Obviously it's not working. The culture still hasn't changed, so we need to come up with an avenue to change that. That's going to be my focus during the meetings. I want to make sure we stay on that track to protect the women in the military by working on these systems, the culture and the procedures.
I'll leave it at that for now, but hopefully people will propose some of these other witnesses. If not, I can in a later intervention.
Thank you, Madam Chair.