Madam Chair, thank you very much.
I wanted to revert to my earlier comments, but before I do that, I want to echo the concern that was raised by my colleague Mr. Baker. This is the second time at this committee session that there's been a reference from a Conservative member to a “cover-up”, most recently by Mr. Bezan. It was a general reference. There was a much more specific reference earlier in the meeting against a colleague of ours at the table, that she was engaged in a cover-up. It was put in the form of a question, so it wasn't a direct allegation, but the member who raised this tried to do indirectly what she knows she can't do directly.
That puts a different lens on the way I'm thinking about the Conservative position on this. This is not necessarily now, in my mind, an exercise to actually get to the facts. This is an exercise to prove that there's a cover-up. It has a political lens, a political taint, and I don't think a victim of sexual misconduct, or worse, in the Canadian Forces should become an instrument for these kinds of tactics. We have a victim in this particular case who we know expressed a very clear preference not to go forward.
Now I'll speak to the motion more generally. As the very next thing, without even having read an email, and under the lens of proving a cover-up, the motion is to go forward and ask for every bit of correspondence that potentially could prove that, carefully extracting her name, perhaps, from every single email, report, document or text. In aggregate, however, it could still pose, as Mr. Baker suggested, a very high risk that the identity of this particular complainant is exposed in the course of these proceedings.
We agreed previously today, Madam Chair, to a motion to bring additional witnesses, including asking the minister to return. This information can come out through conversation with these officials. If there are reports that are referenced in conversation, the committee has the discretion to request an undertaking for that report to be brought to the committee, subject to confidentiality redactions. However, to now ask for absolutely every email, text and report in the context of, essentially, a fishing expedition to prove a cover-up, I don't think does justice for this victim.
Much more profoundly, it doesn't do an inch of good to advance the real issue, which is the systemic culture change that's required in the Canadian Forces. I have yet to hear a constructive thought from my Conservative colleagues on how to achieve that. I'm very open to hearing them. I'm hoping that in the context of our work, going forward, that will be the focus of our discussion.
Thank you, Madam Chair.