Yes, thank you, Chair.
Then on harassment, this is one of the most serious issues facing the RCMP today. It's a part of the culture. You have fiefdoms where arbitrary conduct can go unseen. You have some isolated posting where they're all subject to a certain sergeant, and perpetrators are then often protected by that loyalty. Some staff sergeant gets in trouble or there's a complaint and then it goes up and it's a chief super who used to be posted with that staff sergeant, and that complaint is going nowhere.
Moreover, when you get to the loyalty issues, anyone who complains is by definition seen as disloyal. I'm sure you've heard this again and again on the cases of the class actions involving female RCMP officers; well, it applies otherwise. If you bring a complaint of harassment, you are instantly singled out and subject to reprisal, and that's a problem. There's no independent adjudication, and it's not subject to collective bargaining. Where members need it the most, they don't have it.
Those are the submissions that I wanted to make primarily. I have a couple of other points that maybe will come out in the questions, but I don't see why the government wants to shield this kind of conduct from independent grievances—harassment. I've heard Minister Goodale say last week that they're going to try to make changes, and we take him at his word, but this problem is deeply entrenched in the culture. I think if you expose it to the sunlight of collective agreement bargaining representation, that will take care of it.
Thank you very much.