Thank you, Mr. Christopherson.
Before we go to Ms. Jennings, I have a question I want to follow up on from the last answer, Mr. Spice--and to you, Assistant Commissioner Conlin.
You answered a number of questions by saying it depends on the integrity of the people in the office. You people have obviously been following this sequence of events over the last six or eight months. We had an ethics officer. The evidence was, Mr. Spice, that they came to you. You didn't have much in the way of resources or capacity, and there wasn't much done. That was reflected in Mr. Brown's report:
The Ethics Advisor had no established role, very limited resources to support the function and no regional presence. Further, the high turnover rate--six individuals in six years--further limited the confidence members could develop in the person of the Ethics Advisor.
I want to get a comment from you on the structure of the organization. I disagree with Assistant Commissioner Conlin about the integrity of the people. There may be integrity now, but you have to have a system that protects the system. There has to be governance and a challenge function.
The basic establishment of the RCMP is paramilitary or command and control--whatever you want to call it. It's probably fair to say that it has worked over the years, but when things go wrong they go very wrong, and there's nothing to bring the train back onto the rails. That's what we've seen here. I really disagree that it depends on the integrity of the individuals. There has to be an organizational structure so that when things veer off, there's a self-correcting system and they veer back onto the road. We haven't seen that here. Certainly there's a lot of power in the position of the commissioner, and when things go wrong they go very wrong.
Have you watched this, Mr. Spice, retired assistant commissioner, over the last six months? Do you have any comments as to how the organization could be better structured so this will never happen again? As Mr. Lake pointed out, I think that is the objective of everyone in this room.