It's an opinion I share and one I've articulated many times over the years that I've been on this committee.
Richard Shimooka, who was at this committee, said:
Public understanding of the military is at an all-time low and contributes to the lack of support. This is in part due to the lack of open information available and the adversarial relationship that has developed between government and outside bodies over access to information.
Just to add to that, I think we have to make sure that ATIPs are happening in a more efficient manner. We know for a fact that some of my own ATIPs that were submitted in the past were outstanding for over five years. I had five over the five years and some were up to seven years old. Four of them were finally acted upon because Bill Matthews and Bill Blair showed up at committee and heard the complaints. Now, four out of five have all of a sudden magically been answered.
We have heard from former serving and current serving members about the challenges they've had with everything from ATIPs to the Military Grievances External Review Committee. The Information Commissioner herself, who you know has taken the Department of National Defence and the minister to court on three separate occasions, says that the issues are the same and haven't changed much. She worked at the Military Grievances External Review Committee over 10 years ago.
Have you had conversations with the minister and deputy minister on the need to prioritize information and the fact that, as we know, we don't have all the appointees sitting at the committee right now? If we're going to properly represent and stand up for our troops, that grievances committee, one, has to be more quick to act and, two, has to have a full slate of committee members.