Thank you, Madam Chair.
I loved your pass the perpetrator reference. That was the first time we on this side, and probably both sides, heard that.
I want to talk about some of the recommendations as far as it would go for, say, an employee assistance program.
On February 25, Stats Canada released a report, “Measuring violence against women: Statistical trends”. The report notes that following an incident of violence, Canadian women are statistically more likely than men to disclose the victimization to family and friends: 80% of women versus, say, 56% per men.
Would you say there's a need for access to social and personal support networks alongside the reporting and mediation of an incident of sexual harassment in the workplace? The reason I'm asking is that federal public service employees actually have access to an employee assistance program which provides e-counselling and referrals to local counsellors to assist public service employees in dealing with personal or workplace-related issues, but this service has only been raised once during our meeting.
I wanted to get your thoughts on that.