I agree wholeheartedly that we should not turn this issue into an overly partisan game. We want to protect women in the Canadian Armed Forces. We don't want to read any more articles like the one that came out yesterday about a senior female officer who had to resign from the forces because she was disgusted with the culture in the Canadian Forces. The story was about Eleanor Taylor. We know that, because we all read the article.
The committee needs to conduct further studies, but we will conduct them later. The important thing is that we address this issue as quickly as possible. We can deal with the issue at the same time as the Standing Committee on National Defence. As Ms. Alleslev said, the two committees will not be hearing the same witnesses, with the exception of Ms. Deschamps. They will hear from different witnesses, who will shed a different light on this issue.
I hope that, within the next hour, we will be able to come to an agreement so that the committee can proceed with the study. I would remind you that this is a study that the Standing Committee on the Status of Women was supposed to do before the last election was called in 2019. So our committee had already attempted to address the issue of violence in the military.
I feel it's very important. We started out by voting to have four meetings, but now we are adding other witnesses. I'm afraid that will only water everything down. Let's start by hearing the witnesses on the list and having the four meetings. After that, we can agree to add witnesses.
Ms. Vandenbeld, the list you suggested certainly makes a lot of sense. In fact, when the time comes, I'll be happy to hear from the people on it, but we have to start somewhere. We have scheduled the meetings to start on March 23. Let's begin with the witnesses. Our committee can come to a consensus; it's what we do. The committee is consensus-based and serves first and foremost as an advocate for women and to advance the status of women.
For all these reasons, I believe we should use the next 20 minutes to agree on the motion, and then begin our study next week.
I want to thank everyone for their work on this committee, which plays such an essential role.