Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this study on the treatment of women in the Department of National Defence and in the Canadian Armed Forces. I understand that as part of your study you're interested to hear about Operation Honour.
The vice-chief of the defence staff was looking forward to being here today to contribute to your study, but he is now required to appear at the committee of the whole this week, so I've been asked to represent him. It's a poor shadow, but I will try.
With me today I have Dr. Denise Preston, as you have stated, the executive director of the sexual misconduct response centre, and Mr. Alain Gauthier, the director general of the integrated conflict and complaint management program. It is our intent to provide you with an update on where the Canadian Armed Forces' efforts to address sexual misconduct are, and we're here to answer any questions you may have.
Operation Honour is increasingly making the Canadian Armed Forces a safer and more welcoming environment for all, and the leadership of the Canadian Armed Forces is absolutely committed more than ever to stamping out sexual misconduct. In February of this year, our fourth progress report on Operation Honour was published. This report offered a comprehensive overview of what the Canadian Armed Forces has accomplished to date in an effort to eliminate sexual misconduct. It also provides an analysis, statistics and information on a variety of initiatives that have been undertaken across the Canadian Armed Forces.
My opening remarks today will constitute a brief synopsis of that report and touch on a few of the more recent developments regarding Operation Honour.
Operation Honour was initiated in 2015. In recent years, we have significantly evolved and are confident that we have completed important foundational work, which was essential to addressing sexual misconduct and effectively supporting those affected by it.
It is important to state upfront, however, that, while we are consistently looking at ways to improve our approach, we have not gotten everything right. We recognize that there is much left to do. We have learned a lot through our own experience and analysis, through the collaborative work we do with the Sexual Misconduct Response Centre, from the assessment of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, and from the feedback provided by external experts and stakeholders.
Some of the measures we have implemented along the way have resulted in unintended consequences, and some of the initiatives and changes did not deliver the desired outcome. For instance, we've not made sufficient progress in key areas such as policy and strategic cultural change. That has hampered our overall effort.
We've acknowledged that more work is required, specifically with respect to the 10 recommendations made by the external review authority, Madame Deschamps. Those 10 recommendations remain the primary barometer for our progress, and we're committed to implementing them to the fullest extent possible. This commitment is explicitly stated in the defence policy—“Strong, Secure, Engaged”.
Sexual misconduct, however, is a difficult and a complex issue, as Dr. Breeck mentioned, and there is still much to learn. In light of the Auditor General's findings and our own internal review of Operation Honour, we have assessed our progress on the implementation of the recommendations and determined the adjustments required in our approach in order to achieve that intent.
Currently we feel that two of the external review authority's recommendations have been fully achieved. The first is to acknowledge the problem: The Canadian Armed Forces has acknowledged that we have a significant problem. The second is to undertake and to address it, and to simplify the harassment resolution process, which includes sexual harassment.
One more has been achieved in a manner that meets the intent of the recommendation, while maintaining consistency with the Canadian Armed Forces' structural, functional and jurisdictional parameters. That is to allow victims of sexual assault to request the transfer of the complaint to civilian authorities.
We continue to make progress to varying degrees on the remaining seven recommendations, which are to establish a cultural change strategy; to establish a centre of accountability; to allow independent reporting without triggering a formal complaint process; to develop definitions and terminology; to develop a unified policy approach; to assign responsibility for providing, coordinating and monitoring victim support to the support centre; and to assign to the centre the responsibility for the development of the training curriculum and for the monitoring of training on matters related to inappropriate sexual behaviour.
I will now briefly expand on what we are doing to address these deficiencies.
We are currently developing a campaign plan to focus our efforts on moving forward. This plan will be informed by advice from external experts. It will have clear lines of efforts, as well as dedicated resources to ensure success. It will drive our work in areas such as prevention, engagement, policy development, cultural change and victim support.
Support for victims has been, and will continue to be, our main effort for the next phase of Operation Honour. It will be our priority to ensure that victims remain confident that the Canadian Armed Forces will support them through all legal and administrative processes. We will ensure that they have access to the support and services required to recover from the harm done to them.
The sexual misconduct response centre plays an essential role in providing—