Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Gauthier, thank you for joining us today.
The more I listen to the witnesses, the more difficult the situation seems to be. Your service was created in 1998 to promote open-mindedness and transparency within the Canadian Forces and the Department of National Defence. But as we know, the ombudsman can provide opinions, but cannot impose anything.
I am really at a loss because we have the Canadian Forces, the National Defence, the grievances within the army and the procedures to deal with it all. At the end of the day, isn't there a certain code of silence that, by the time the information gets to you, it has been sanitized and you don't really get the real numbers on harassment and sexual harassment?