Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
This is a very serious situation. If we're going to discuss a serious situation, a summons is a serious response to a serious situation. Perhaps we need to look at sending an invitation, followed by a summons if the invitation is refused. The culture in the Canadian Forces has been the subject of a number of initiatives over the last 30 years, all which have systematically failed. The processes are in place. There are processes that say that this type of behaviour is unacceptable, and that there are consequences for the unacceptable behaviour.
What has happened is that people in very senior key positions have failed to follow those processes. We as the defence committee are responsible for understanding how that failure has occurred and whether there are additional checks and balances in terms of processes that need to be put in place to ensure that senior people cannot fail to provide a harassment-free workplace and cannot again fail the members of the Canadian Forces.
My understanding, Madam Chair, is that Mr. Wernick is not the one with a health problem. Perhaps we could have more information on that, because we can't find any record publicly that there is a health issue with Mr. Wernick that would in any way preclude him from appearing. We need to understand if in fact there is a serious enough health issue, because as the former Clerk of the Privy Council, he is an absolutely key person this committee needs to hear from to understand how the processes were not followed and how this failure was allowed to occur.
We need to understand whether there is a health issue with Mr. Wernick, because we believe that if there is not, he needs to appear as a witness. Second, the summons should occur if the invitation to these people we need to hear from to do our job is refused.
Thank you.