Evidence of meeting #53 for Status of Women in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cases.
A video is available from Parliament.
NDP
The Chair NDP Marie-Claude Morin
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the 53rd meeting of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we are continuing our study on sexual harassment in the federal workplace.
Joining us this morning is Alain Gauthier, representing the National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman.
Mr. Gauthier, since you gave your presentation last time you were here, we are going to proceed to the questions right away.
Ms. Truppe, you have seven minutes.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Mr. Gauthier, for coming back to us again today for this important study.
You indicated that your mandate is “to investigate and make recommendations to improve the overall well-being and quality of life of the members of the Defence community.”
Could you indicate what form these recommendations take? For example, are they based on individual cases, are they broader policy and training recommendations, or are they referred to you specifically, and then, by whom? Are you able to select your own topics for review?
Alain Gauthier Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
We do provide recommendations on an individual basis. In my initial remarks, I mentioned that we receive about 1,400 to 1,500 complaints on a yearly basis. All these are individual cases that we address. In most cases, we try to resolve the issue at the lowest level possible by communicating with the commanding officer, the base commander, or the element to find and resolve the issue.
All we have is the ability to provide recommendations. We cannot supersede our review or investigation to the decision of the decision-maker within the Canadian Forces. We only have the ability to turn around and say, “The office has reviewed your case. This is what we recommend to the chain of command”. It is up to them to decide if they want to implement our recommendation.
We also look at the more systemic issues. If we start to see many, many similar issues related to something fairly specific, and if we believe there's an issue within the system as such, the ombudsman has the ability on its own to initiate an investigation of the systemic issues.
We would carry out a longer investigation and come up with recommendations. This would be a written report that would be, in most cases, given directly to the minister for his review and comment. After 28 days, the report would become public and available, as well as posted on our website.
Conservative
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
The report that we produce on a systemic investigation becomes public.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
How many of those would you have out of the 1,400 or 1,500?
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
It really depends. Over the history of the office over the last 10 years, I would say a couple of dozen reports have been produced. This year we have been fairly active. Concurrently, at this time, we've just published two recent reports and we're working on three more systemic issues as we speak.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Can you give an example of a systemic investigation?
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
Yes.
We have just published two reports. The report on operational stress injuries for regular forces was published at the end of August or early September, and two weeks ago the ombudsman released a report on reserved care.
We're currently working on three specific ones. One deals with Canadian Forces families. It pertains to longer systemic issues. We're working on delays in grievance and claims from a compensation and benefits point of view, and we're doing a case study on Cold Lake for the quality of life of our serving members over there.
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
Yes.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
At what point is the case referred to you? How do you end up with the case?
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
Do you mean individual cases?
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
When people call us, we open a file. They either call, they send an e-mail, or they send a complaint online.
Conservative
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
They're not happy with an issue within the CF or DND, because we also cover all civilian personnel.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Are you the final appeal? If they're still not happy, is that it?
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
I wouldn't say we're the final appeal, because we have no authority to take any decision. Once again, we're there to provide recommendations to either the Canadian Forces or the Department of National Defence. That's about the extent of our mandate. A lot of our work is done to inform, educate, refer, and facilitate conflict resolution with the complainants who are calling us.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
You were saying you were only there to make recommendations, so if you had 1,400 to 1,500 cases per year, do you know or do you tabulate how many of your recommendations are taken?
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
I would say, out of the 1,500, a very large proportion are resolved within 30 days. Through alternate dispute resolution, communication, or calling the chain of command, we find positive resolutions. There are about 200 cases that are investigated on an annual basis. Out of those 200 cases, we do provide our recommendation to say the person has been treated fairly and we recommend X, Y, and Z. I'm not tracking specific statistics to see what percentage is supported by the department, but I would say it's easily 50% to 60%.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Okay. Thank you.
In your opening remarks I think you had also noted that you assist individuals to bring forward issues or concerns related to the fairness that need to be brought forward to the department on the individual's behalf. What type of intervention can your office make with the department that an individual can't make on their own so that they have to go to you? What do you do differently? What do you do that they can't do?
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
It really depends on the type of complaint. If I go specifically for harassment, for example—
December 4th, 2012 / 8:50 a.m.
Acting Director General, Operations, National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman
—we're not allowed to review the decision of the CF or DND, the decision-maker, to say that this was considered as harassment or it wasn't. The only thing we're allowed to review and make recommendations on is the process, so it's about procedural fairness: was the member treated in accordance with existing regulations? Did he receive the notification that he was allowed for disclosure, representation, and a written decision?
It's about whether the process was followed. That is about the extent of what we can do on individual cases.