Thanks very much, Madam Chair.
I feel the need to respond to what Mr. Bezan said about it being callous to read the testimony of survivors who presented to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. After Mr. Bezan spoke, I looked up the definition of “callous”. It says, “Showing or having an insensitive and cruel disregard for others”.
The only thing to me that would be callous would be if this committee didn't undertake to listen to the survivors, heed their stories and act on what they're recommending and asking, what many of them have been pleading with the government to do, and have been pleading for for far too long. That would be callous.
Sharing their stories that they have had the courage to share publicly is not callous. They need to be heard. If we don't hear them, how will we ensure that those listening know that it's time for change? If we don't share those stories and listen to them, how will we understand their concerns—truly understand their concerns—so that we can address them? If we don't share those stories, how do we motivate MPs, people in government, leadership of the armed forces and people throughout the armed forces to act, to do right by those survivors?
It's not callous to share their stories. It's callous to ignore them. It's callous to try to silence them. Most importantly, I think, it's insensitive and cruel. It is callous not to do everything possible to act on these stories.
That's why I continue to share them. We need to honour the courage of the survivors who have come forward to present their stories in a public setting on the record. I'm sharing what they have shared on the record.
I hope Mr. Bezan and others will listen, but most importantly, I hope that they will come around. We're debating right now Mr. Bagnell's amendment to Mr. Bezan's motion. Mr. Bezan's motion is designed to undermine the writing of the report. It means we cannot take what we've heard from the survivors' stories and translate it into action. That would be callous. That would be cruel. That's what I'm fighting for and I'm going to continue.
I want to continue sharing with you what I started sharing in my prior intervention, which Julie Lalonde shared with the status of women committee. It's the tail end of her testimony.
As you will recall, Julie Lalonde was invited to speak to train cadets of the armed forces at the Royal Military College. She spoke about how the third-year cadets in particular mistreated her. One of the members stood up in the classroom amongst 200 of his colleagues to defend her. She called it “un acte de courage du plus haut niveau”. My best interpretation of that is that it was an act of courage of the highest level.
Here is what she said to our colleagues at the status of women committee:
I want to end by reminding you that I am calling on you to do something that I am doing myself. I am not asking you to do something that I am not personally willing to do myself. Since I came forward about my experience a few years ago, I have received thousands of threatening emails, social media messages and even phone calls. I have been accosted at in-person events and I can no longer speak in public on any topic without a security detail. I have paid dearly for my courage, and so it is very disheartening to see those of you with immense power shying away from the hard work that's necessary to make change. Sexual violence has existed within the Canadian Armed Forces for decades. The blame does not lie with one individual, one leader or even one political party. Please keep your eyes on the prize and choose bravery when having this conversation.
I think that testimony is very powerful in any setting, but it's incredibly appropriate here in the context of this discussion. I don't know what Julie Lalonde would say if she were testifying before us right now, but I think that these words that I just shared with you, that she shared at the status of women committee, apply here.
She's asking us to do something. She's asking us to honour her courage. She can't speak in public without being harassed, without a security detail, and she continues to speak out. Certainly, I'm going to share her stories and share her experiences. If she needs a security detail to do it, certainly I can do it in the House of Commons or in this committee. She's asking us to take action.
She talks about the fact that her courage has cost her so much, and when speaking to our colleagues at the status of women committee, she said—and I'm translating from French—that it's incredibly disappointing to see that those of us who have immense power refuse to do the important work that's necessary to change things, that those of us with immense power refuse to do the difficult work that's necessary to change things.
I know that we all have different perspectives on what needs to be done to address sexual harassment and sexual assault in the armed forces—I know that—just like we have different views on a range of topics. That's why we have to do that difficult work of sitting down like we always do, like all committees do in the House of Commons, and debating all of the issues, channelling what we've heard and writing a report that takes action. That's the difficult work that we can do—we must do—if we're going to honour the victims, honour the courage of Julie Lalonde and so many others. That's the difficult work.
That is nothing compared to the courage and the difficult work that Julie Lalonde is doing or that the other survivors whose experiences I've shared, whose testimony I've shared here in this committee before, have shown and have done.
The government members of this committee are asking the opposition members of this committee to do that difficult work. The opposition members, by supporting this motion by Mr. Bezan, are basically saying, “We don't want to do the difficult work. We want it to be easy. We want our way. We want to make a political circus of it.” That's a completely separate topic, but also true.
Yes, coming to a consensus to write this report will be hard. It will be really hard, but it's the only way. It's the only way forward, folks, on this issue for this committee. I really hope that I will not have to look Ms. Lalonde, or any of the other survivors, in the eye, knowing that the committee passed the motion presented by Mr. Bezan. It would result in a “tick the box” report that didn't actually go through the process that's required to get to a good outcome for them.
If that happens, and if Mr. Bezan's motion were to pass, survivors would have every right to say to us what Julie Lalonde said to the status of women committee, which is that it's disappointing to see those of you who have an immense power refuse to do the difficult work that's necessary to change things.
Let's change things. Let's pass Mr. Bagnell's motion. Let's withdraw Mr. Bezan's original motion, and let's get to work on the report.
Thanks, Madam Chair.