Mr. Chair, the only thing I have is the order in council, which basically told me what to do: I was a special adviser to the minister. There was no requirement for any kind of reporting, short of my annual report, which the minister would table at his convenience in Parliament. The other constraint was the requirement that the minister was to be in possession of other reports for 60 days before we would publicize them.
I might also add that within my mandate the direction in the order in council is to resolve things at the lowest level. As I have said many times, I spent two and a half years trying to build trust and confidence, working with the deputy minister and senior management to resolve things. I didn't want to bring everything to the minister. I felt that should be a last-ditch effort.
It wasn't until three or four months ago that I realized that in all of the promises—that veterans are first and that they'd do anything to support me—I had been duped and that I'd failed my veterans in terms of the escalation of forces I would use to ultimately go to the minister and have some of these issues addressed.
Had I had another term, there's no doubt in my mind that I would not have done what I did on August 17, because I recognize that you can't turn a bureaucracy on a dime: I have worked at National Defence headquarters.