Thank you very much, Chair.
I want to continue along the theme that Mr. Spengemann was speaking to.
I believe the recommendations that have been made by many of the witnesses [Technical difficulty—Editor]. When we hear what those recommendations are, we have a better understanding as to why we don't need to summon Mr. Elder Marques to this committee. What I want to do is speak to some of the recommendations that I think are really important, so I'm going to talk a bit about a few that stood out for me.
One of them is that the Canadian Armed Forced should convey shared responsibility for sexual misconduct and place emphasis on collective responsibility in all sexual violence prevention training materials. They should not only convey shared responsibility, but also place an emphasis on collective responsibility. It's not just about the communications, but about taking on that responsibility. I think that's really important when we think about large organizations, whether they be in government or outside of it.
My background is in business. Prior to coming to elected office, I used to work for a consulting company that advised companies on a range of problems. Many of them were related to culture, leadership and performance management. From my personal experience, I know that when an organization needs to change its culture or change its practices, it's not enough for the leader of that organization, whether that be a CEO, a president, a board or whatever the case may be, to simply direct change. A number of steps need to be taken to make sure there's buy-in and to make sure that people within the organization know that change is a priority to leadership.
The recommendation that the Canadian Armed Forced convey shared responsibility is a big part of that. It's signalling that the forces would be, in my view, conveying that they are taking on responsibility for this problem, for the misconduct, and then placing emphasis on collective responsibility. That really helps to make sure that people on a team in an organization are all pulling in the same direction. One of the ways you can change culture and incent a change of behaviour in an organization is by signalling that everyone together is responsible for outcomes that you want to see, so I thought this recommendation was really important to highlight and underline.
Another important one is establishing a reporting line for victims of sexual violence which exists outside of the chain of command. One thing we heard a tremendous amount about during deliberations at our committee hearings for this study was the fact that victims of sexual violence don't feel comfortable reporting what has happened to them. There was a range of reasons for that. Some [Technical difficulty—Editor]. Some talked about the fear of intimidation or actual intimidation. Some said they were concerned about being penalized in some way in their career progression for doing that. Some talked about the fact that they didn't have confidence—or some victims don't have confidence, I should say—in the processes that would be followed within the chain of command to follow up on their complaint or concerns. This, I think, flows from that.
This reporting line outside of the chain of command would do two things. One is it could ensure greater objectivity. I think that helps a lot in making sure that an investigation and the processes that are followed afterwards are appropriate. What's also important about this—and I think we heard this from some of the folks who presented—is that it also helps to build confidence in the process. That confidence is important if incidents of sexual misconduct are going to be reported.
I think that recommendation is important for those two reasons.
The third recommendation I want to highlight is the recommendation to establish a mechanism for monitoring the retention and application of training around Operation Honour, which goes further than the current monitoring system does.
I think what the folks who recommended this are saying is that we need to make sure we have an ability to measure our performance when it comes to training within, in this case, Operation Honour, but within any program within the armed forces that is designed to train members of the forces on sexual misconduct and how we make sure we stop it.
Some of my colleagues have heard me say this in other contexts. I'm a big believer that you measure what you treasure. One of the things I think we have to treasure here is the appropriate training for members of the forces to prevent sexual misconduct. I think this is a recommendation that would allow us to do that.
Another recommendation is to address asymmetric professional relationships and consent. This is, I think, really important and, obviously, this will vary from situation to situation. Asymmetry is something we have heard about a lot, and it needs to be focused on and addressed.
Then there was a recommendation to adapt and diversify the demographics of the forces by adding more female service members and by adding greater diversity. I think we've heard this before. I think we all probably know that this is a meaningful recommendation, so I hope this is something that we talk about in our report.
There are two things: the armed forces members are Canadians, so we want to make sure, in my view, that it represents Canada as much as possible, but also that we're attracting the best and the brightest.
I'll go back to my time in business when some of the firms that I was working for—I'm thinking specifically of one of the consulting firms I worked for—realized that they were not attracting a representative group of people to the firm, for a range of reasons, cultural and otherwise, and so they invested a tremendous amount of effort in trying to make sure that they were doing that. Some would say that is the right thing to do. I think it was, but I think it was also important because what they were trying to do was to make sure that they were able to attract the best talent to the firm, and if you're not able to attract women, for example, then you don't have the opportunity to attract the best and the brightest, because obviously some of the best and the brightest are women.
That's one of the things. I think this recommendation is important. It would also help to shape and change the culture of the armed forces going forward.
Those are some of the recommendations, I think, that are really important. I am going to leave it there, Chair, because I know that others have things they want to add.
Thank you.