Mr. Speaker, an investigation by Maclean's and L'actualité recently revealed cases of sexual assault within our Canadian Forces. This is a serious and worrisome situation.
Every day, five victims, men and women, but mostly women, are sexually assaulted. If we extrapolate over a 20-year period, there are 36,500 cases. If we consider that there are roughly 10,000 women in the Canadian Forces, then we might say that every woman who has a career in the forces will be a victim of these disgraceful acts one day or another. This is simply unacceptable.
We have had it with the inaction and empty action of the defence ministers, Liberal and Conservative alike. We must establish an independent judicial inquiry and have someone other than the forces look at this problem if we want real answers about such things as the aspects of military culture that aggravate this problem. If we want more women to join the Canadian Forces, then we must first keep them safe.
After all, they are our daughters, our sisters, our mothers.