Yes, within the Department of National Defence, the minister has the obligation to investigate all flight safety problems. The department has delegated that authority to my boss, the Director of Flight Safety, who is also responsible for investigations under the Technical Airworthiness Program. When we conduct an investigation we do it independently. The chain of command does not influence our report. The report is not signed by the Minister of Defence or by the Chief of the Air Staff, the report is signed by my boss, and it is an independent report. It is an independent organization. A certain number of investigators are trained specifically for this type of investigation.
On February 12th, 2007. See this statement in context.