Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister, your government has done a fantastic job of standing around, claiming that it is taking steps to address the unacceptable instances of sexual harassment in our armed forces.
In the past 12 months, sexual misconduct in our Canadian Armed Forces has doubled, and this government has failed. The political leaders of a self-described feminist government, including the Prime Minister and now three ministers of defence, should be ashamed themselves in their failure to stem the flow of institutionalized violence against our young men and women and by being passive, indifferent observers to its growth.
Over the past eight years, survivors and experts have been shouting from the rooftops. Justice Deschamps warned in 2015. Justice Fish warned in 2021. Justice Arbour warned in 2022. Your government's response was to cut a billion dollars and to establish a panel to review military colleges, a panel that your office delayed in creating because you couldn't find seven experts. You spoke to this yesterday.
The experts are the survivors—the young men and women on the receiving end of catcalls, the troops who found themselves in a darkened hallway with a drunk superior at the Christmas party, the women who were pinned up against the bulkhead of a ship and raped. The experts, Minister, are the men and women under your charge who are emotionally, mentally and physically violated.
As a mother myself, I would find it extremely difficult to justify approving of my children joining your Canadian Armed Forces, an organization that has no place for them to live, no sufficient money to pay them, no equipment for them to use, all overseen by a government with no respect for their autonomy.
Responsibility starts and stops with your political leadership. After eight years of inaction and gutting, you, as a new minister, have a lot of work to do.
On top of the billion-dollar cuts, Minister, why has your government, despite allegedly taking steps to address sexual misconduct, allowed instances of sexual harassment to double—double, Minister—in a single year in the CAF?