Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank my colleagues and our guests for being here in person this evening.
Col. Jardine, it is my great pleasure to see you again, sincerely. You have done a brilliant job in this position. I am not saying I will always agree with what you say, but I have enormous respect for you.
I would like to go back to a few things you said in your presentation.
You said that the Canadian Armed Forces was a predominantly male institution and its approach to implementing gender integration and equal opportunity had been to simply absorb women into its ranks by ignoring their differences as much as possible. You said it seemed to make sense, and for the most part, you service women wanted only to be treated the same as men. You concluded by saying that today, however, we knew that the differences and the many intersectoral factors associated with women veterans were key to understanding and meeting their unique needs.
There is an important dichotomy there, that is, the desire for an egalitarian vision in the Canadian Armed Forces and, at the same time, the desire for there to be recognition of the distinctiveness or uniqueness of being a woman.
How do you think these two visions can be reconciled and a balance struck, if that is possible?