Minister, I want to thank you for your strong position on the issue, your openness to considering all options and your recognition of the need to rebuild trust fundamentally. I certainly wouldn't want to profess to speak for any of my colleagues individually, but I have a sense that, as a whole, the committee is strongly aligned with your recognition of the need for change within the Canadian Armed Forces on the issue of sexual misconduct.
Minister, women join the Canadian Armed Forces in order to serve. Many of them will have been proud to follow in the tradition of their families from generations before them; however, because of the systemic nature of this issue of sexual misconduct, there's a high risk that they will be met with abusive, dehumanizing and degrading behaviour, and then with a feeling that they have nowhere to turn.
I would like to ask you, Minister, what is being done at the moment to empower survivors of sexual misconduct to come forward, and equally to empower those to come forward who see a duty to report or who may want to come forward because they no longer accept this culture of sexual misconduct?