Thanks very much, Chair.
I wanted to weigh in on this. When I spoke the last time, I was speaking about culture and some of the points that were being made in the Deschamps report around culture and its impact. One of the things I was trying to highlight was that, through some of the witnesses we've heard from, they've referenced some of the topics that were highlighted in the Deschamps report. The combination of the witnesses that we've heard from and the Deschamps report, I think, provides an adequate, strong basis for us to write a report on this study. Therefore, I don't believe there's a need to call further witnesses.
I wanted to highlight some of what the Deschamps report highlighted and that I hadn't yet spoken to in my previous intervention.
In the Deschamps report, under the section on culture, there's a subsection, if you will, around organizational culture. It's interesting because the report actually speaks to how they define culture, or at least the way they thought about culture in writing their report, and I think that's important for us to keep in mind as we move forward. It states:
By “culture”, the ERA refers to the ways in which, over time, people who work or live within a particular organizational and institutional setting develop a shared set of understandings, which allow them to interpret and act upon the world around them. As one expert in organizational behaviour has defined it:
“Organizational culture is the pattern of basic assumptions that a given group has invented, discovered, or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, and that have worked well enough to be considered valid, and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel, in relation to those problems.”
I think this is incredibly relevant to our study and to what we're discussing, because when we think about the problem of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces, this explanation of what organizational culture is helps to highlight how important a role culture plays in not only potentially—as we certainly heard from witnesses—contributing to that problem but also resolving it. This ties in, I think really nicely, with what we heard from many of the witnesses who came and spoke at committee about the need for cultural change.
I'll go on:
Organizational cultures are defined both by the values they espouse (for example in public statements of identity such as Duty With Honour and the DAOD policies), and deeper, tacit assumptions that are embedded, taken-for-granted behaviours. These assumptions are usually unconscious, and so well integrated in the organizational dynamic that members of the organizational culture may not even be able to recognize or identify them.
I think that just shows and underlines how influential culture can be and how it would evidently require a tremendous amount of work to change. That's why I think our report is so important in helping to make recommendations as to how to do that. To go on:
The ways in which these shared assumptions are passed on to new members entering the organization, and in which the organization is able to develop a recognizable identity, are through processes of socialization. For example, training practices, social events, and rites of initiation are all means of bringing new members into an established group. Multiple sub-cultures will, of course, exist in any organization, particularly one as large and diverse as the [Canadian Armed Forces]. These sub-cultures co-exist in overlapping, and sometimes conflicting, ways. At the same time, military organizations generally have particularly strong internal cultures because of their nature as “total institutions”; members of the military live, work, train and socialize together within a closely regulated environment, largely set apart from the rest of society. The particular intensity of experience associated with training, combat, and the overall mission of the organization, also lends to the growth of a strong organizational culture.
I think this is incredibly relevant to our study as well, because there are a few points here that are worthy of underlining. One is the element that the Canadian Armed Forces operates to a great extent distinctly from civilian society, so the culture that it develops is unique. That's one of the points that's been made here, but another one is that because of that intensity of those interaction—“socialization” is the word that I think was used by the Deschamps report—that culture is even more strongly ingrained and entrenched in the organization.
Again, this underlines, I think, the degree to which culture, when it needs to be changed, requires a tremendous amount of effort, especially in the case of the Canadian Armed Forces, because, as I think what the Deschamps report is arguing here, the culture is more ingrained than it would be in most other organizations and it's more distinct than the cultures of most organizations from the rest of Canadian society.
Going on, it says:
The development of group culture can be a very positive phenomenon. Indeed, it is through shared assumptions and understandings that groups develop organizational cohesion, loyalty, and camaraderie, and are able to act together in efficient and effective ways to achieve their objectives. Throughout its consultations, the ERA observed many powerful and positive manifestations of the organizational culture of the CAF. Participants expressed their deep commitment to, and engagement in, the broader mission of the Canadian Armed Forces. Sparkling eyes, engaged voices and active participation in the interviews conveyed the sense of fulfillment these members experience both in their day-to-day work, and in their participation in the broader community of the armed forces. The ERA met with participants, both men and women, who appeared genuinely happy with their experiences in their unit. Participants indicated that military life allows them not only to contribute to society, but also to exercise their chosen trade or profession and to have an opportunity to move up the social ladder. The CAF provides them with the comfort of a family and the benefits of a rewarding work environment.
At the same time, however, the consultations revealed that there is a sexualized culture in the CAF, particularly among members of lower rank. This sexualized culture is manifested through the pervasive use of language that is demeaning to women, sexual jokes and innuendos, and low-level harassment. While the ERA heard fewer reports of sexual assault, it was clear that the occurrence of sexual harassment and sexual assault are integrally related, and that to some extent both are rooted in cultural norms that permit a degree of discriminatory and harassing conduct within the organization.
I wanted to pause there. I wanted to highlight this for members of the committee, because I think this is really echoing and reinforcing and perhaps going into some detail that we couldn't get into in our hearings with witnesses about the pervasiveness of culture, how the Canadian Armed Forces has a distinct culture and that it is deeply entrenched.
This last part was speaking to the fact, to what we've heard from victims, from people who've studied this issue, that there's this—and I'm quoting from the Deschamps report—“sexualized culture” in the Canadian Armed Forces. Here the Deschamps report talks about how it manifests itself in some of those cases, and I think what's striking as well about this is that this particular paragraph to me was a good reminder of how pervasive sexual harassment and sexual misconduct can be because it can appear in everyday interactions as “language that is demeaning to women, sexual jokes and innuendos”, etc.
I thought this was an important element to highlight, especially around organizational culture and how it's defined, and how it both manifests itself in the Canadian Armed Forces and how that ties in with what we've heard from witnesses.
One of the things that the Deschamps report also looked at was the differences between naval, land and air forces, colleges and reserve units, and that's something I don't know that we had a lot of time to hear from witnesses on in our study. I just want to highlight a few of the findings there.
I'm reading from the report:
Interviewees consistently described cultural differences between the Air Force, the Navy and the Army, and it is clear that different subcultures exist within the three different service areas. For example, participants described members of the Air Forces as more “mature and educated” and the Air Force environment as one in which “skills are more valued”. However, ultimately there were no substantive differences between the three subcultures with respect to the nature, frequency or severity of sexual harassment and assault reported to the ERA. Neither was there any evidence that the responses of the CAF to such conduct were better or more effective in any one particular service. As such, the ERA’s findings and recommendations apply equally to all three branches of the CAF.
That's an important insight to add to what we've heard about culture, but this element of the Deschamps report talks about the fact that when it comes to sexual misconduct, there aren't differences between the different units, or between the air force, the navy and the army.
In the colleges the ERA visited—the Collège militaire royal du Canada and the Royal Military College of Canada—participants reported that sexual harassment is considered a “passage obligé”, and sexual assault an ever-present risk. One officer cadet joked that they do not report sexual harassment because it happens all the time.
When I read this, this to me was absolutely striking. We've heard a lot of horrific things about some of the behaviour, but this really struck me. It basically said that sexual harassment is essentially a rite of passage, and harassment is so commonplace that nobody reports it. That's important to highlight.
Experiences in reserve units appear to be more mixed; while members in several units reported a highly respectful environment, other units appear to have adopted a sexualized culture similar to the regular forces. Because of the constraints of the Review, the ERA did not have the opportunity to delve into the causes of the differences between various units. Therefore, no distinction is made in the Report between reserve units or between reserve and regular members.
In general, the ERA found that the locations where incidents of inappropriate sexual conduct occur are diverse. Although a number of interviewees mentioned that sexual assaults are more likely to occur in barracks, incidents of sexual harassment do not appear to be limited to particular locations or hours. As such, the ERA could not conclude that simple changes to physical facilities were likely to reduce the occurrence of inappropriate sexual conduct.
This is an important insight that ties in nicely with what we heard from many of our witnesses. We've heard about organizational culture, and we talked about the need to change culture. We've heard many people and many witnesses speak to some of the steps that need to be taken, and the challenges that are involved in that.
The report spoke to that, as I alluded to earlier in my intervention. This is underlining that further, because it's basically showing that simple changes like the ones to physical facilities didn't appear, according to Deschamps, to be the sorts of things that were likely to reduce the occurrence of inappropriate sexual conduct. That's important to think about as we build our report and recommendations.
The other thing we didn't have a chance to delve into as much as we would like, or at least I would like, but are useful to highlight here is the difference between ranks. The Deschamps report took a look at that. It said:
During the consultations—more particularly during focus group discussions with junior and senior non-commissioned members (NCMs)—the ERA found that there is a prevailing sexualized environment characterized by the frequent use of sexualized language, sexual jokes, innuendos, discriminatory comments with respect to the abilities of female members of the military, and less serious but unwelcome sexual touching, such as touching an individual’s shoulder or back without her consent. While the degree to which this sexualized culture is evident may vary across regular and reserve, Naval, Land and Air Forces, and as between individual units and different ranks, the ERA found that it is widespread, and frequently condoned. Specifically, the ERA found that this sexualized culture creates a climate conducive to more serious incidents of sexual misconduct.
This is also an important insight that I want to highlight. Because this behaviour, according to the Deschamps report, is frequently condoned, it enables more serious incidents of sexual misconduct. Not only are those “less serious”—to use the language in the report—incidents not being dealt with and not being stopped, and people aren't being punished for that. On top of that, that permissiveness allows for more serious incidents of sexual misconduct.
I'll go on.
More specifically, a significant majority of lower rank women who participated in the Review reported being exposed to frequent and demeaning sexualized language. As one interviewee put it, “all women have experienced to a certain extent how men do not want them in the military”.
I think there are so many reasons we need to address this issue of sexual misconduct in the military, but this is one of the.... I think the testimony from this particular woman highlights one of the reasons it's so important. She's basically saying that all women who are in the forces have experienced, to some extent, men not wanting them in the military. It must be incredibly demeaning. It must be incredibly difficult to serve under those circumstances. I think it's another good reminder, which ties in with what we've heard from our witnesses about the importance of addressing this problem.
I'm reading from the report:
Another participant put it more bluntly, referring to the frequency with which women experience inappropriate sexual conduct in the CAF: “There is not a female who has not had a problem”.
That just shows how pervasive it is.
Experiences with sexual harassment and sexual assault begin as early as basic training, where inappropriate language used by trainers appears to go unpunished. The consultations revealed that more serious conduct, such as dubious sexual encounters between trainers and trainees and date rape, is also prevalent.
It's really difficult to read that. It's just difficult.
At the same time, interviewees commented that trainees are reluctant to call the behaviour of their trainers into question for fear of negative repercussions. As a result, many women trainees learn to keep their concerns to themselves early on.
Amongst the NCMs, the use of language that belittles women is commonplace. Interviewees reported regularly being told of orders to “stop being pussies” and to “leave your purses at home”. Swear words and highly degrading expressions that reference women’s bodies are endemic.