Debates of June 17th, 2021

André Gagnon

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise on behalf of the NDP caucus to pay tribute to André Gagnon.

While I have not had the privilege of working as closely with him as some of the other members who just spoke, I do know one former member, a former deputy speaker, another Blaikie, who has had the opportunity to work closely with him. He sends his regards to Mr. Gagnon on his retirement.

The House is losing one of the greatest clerks it has ever had and an extraordinary man.

Clerk since the 1990s and deputy clerk of procedure since 2014, André Gagnon has left his mark in the House of Commons. Everyone will agree that his work ethic and his respect for the institution are exemplary.

Among the New Democrats, a number of qualifiers have been used to describe him, including “professional”, “courteous”, “neutral” and “skilled”. He has a great sense of humour, even in the weirdest situations, like when he inversed voting results on October 21, 2020.

André has a solid understanding of procedure from having studied and analyzed it so thoroughly. Perhaps that is why his hair seems to get darker with time, rather than turning grey.

He has excellent general knowledge, too. He knows all the classics in music, from Zabé to Fugain, as well as contemporary music.

André knows that nobody is irreplaceable. He knows that others will follow in his footsteps with the same passion for procedure and the same work ethic, and that they will take up their duties with as much respect for members, for the rules and for this institution, the House of Commons.

Nevertheless, his departure is still a great loss for the House. André has been one of the greatest clerks the House has ever known. I thank him for his professionalism, his wise counsel and his sense of humour. Thank you for everything, André, and happy retirement.

On behalf of the NDP caucus, I thank André very much for sharing his knowledge and wisdom throughout the years. We wish him the best in his future plans.

The House resumed from June 16 consideration of the motion.

Government's Alleged Non-compliance with an Order of the House

[The Speaker, Anthony Rota]

It being 3:25 p.m., pursuant to order made on Monday, January 25, the House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on the question of privilege in the name of the member for Louis-Saint-Laurent.

Call in the members.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Vote #148

Privilege

[The Speaker, Anthony Rota]

I declare the motion carried.

Business of the House

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, House Leader of the Official Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, as I ask today's Thursday question, we are entering the final sprint before the summer break. I say “break” because in politics, there are never any real holidays. It is a summer parliamentary break.

Here is my question for my counterpart on the government side, the hon. member for Honoré‑Mercier. Can the minister inform Canadians and this House of the parliamentary business we can expect in the coming days?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague and also thank and congratulate André Gagnon for his invaluable help and his kindness. I wish him a happy retirement.

To answer my esteemed colleague's question, this afternoon we will finish the debate on the opposition motion. This evening we will debate and vote on the estimates.

Tomorrow we will resume debate at report stage of the same bill, Bill C‑30, budget implementation act, 2021, no. 1.

Next week, priority will be given once again to Bill C‑30 at third reading stage because it is absolutely essential. We want to send this bill to the Senate as soon as possible of course.

Our other priorities will be Bill C‑12 on net-zero emissions, Bill C‑10 on broadcasting and Bill C‑6 on conversion therapy.

In closing, since this is my last Thursday statement before the House rises for the summer, I would like to thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the incredible and at times difficult work that you did all year to guide us in these hybrid sittings of the House, which added an extra challenge. I also want to thank the clerks, the interpreters, the support staff, the pages and all the parliamentary staff without whom we would absolutely not be able to do our job every day.

Many thanks to all.

The House resumed consideration of the motion.

Opposition Motion—Censure of the Minister of National Defence

[The Speaker, Anthony Rota]

The hon. member for Calgary Shepard has three minutes and 45 seconds remaining in his debate.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the extra 45 seconds. It is much appreciated. I was worried I would not have time to go through the departmental plans.

Where I left off before question period was that I wanted to get into the departmental plans. This is where the rubber hits the pavement. This is where we see the priorities of the minister. Is he actually taking seriously the sexual misconduct allegations, stories, and individual cases of men and women who have been abused by others in the military? What I discovered is that the government is not taking it seriously, and the minister is not taking it seriously.

Let us go back to the 2018-19 departmental plan. It has “Annual # of reported incidents of Harmful and Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour in the Defence Team” as one category of priorities, and then under “Target”, it says “To be determined by 31 March 2021”. It has no available indicators of where they were at. Under the field “Number and type of actions taken in response to reported Harmful and Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour incidents by the Defence Team”, it says “To be determined by 31 March 2021”.

I will move on to the following years, 2019-20. Under “Annual number of reported incidents of Harmful and Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour in the Defence Team”, it says “To be determined by 31 March 2021”. Again, there are no indicators anywhere, no reported numbers anywhere. Under “Number and type of actions taken in response to reported Harmful and Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour incidents by the Defence Team”, it says “To be determined by 31 March 2021”.

I will move on to the next departmental plan, 2020-21. Under “% of the Canadian Armed Forces...who self-identify as victims of harassment”, the target is “Less than 11.9%”. The minister signed off on every single departmental plan. Less than 12% is one in eight members of the Canadian Armed Forces to suffer being inappropriately harassed in the workplace. The actual results for 2018-19 were 17.7%. This is the first time there are actual numbers being presented here.

Now, in the departmental plan for 2021-22, the fields actually change, which is pretty typical of the government. We have “Annual number of reported incidents of sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces”. Members would think that by now the department would have it figured out, but no, it says “To be determined by 31 March 2022”. There are two wonderful little asterisks, and they leave it for well into the future.

If the minister was actually serious, if the words he says in this chamber and outside in nice statements actually meant anything to him, he would have followed through in the departmental plans that he signs off on and ensured that there was follow-up and actual, real targets put forward. This is why the House has come to the moment now of censuring the minister, because he has shown a dereliction of his duties, an irresponsibility of command and, overall, he has led the Canadian Forces into disarray. The situation we find ourselves in is entirely of his own doing.

As was mentioned during question period, this is a minister who served in his post the longest of any member of cabinet. He owns the entire last six years; they are entirely his responsibility. We are making a judgment call here, as members of Parliament, to hold him personally accountable for his own performance, which, as we can see in the departmental plans, does not meet the standards of what a minister should be doing.

As the member for Kildonan—St. Paul said before me, the minister has shown an extreme dereliction of duty and of his own responsibilities as the top member responsible. He is the political head of the department, the political head of the Canadian Armed Forces. It falls to him at the end of the day, and he has fallen far short. We must vote to censure the minister on this matter.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the departmental plans, as described on the government's website, “describe departmental priorities”. These are priorities presented in the House, signed by the minister himself.

Now, in the departmental plan for this year, there are two notable things. My colleague mentioned several, but there is also “Number of Canadian Armed Forces members who have attended a training session related to sexual misconduct (Operation HONOUR)”. It says the department will set a goal, not this year, but a year from now. So, there is no goal set for this year. This has been an issue for three years, and the department cannot even set a goal until next year. The other one is “Number and type of actions taken in response to reported sexual misconduct incidents by the Defence Team”. What is the department's goal? There is not any this year, but it will set a goal next year.

What does my colleague think when the minister stands and states again and again that this is a priority? Ending this misconduct is a priority, and yet the minister's own form that he signed and presented to the House states that the department will not even look at it this year and maybe a goal will be set next year.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the member is absolutely correct. The member for Edmonton West obviously has read the departmental plans. He is probably one of the few members who have read all of the departmental plans that the government ministers put forward. If anybody wants to follow at home, it is actually page 51 that we are talking about. It is one of the rows below.

He is right. If this was a priority and it was absolutely serious, then in these plans that the minister signed off on he would have given absolute direction to the department, set the target, benchmarked himself against the goal he was trying to reach, and proven to the rest of us that he actually does take this seriously.

We have had three Supreme Court justice reports up to this point. There are more than a half-dozen senior officers in the military who have resigned, stepped down or been relieved of their command. We do not have a Governor General. The Canadian Forces is in disarray, and it is entirely the fault of the defence minister. He has to be censured.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I have two questions for my hon. colleague, but first, the fact that so many survivors are coming forward is also an indication that there are actual consequences happening.

Does the member opposite believe that sexual harassment and assaults did not occur previous to the last six years? If he does think that they occurred, is he disappointed in the Leader of the Opposition for sitting around the cabinet table at a time when there was a culture of sexual misconduct and there were no consequences? They did not take it seriously, and therefore the culture of the old boys' club being protected by the Harper government and his leader continued. Is he proud of that history and that record?

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Mr. Speaker, this is a perfect example of what the Liberals have been doing all day. I have been listening to the entirety of the debate. They deflect and deflect. Real leaders take responsibility in the present, in the situation they find themselves in. The minister has had six years to deal with the situation. He has been aware for three years of the specific allegations against General Vance. He has done nothing.

In the motion before the House, we lay out the case for why the minister should be censured. Leaders, in the moment, take responsibility. They do not look to deflect the issue to others who are not in the employ of the government today. They do not look to past governments. They take responsibility, they move forward and they change things, and the minister has not done that.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.

In my opinion, not taking the allegations of sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces seriously is reason enough to censure the minister. However, when we read the motion, we see that there are several other issues that justify censure.

When we ask the Liberals what they have done to put a stop to sexual misconduct in the military, they answer that they have asked for more reports. The Liberals made no effort to implement what was in the 2015 Deschamps report. Does my colleague believe that it is about time that they take concrete action rather than commissioning more reports?

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Mr. Speaker, indeed, my colleague is absolutely right. Once again, during question period, three reports prepared by former Supreme Court justices were mentioned. The member just referred to the report by Marie Deschamps.

It is time to do more than just talk. I mentioned individual departmental plans earlier; that is where the planned measured should be outlined. The source of funds is one thing, but what will be done with that money? Usually a departmental plan should show whether this subject is taken seriously. The minister signs it, decides what it will include and what will be the department's focus for the next year, if required.

There are already three reports, the facts have been established and action needs to be taken.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my wonderful friend and colleague, the member for Ottawa West—Nepean.

I rise today to talk about our government's commitment to supporting the Canadian Armed Forces and the crucial role it plays in keeping Canadians safe, and supporting stability and security around the world.

The previous Conservative government did everything it could to take Canada out of global affairs. Its philosophy is clear: It believes the world needs less Canada. Our Liberal government believes the opposite. We know the world needs more Canada.

When we were elected in 2015, our Prime Minister was crystal clear to our friends, allies and partners around the world. After 10 years of disinterest in foreign policy and disengagement under the previous government, Canada was back, multilateralism was back, diplomacy was back and engagement was back.

Around the globe, including at the recent NATO and G7 summits, Canada's leadership and contributions to global security are saluted by our partners and friends. Canada's international reputation as a force for good is in large part thanks to the sacrifices and hard work of the women and men of our Canadian Armed Forces. Since 2015, the capabilities of the Canadian Armed Forces have been on full display in several expeditionary operations.

In the Middle East, the Canadian Armed Forces have worked to bring peace and stability on a number of operations in recent years. On Operation Artemis, they worked to counter terrorism and disrupt illicit drug trafficking in the maritime domain.

While deployed, the HMCS Calgary shattered two of the maritime forces combined all-time records for the largest heroin seizure of three metric tonnes and the most seizures by any ship on a single deployment, with 17 seizures.

Working with traditional and non-traditional partners under Combined Task Force 150, the Canadian Armed Forces have increased security in the Red Sea, the gulfs of Aden and Oman, and the Indian Ocean. What is more is that Canada has led the CTF 155 times since 2008. This included our most current command of the task force when it had considerable success in interdicting narcotics that help fund terrorist activities.

Canadian Armed Forces members also contributed to Operation Calumet, Canada's support to the Multinational Force and Observers' independent peacekeeping operation in the Sinai Peninsula, in an area many Canadians know well thanks to the engagement and continued legacy of former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in the region.

Canadians may be most familiar with the work our Canadian Armed Forces have done as part of Operation Impact, which includes its contributions to NATO's capacity-building mission, NATO Mission Iraq. On that mission, the Canadian Armed Forces have worked to build the military capabilities of Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, and set the conditions for their long-term success. Here too Canada assumed a leadership role for NATO Mission Iraq between 2018 and 2020.

As a founding member of NATO under Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent, our commitment to NATO is strong and ironclad, unlike the Conservatives, who cut NATO contributions by $100 million and allowed military spending to reach an all-time low, dropping below 1% of GDP in 2013. Of course, these ideological cuts, which ignored the needs of our military, were aimed squarely at undermining Canada's history of multilateral engagement, all in a failed Conservative attempt to balance the budget on the backs of our Canadian Armed Forces.

Thankfully, our government has returned Canada to its proud tradition of engagement. Just this past March, the Government of Canada announced the extension of Operation Impact until March 2022, so Canada's important work on NATO Mission Iraq will continue.

As members of the House are aware, eastern Europe has suffered significant instability in the past several years. Here too the Canadian Armed Forces have contributed significantly.

On Operation Reassurance, it has contributed to NATO's assurance and deterrence measures to reinforce NATO's collective defence. In recent years, there have been a combined total of up to 850 Canadian Armed Forces members deployed on the operation, making it Canada's largest current international military operation. Canada has assumed several leadership roles, as the framework nation of an enhanced force present in Latvia or by regularly leading standing NATO maritime groups.

In Ukraine, on Operation Unifier, the Canadian Armed Forces support the country's security forces. They have assisted with training and capacity building, while co-operating with the U.S. and other allies to ensure Ukraine's sovereignty, security and stability.

Closer to home, members of our armed forces have delivered significant successes as part of Operation Caribbe, where they have participated in the U.S.-led enhanced counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean. They have worked to suppress drug trafficking in international waters where they have seized dozens of tonnes of cocaine.

While we are proud of what the Canadian Armed Forces accomplishes around the world, there is perhaps no more important role they have fulfilled than assisting Canadians in their times of need.

In the past several years, the Canadian Armed Forces have been called upon, on numerous occasions, to do so as part of domestic operations. The Canadian Armed Forces are called upon to assist in search and rescue operations, natural disasters and any other emergency where only their expertise can adequately support Canadians.

Search and rescue crews are on standby 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They cover over 18 million square kilometres of land and sea and launch hundreds of times each year to respond to search and rescue emergencies. Since 2015, CF SAR techs have launched more than 4,200 times to save Canadian lives. Highly trained CAF members also stand ready to respond to natural disaster wherever and whenever required.

Over the past few years, the role of the Canadian Armed Forces in domestic disaster response has increased significantly. That is because climate change has resulted in more extreme weather, which, in turn, has produced more severe storms and natural disasters. While the Conservatives continue to deny that climate change is real, our government is engaged directly with vulnerable communities across Canada and our Canadian Armed Forces are working with Canadians to provide relief from the very real impacts of climate change.

CAF support to Canadians during these events is called Operation Lentus, and I think we can all agree that Canadians are fortunate to have such a dedicated and skilled military to support them when their need arises.

The winter before last, CAF deployed to Newfoundland and Labrador after major snowstorms led to emergencies.

In 2019, the CAF supported Nova Scotia with its response in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, and Ontario with the evacuation of first nations communities when they were at risk of smoke from forest fires in Manitoba.

When wildfires ravaged parts of British Columbia and Manitoba in 2018, again, the armed forces were there to bring aid to remote communities and help prevent the spread or reignition of fires. That year, Canadian Armed Forces also assisted provincial partners in their responses to four other natural disasters across Canada, including floods, forest fires and winter storms.

In total, the Canadian Armed Forces have deployed in support of Operation Lentus 18 times since 2015, and remain prepared to do so again whenever necessary.

The CAF efforts that will stick out most prominently in the minds of Canadians are likely those related to the global COVID pandemic.

In February 2020, Canadian Armed Forces members helped bring people home in the face of the growing threat of coronavirus, repatriating Canadians from around the world. As part of Operation Globe, they helped return 870 people to Canada to quarantine safely.

By April, thousands of CAF members were assigned to Operation Laser, the mission to support the government's response to COVID-19. Through the operation, the CAF have assisted the federal, provincial and territorial governments through 60 requests for assistance.

During the first wave of COVID, the number of CAF members poised to assist all over the country peaked at more than 9,000 troops. Among them were approximately 1,700 personnel who worked tirelessly to help manage COVID outbreaks and protect vulnerable Canadians in 54 long-term care facilities, 47 in Quebec and seven in Ontario.

I wish to thank the Canadian Armed Forces members who came to my riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge and who assisted the residents at the long-term care facility at Woodbridge Vista. We are forever thankful and grateful for their service, not only there but across the country. They do it day in and day out, very quietly and with such professionalism and a spirit that truly reflects the best of our country.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to note that my colleague never once addressed the motion of censuring the Minister of National Defence. I want to join with him and thank all the brave women and men who serve in the Canadian Armed Forces and do such incredible work. Unfortunately, their morale has been severally hurt because of the lack of leadership shown by the Minister of National Defence.

The member talked about how Canada was back. I can tell him that the number of Canadian forces members serving on U.N. missions today is at the lowest levels in history, where we struggle to even have 40 members deployed on U.N. missions anywhere in the world. Canada is back? That is complete rhetoric and virtue-signalling without actually taking any action.

He talked about Operation Impact, something that was started under the previous Conservative government, in which we advised, assisted and worked side-by-side with the Kurdish peshmerga, our allies in stopping ISIS. Unfortunately, now we have found out that the Liberals changed the mission and may have our forces training Iraqi war criminals. That is deplorable.

Operation Unifier was started by our Conservative government as well.

Will the member vote with us tonight to censure the Minister of National Defence because of his lack of leadership, for him misleading the House on too many occasions and for his destructive work in undermining the trust of the Canadian Armed Forces?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it was obviously a very long question, so I want to address one part of it, and that is our contribution to NATO and our ongoing contribution to NATO.

As hon. members have said, and as we stated in the House, we know the Minister of National Defence has committed to making the much-needed institutional and cultural change at the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces, but also to increasing the funds dedicated to our soldiers. We are on target over the next 10 years to increase the annual defence spending by 70%. We remain committed to a number of operations in a number of theatres throughout the world.

On a personal note, the Minister of National Defence is someone who has served our country with extreme professionalism. I thank him for his service and all members of the Canadian Armed Forces for their service day in and day out.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his very interesting speech, although it had nothing to do with the motion. It was a nice speech designed to restore the image of the Canadian Armed Forces.

It was interesting, but it was similar to the answer we got from the Deputy Prime Minister today, in response to questions about the Minister of National Defence. She responded by boasting about the minister's career achievements.

When someone spends so much time singing their own institutions' praises, is that not an admission that there is a problem? Is this not an admission that the minister's actions, which are being denounced in today's motion, tarnished the Canadian Armed Forces?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we are committed as a government to supporting our men and women in the Canadian Armed Forces, and have been since 2015. For example, with respect to what we are doing going forward, we are investing in the health, safety and well-being of all our defence team members by committing over $236 million in budget 2021 toward eliminating sexual misconduct. This is along the lines of increasing the defence budget by 70% and ensuring our Canadian Armed Forces have the resources they need to do their job day in and day out.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, after becoming the minister of defence in 2016, the minister decided to quash an inquiry into the Canadian transfers of detainees to local custody in Afghanistan where they were routinely facing torture. An inquiry would have revealed why these transfers were not stopped and why these war crimes were never reported. In making this decision, the minister was in an apparent conflict of interest as he served as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan at the time of the transfers and would have had knowledge of the torture of detainees.

If he was, in fact, the architect that he claimed to be, would the minister not have known about the tortures of the Afghan detainees that the Canadian forces handed over to the Afghan authorities at that time?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the statements the member made are obviously quite important but also very serious. I do know that the Minister of National Defence has served our country in a very honourable and professional manner in the theatre in Afghanistan, I believe on one or two tours, and has done so on a very professional basis, which has been cited.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I have been listening to the debate, and I must say that I am very disappointed. Instead of working together in the House and at committee, where Liberal members have been trying to work in good faith, we are debating this motion today. We should be working together across the aisle to address survivors and their needs, and to change the culture of toxic masculinity that exists in the Canadian Armed Forces.

Both at committee and in the House, Liberal members have tried in good faith to put forward concrete suggestions that will really make a difference for the women and men in the Canadian Armed Forces. I am very disappointed with the opposition. The Conservatives have chosen to take an entire day of debate to make personal and baseless attacks against the minister.

The Minister of National Defence is one of the most honourable individuals I have ever met. He has served this country, both in uniform and in the House. He has broken down barriers as the first Sikh commander of a regiment, and I have personally seen his commitment to inclusion and equality as an ally. The aspersions that we are hearing today against him in the House are based on half-truths and blatant partisanship. The Minister of National Defence deserves our thanks and our respect.

Today in my remarks, I would like to focus on the achievements since 2015, under this minister's leadership, to build a modern, agile and inclusive Canadian Armed Forces.

Since 2015, we have worked hard to provide defence team members with everything they need to succeed both here at home and around the world. We have significantly invested in important procurement projects for our brave women and men serving in the army, navy and air force. We have ensured that everything we do is carried out with an eye toward environmental sustainability, and we have made progress building a more inclusive, safe and welcoming environment for all members.

In each of these lines of effort, we are guided by a robust and comprehensive defence policy: “Strong, Secure, Engaged”. It is a policy that puts our people first. In fact, it is the very first chapter. It makes sure that we are accountable to Canadians.

However, at the same time, the Minister of National Defence and I recognize that we need to do more. It is clear that the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces are in need of significant institutional culture change. It is clear that there are those who have been harmed by the remnants of an outdated, exclusionary and toxic military culture.

As the minister said earlier, we are dealing with issues such as inequality, racism, systemic discrimination, sexual misconduct and abuse of power. These challenges are undermining the capacity of the armed forces to keep Canadians safe. They are eroding trust in the institution and, more importantly, they are hurting the people who chose to serve our country.

We are taking important steps to address all of these challenges as we continue with our other important work.

I want to take some time today to give an overview of the important work going on across the entire department. First, I want to talk about the work we are doing to support our people and drive culture change.

When we launched the defence policy in 2017, our goal was to ensure that our people are at the heart of everything we do. We launched important new initiatives to support their health and well-being at all stages of their careers, and we committed to taking care of their loved ones as well.

These programs have helped thousands of CAF members over the last four years, but at the same time, we know that we have to do more for them, because we know that investing in the well-being of those tasked with our protection is and should always be our top priority. We need to create a culture of dignity, respect and inclusion for all members at all levels, military or civilian.

We are committed to making comprehensive and lasting change and to addressing the systemic challenges that foster sexual misconduct and other inappropriate behaviours, including abuses of power, discrimination, biases and harmful stereotypes. That is why we asked former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour to undertake an external, independent, comprehensive review earlier this year.

Within the defence team, we have also created a new organization, Chief, Professional Conduct and Culture, under the leadership of Lieutenant-General Jennie Carignan. Its goal is ultimately to ensure that our actions, behaviours and institutional policies reflect the very best parts of our organization and Canadian society. That work is already under way.

These efforts will build on our previous work done to modernize policies and processes and to promote true diversity and inclusion across the ranks. This includes integrating gender-based analysis plus in all of our policies, programs and services to remove barriers to inclusion and better support our personnel, and launching a new advisory panel on systemic racism and discrimination and the Anti-Racism Secretariat.

At the same time, we are also working hard to ensure that our military justice system is modern, fair and responsive to the needs of the Canadian Armed Forces. Through Bill C-77, we are implementing several significant changes to the military justice system, including incorporating a victims’ bill of rights to ensure that victims are supported and their voices are heard when interacting with the system.

Earlier this month, we tabled the third independent review by Justice Morris Fish. We accepted all 107 of his recommendations in principle and have already begun to implement 36 of them immediately to better serve our people.

Moreover, through budget 2021 we are committing $236 million to eliminate sexual misconduct and gender-based violence in the Canadian Armed Forces. This includes expanding the reach of the sexual misconduct response centre and providing online and in-person peer-to-peer support.

All options to create a safer future for women and men serving in the Canadian Armed Forces are being considered to change the culture of toxic masculinity that creates an unacceptable workplace.

Supporting our members means ensuring that they have the equipment they need to do the incredible work we ask of them.

That is why, in our “Strong, Secure, Engaged” policy, we identified hundreds of new investments we will have to make to ensure that our armed forces have access to modern, agile and customized equipment.

I am pleased to say that, in spite of the challenges presented by COVID‑19, 37% of these 342 projects are either completed or in progress. That is incredible progress, especially in light of the challenges the global pandemic has brought.

Our efforts to build a well-supported and well-equipped military have prepared and positioned us to respond to threats here in Canada and to support our allies and partners abroad.

Domestically, Canadian Armed Forces members are called upon to take part in search and rescue operations and to offer support in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency situation where their expert knowledge is invaluable in supporting Canadians.

Since the global pandemic hit, members of the Canadian forces have been helping out in communities across the country. They include the approximately 1,700 members who helped protect vulnerable Canadians in 54 long-term care facilities in Quebec and Ontario, and countless first nations and remote communities.

Internationally, our CAF members are engaged in Europe through both NATO and non-NATO missions, as well as in the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region and Africa. Closer to home, we participate in U.S.-led counternarcotics operations through Operation Caribbe, and we work closely with the United States at NORAD and on other issues pertaining to continental defence. In missions like these across the globe, CAF members make vital contributions to safety and stability. They serve with excellence alongside our friends and allies, and when needed, they help out in our communities.

We ask CAF members to do critical, life-saving work every single day, but we know that for them to accomplish these extraordinary tasks, we need to build an environment where they are both well supported and well equipped at all times. We need to listen to survivors of sexual harassment, assault and abuse of power, and put the well-being of the brave women and men of the Canadian Armed Forces front and centre. We must end impunity and restore trust.

We encourage those who have experienced misconduct to come forward. We are committed to making the institutional change necessary to ensure that we prevent sexual misconduct from happening in the first place. We are focused on providing not only a safe workplace, but one where all members of the defence team can truly belong and thrive. That is our priority on this side of the House.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for the work she does alongside me at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, which just studied sexual misconduct in the military.

We heard that the Minister of National Defence knew about this for three years. In fact, the Prime Minister's Office knew about the Vance allegation too, but no action was taken. Even when senior officials in the armed forces continued to step aside or step down because of allegations, no action was taken.

I think the member remembers the testimony from survivors. They said that until the people at the top are held accountable, there will not be change. Would she not agree that the people at the top should be held accountable, starting with the Minister of National Defence?