Mr. Speaker, I thank the member opposite for his commitment to prosecuting sexual crimes of any nature.
As a former journalist of many years, I covered not only court proceedings as a “court and cops” reporter, if you will. I also covered CFB Trenton, Canada's largest air base. In that role, I had occasion to report on and cover sexual assault cases heard before a court martial in hearing rooms at CFB Trenton.
On more than one occasion, it struck me that the accused was present in the room, represented quite often by a civilian lawyer, but the complainant, in almost all cases a woman in uniform, had to make her complaint in a room full of other uniformed individuals. Would my friend not agree that this setting is not the ideal setting for this kind of complaint, and that it should be in the civilian realm?