I believe we've been through this a number of times already, Madam Chair. I'm sure the format is quite familiar to all members of the committee.
The motion reads as follows: “That pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the Standing Committee on National Defence, concerning its study on addressing sexual misconduct issues in the Canadian Armed Forces, including the allegations against former chief of defence staff Jonathan Vance and the allegations against chief of defence staff Art McDonald, invite Katie Telford, chief of staff to the Prime Minister, to testify for no less than two hours; that the meeting be held in public and be televised; and that the witness be called to testify within seven days of this motion passing.
That is being sent to the clerk right now. I believe that if the clerk checks his inbox, it will be there.
Madam Chair, the purpose of that motion is to follow up on testimony we heard last week, after having Elder Marques at committee. He made it very clear that he was instructed by Katie Telford to get in contact with the PCO and with the chief of staff to the Minister of National Defence.
If we look at this chronologically, we know that on March 1, 2018, we had the former ombudsman for the Canadian Armed Forces, Gary Walbourne, try to give evidence to the Minister of National Defence, Harjit Sajjan, that there was a complaint of sexual misconduct against Jonathan Vance when he was the chief of the defence staff. We know that Mr. Sajjan pushed away that evidence, but he did pass on the exchange and that discussion with the ombudsman to his chief of staff, Zita Astravas.
Based upon the testimony of Elder Marques, Zita Astravas, whom we have asked to appear at this committee in the past but has yet to do so, then went to Katie Telford, chief of staff to the Prime Minister, to inform her that this complaint of sexual misconduct had come forward. That information was then shared with Elder Marques on March 2. That information was then passed down to the Clerk of the Privy Council. Meetings and conversations, as Elder Marques talked about during his testimony last week, included multiple conversations with both the chief of staff to the minister, Zita Astravas, and multiple conversations with Katie Telford, chief of staff to the Prime Minister.
It is very much germane to our study to find out what Katie Telford was told. How much did she direct this investigation and ultimately a cover-up? We know that the investigation never took place, that once they made the decision at the Privy Council Office that the information was being withheld, by the middle of March all of this was swept under the rug. Former Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick said that he lost the line of sight on this issue concerning sexual misconduct by General Vance.
Madam Chair, we need to find out if Katie Telford briefed the Prime Minister. We need to find out how much of the information and emails that went back and forth among Janine Sherman and Zita Astravas and Michael Wernick, as well as Elder Marques, was handed in to her office, and directly to her as chief of staff; whether or not she ever briefed the Prime Minister; and whether or not she shared that information with others within the Prime Minister's Office and the PCO.
We know that there were briefing notes prepared by both Mr. Wernick and Janine Sherman of conversations they had. In all these emails and briefings, they always talked about sexual misconduct, quite contrary to the Prime Minister's saying that he didn't know it was a #MeToo allegation until afterward. We need to make sure that we get down to the bottom of this information.
The only way we can do that, Madam Chair—and I believe my colleagues will agree—is that we have to have Katie Telford appear at this committee for two hours. This isn't something new. We're not setting any precedent here, because we know that Katie Telford appeared to discuss the WE scandal previously in this Parliament.
She has said on the record that she takes responsibility for all staff in the Prime Minister's Office. She needs to appear before us, explain what information Zita Astravas gave her on on March 1 and March 2, what she did with that information, and if she did not inform Prime Minister Trudeau, why she didn't tell him that something this egregious had occurred and was not followed up on.
She needs to tell us why this information was withheld from the Prime Minister. Was it because of circumstances that were happening at that time, including the Prime Minister's own issue at that time? There were others issues happening within the Prime Minister's Office. We know that on March 8, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman was charged by the RCMP over an investigation directed by the Prime Minister's Office itself. There are a lot of things that were at play there. We need to get down to the bottom of how this had an impact and ultimately how they left General Vance in charge of the Canadian Armed Forces and in charge of Operation Honour and undermined stomping out sexual misconduct within the armed forces for the past three years.
We could have dealt with this back in 2018. This committee has been dealing with this issue for three months now. It is time. As we have said in the past, we want to make sure we respect the timelines that are available. We want to make sure....
Actually, I see that this is not in the motion. I would like to add at the bottom of this that we respect the timelines that were agreed to on the April 6 meeting, I think, as requested by the Bloc Québécois. That way, we can ensure that we get this study wrapped up and the drafting of the report for our analysts can continue moving forward. Our committee can consider that draft report at the end of May and we can get it tabled back in the House by early June.
Madam Chair, I ask that all our colleagues around this table, regardless of political affiliation, will do the right thing in discovering the truth of what happened with the allegations back on March 1, 2018. I ask that we all strive to protect the men and women in uniform, especially those who have been subjected to sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and sexual assault.
At the end of the day, we want to make sure that we are bringing about the change that will make sure that women and men can work together knowing that they are respected, that they are equals and that they are safe in that work environment. Serving in the Canadian Armed Forces is dangerous enough as it is in the tasks that we expect them to undertake; the last thing that they should ever have to be fighting is sexual misconduct within the forces.
Thank you.