National Defence committee  Thank you very much. If I were in charge of the world, which thankfully I am not, there are certain parts of recruiting—and again, this is Chris Whitecross speaking—that I think can be contracted out. We can get somebody else to do it far more efficiently in terms of the process, that big....

National Defence committee  I would offer that PLD is actually quite a topic—it certainly was when I was still serving—and it has to do with the disparities in the costs of living among different parts of the country. Some have far better access to housing, as you can imagine, than others do. In certain areas, specifically those areas that are hard to reach—Cold Lake comes to mind—housing is very expensive, so this post living differential is supposed to help create equality among armed forces members across the country.

National Defence committee  Honestly, I don't know which allies or colleague nations are doing well in recruiting. It's not because I don't think there are any. It's just that, honestly, I don't know. To get prepared for this, I did speak to the general officer who is in charge of recruiting right now. I know that she's very much seized with trying to modernize the recruiting system and do a whole bunch of other things, and I would really encourage you to speak to her when you have the opportunity.

National Defence committee  I've said publicly that there's nothing wrong with being a warrior. A warrior mindset is not incongruent with being somebody who is respectful, works in a very dignified way and treats people properly. They are congruent. You can't have one without the other.

National Defence committee  I can only tell you what I know from when I was serving, and that is that the SMRC, which is outside of the military chain of command, offers.... Again, you need to speak with Dr. Preston. I understand that they're increasing the scope, availability and resources of the SMRC for the Canadian Armed Forces, which I think is absolutely tremendous and certainly one of the things we hoped for back when we started these discussions.

National Defence committee  To be honest, no. I was not aware of any case where somebody was kicked out because they put in a sexual assault claim. I am aware, anecdotally for the most part, of people who were treated poorly. That's not just anecdotally. People I know were treated poorly during the investigation phase.

National Defence committee  Sure. Thanks, Professor. I have said publicly that I wish I had done more, and, as I mentioned just a couple of minutes ago, I wish I had been a lot more aggressive in my characterization of the issue and of the problems. I'm only one person, but honestly, because of the position I was in, I submit that I probably could have done a lot more.

National Defence committee  Is that “choke point” as in between being a civilian and being a fully trained military member? Is that what you meant?

National Defence committee  I can't speak to what's happening right now because I'm retired, obviously, but I understand that there are choke points, as you described them. There was literally a stopgap during COVID, for all very good reasons. Then, with some of the measures that had to be put in place because of COVID, when we did start bringing people back into the recruitment centres, that created extra time and space.

National Defence committee  That's a great question. The battles of today are not the battles of 30 years ago. I would venture to say, or I would submit, that if the battles are different, then the people you require in order to meet that battle landscape have to be different as well. You alluded to it yourself.

National Defence committee  I enjoyed the Canadian Armed Forces. In fact, I'm still very passionate about what the Canadian Armed Forces has done, not just domestically but internationally. I had tremendous opportunities to live in many of the provinces in Canada, including our Canadian Arctic, and to do things that many of my colleagues at the university would never have been able to do.

National Defence committee  I'll answer that in two parts. First, I'd like to answer, on my own reflection, after having served for so many years and after retiring from the Canadian military, that I wish I had done more. I wish I had been more vocal in many ways on the things that needed to be done, because in answer to the second question, there was, at the time, certainly in 2015 when I took over as the commander of the sexual misconduct response team, a percentage—I wouldn't say necessarily small but a percentage—of Canadian Armed Forces personnel and perhaps defence personnel who didn't think the issue was as significant or as serious as Madame Deschamps had said.

National Defence committee  That's a great question. Certainly I grew up in the eighties and nineties, having joined in 1982, and I was certainly cognizant of the times when LGBTQ members were sought after and made to release from the Canadian military back in the nineties. I certainly was aware of it. I was fairly young at the time and didn't know what to make of it, to be completely honest.

National Defence committee  Good afternoon, everyone and Mr. Chair. I actually don't have any opening comments except to say that I retired from the Canadian Armed Forces in December 2020 and haven't necessarily been involved in the substantive recruiting and retention issues since then, but I can certainly offer up my suggestions and my comments on the questions.

National Defence committee  No, regrettably—well, not regrettably, actually—I'm quite proud to say that I went to Queen's.