Thank you very much.
This is a critically important question. No victim of sexual assault should be treated with anything but respect and dignity and compassion. We have seen the impact and the reluctance that many people have of coming forward because they're fearful of how they will be perceived and the experience of the criminal justice system. I can tell you that the RCMP's goal is to strengthen public trust overall in policing, but also to ensure that we encourage and support victims of sexual assault to come forward and report these serious crimes. One of the important parts of preventing them is to make sure that those who engage in such activity are held to account and that we provide good supports for people who have been victimized.
In their December 17 report “The Way Forward: The RCMP’s Sexual Assault Review and Victim Support Action Plan”, which the commissioner presented to us, they outlined concrete steps to, first of all, strengthen police training and awareness, enhance victim support—I spoke about that a little earlier—increase their investigative accountability and improve public education and communication.
In my personal experience, I remember that many years ago an absurd number of sexual assaults were deemed to be unfounded, and it was because if there was not substantive evidence that the assault had occurred, police services were determining them to be unfounded. Quite frankly, that's the wrong measure. If there is overwhelming evidence that it did not occur, then it may be unfounded, but in the vast majority of cases, that evidence doesn't exist. It's absolutely critical that victims of sexual assault be treated, as I said, with respect, with compassion, and provided with the supports. Even if they don't want to pursue a criminal investigation, we still have a responsibility to them, to provide support services, to help them recover from the trauma of their victimization.