Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
This is a substantive amendment that we are proposing. What we're asking here is that the commissioner be bound by the recommendations of the External Review Committee. The External Review Committee was created to provide an appeal mechanism for members and to escape from the rigid paramilitarism, as you might describe it, of the RCMP. This deals with things like dismissal from the force, direction to resign, or demotion. We think these are very serious matters for members of the RCMP, in terms of the future of their careers, down to and including demotion.
This would strengthen the External Review Committee, which was created at the same time as the first public complaints mechanism for the RCMP. It was created to create that kind of balance. If members are subject to complaints from the public and to special investigations as a result of that, they feel that having an external group to look at those conclusions, and to make sure they were fair, would be important.
We heard from the External Review Committee chair herself that she would like to see the recommendations made binding. We heard the same thing from additional witnesses on Monday. This would increase the sense of fairness and the confidence in the fairness of decisions made within the RCMP.