Thank you, Chair and members, for the invitation to appear before this committee.
Last October I was appointed as external monitor, pursuant to recommendation 48 of the report from the Independent External Comprehensive Review, which was completed, as you know, by former Justice Arbour, and it was made public last year. My mandate is to provide advice and to report on the implementation by DND and the CAF of accepted recommendations from Justice Arbour’s report as well as recommendations from other external reports.
In accordance with the recommendation, I am to provide the minister with a biannual status report. My first report was issued a few weeks ago and it contains my observations from November to the end of April 2023, addressing the progress on about half of Justice Arbour’s recommendations. I will admit that the time frame for a first public report made for an intensive learning curve. That said, I made myself very present in the lives of many people at the DND/CAF, and they were generous with their time.
I've met with many senior leaders in the organization. To them I posed the question, “What have you been doing to address the spirit and intent of the recommendations for which you are responsible, and how is any of it different this time?”
I believe that the revelations regarding senior leaders in 2021 represented a galvanizing moment. I'm seeing a strong will to make things better in the DND/CAF. The organization is fully aware that it needs to maintain a work environment that will attract and retain the best candidates if the CAF is to remain a viable, professional body.
As noted in my first report, I have seen definite progress in addressing a number of the recommendations. Notwithstanding these achievements and the existing actions, the DND/CAF needs to be more strategic in its approach. At this point in time, National Defence is responding to hundreds of recommendations related to culture from several external sources. The recommendations cover a broad set of systems and practices belonging to different organizations within the DND/CAF. Some are complementary and some are not.
I explained in that same report that there is no overarching framework that would allow DND and the CAF to improve the prioritization and horizontal coordination of their efforts. There was some work done to rank the individual recommendations, but it was done without a general focus of effort. This is an essential element, not only to ensure that individual recommendations are implemented, but also to ensure that they produce, as a whole, the positive culture change that is sought.
I believe that the many recommendations this government has accepted need to be rationalized, according to established principles, criteria and themes, so that those recommendations most likely to have the biggest impact on culture change remain the primary focus. I have recently learned that this is happening.
Members of the DND and CAF have consulted broadly, both internally and externally, on the subject of sexual misconduct. They also have readily available information from many stakeholders. Never have they been so informed as to what they need to do and the organizational levers that they need to focus on.
I am now working to ensure that my next report will provide a further update on the recommendations that were addressed in my first report, but will also contain the remainder of the recommendations on topics such as recruitment, promotions, complaints and grievances, and the policy framework surrounding this area.
I also plan to review the data being used, and the implementation of the provisions of the Declaration of Victims Rights, which came into force in June 2022.
I thank you for this opportunity. I look forward to your questions.
