Thank you, Mr. Harris. Thanks for the question, MP Blaney.
First off, here at centralized operations division, we established a military sexual trauma unit in 2020 in order to deal with the files that were coming forward in regard to sexual trauma, sexual harassment, and gender-based discrimination in the Canadian Armed Forces.
Since we established that unit in 2020, we have received approximately 3,580 claims over the past number of years. We have done a lot of work with regard to our policies and procedures to address and deal with these types of claims when they come forward.
For example, we have updated our policies to accept the applicant's statement. That means they do not need to provide corroborating evidence. Very specifically when we're dealing with cases of sexual misconduct, that often happens in private. There are often no witnesses to verify or to vouch for the claimant. We have accepted their applicant statement as evidence, and we move forward from there.
In addition to that, we give the MST, military sexual trauma, claims high priority. They go into their own queue, and they are processed on a priority basis. Oftentimes it takes years for applicants to come forward, bring these stories forward to us, and submit their claims. We're very sensitive to that.
In addition, we have done a lot of training with our disability adjudication staff so that they have what we call informed trauma training. The staff is sensitive to the issues that are being brought forward and are able to communicate with our clients in a sensitive and respectful way, because, of course, these issues are very difficult for people to bring forward.