Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I would like to remind my hon. colleague that the hon. member for Kanata—Carleton served 31 years, was the first female squadron commander in the Canadian Air Force and has an incredibly honourable career serving Canadians.
I appreciate the opportunity to share more details about the independent external comprehensive review of our military. It is clear that our previous efforts to address sexual misconduct did not achieve their goals. It is clear that people are still being harmed. This is completely unacceptable.
Sexual misconduct in the military is a systemic issue that dates back decades, which no government has effectively tackled, including the member opposite when she was part of Prime Minister Harper's Conservative government. That is why we are taking action by having Madame Louise Arbour conduct an independent review.
I would like to comment about the choice of Louise Arbour to do this. No only is she a former Supreme Court Justice, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, but she notably was also on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. In that position, she was one of the first internationally to ensure that under international jurisprudence that rape was considered a war crime. This is the person in whom we have entrusted finding out exactly how we are to combat sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and sexual violence within the Canadian Armed Forces. She is eminently qualified to do that.
We need to know why harassment and sexual misconduct persist within the Canadian Armed Forces despite extensive and concerted efforts to eliminate them. We need to know what the barriers are that make it difficult to report inappropriate behaviour. We need to know how we can respond more effectively when people choose to report. The answers to those questions and more will inform recommendations, and I would note recommendations that the Minister of National Defence has said will be binding, of Madame Arbour's report on preventing and addressing harassment and sexual misconduct in our military and creating the conditions for lasting change.
As Madame Arbour conducts this review, she will build on previous independent reviews concerning the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces. She will assess our progress in applying the recommendations of the Deschamps report. She will coordinate with the Hon. Morris Fish, who is finalizing his review of the National Defence Act. She will consider reports by the Auditor General as well as other internal audits, reviewing their findings and recommendations.
To be clear, we are not discarding the findings and recommendations of these previous reviews. Madame Arbour will expand on them, taking a broader look at the how and why sexual misconduct continues to be a pervasive issue in our military. We will look to her for guidance on how we can set up an independent external reporting system for defence team members that better meets the needs of those who experience sexual misconduct.
We will look to her for support to ensure our military justice system can properly respond to incidents; to strengthen our existing structure across the defence team, including the sexual misconduct response centre, to instill greater confidence in those who need support; and to review our evaluation and promotion system in the Canadian Armed Forces, with a focus on how our organizations select and train its leaders.
Madame Arbour will carry out this work transparently and independently from the chain of command, with input from appropriate stakeholders inside and outside the defence team. Throughout the process, she will provide interim recommendations that we can implement right away. I know Madame Arbour's insights will be critical to these efforts.