Status of Women committee  In terms of interference in any investigation, the investigators have the recourse to put in a complaint with the Military Police Complaints Commission if they feel their investigation is being unduly influenced. I understand that you have the commanding officer of the Canadian Forces national investigation service talking to you on Thursday, who will be able to provide you a much more detailed response to that question.

Status of Women committee  We have to learn why previous approaches did not work, learn from that and incorporate those lessons into our plan going forward. As we go forward, I see us moving forward on two streams. The first stream is that any external review that looks at our organization we have to embrace and fully support with the realization that we don't have all the answers.

Status of Women committee  Understand that I have only been in the job for several weeks. One of the things I immediately asked for was an aide-mémoire—a playbook, if you will—to help me deal with any further incidents of senior leader misconduct, so that we could rapidly deal with those. That was one.

Status of Women committee  It's still a draft at this point. Once it is finalized, we will be happy to share that. As for the second one, last week I had all our general and flag officers on a Teams session. If there's one thing the pandemic has taught us, it is how to use technology, so it was all of our general and flag officers from across the world: deployed in operations, on exchange outside of the country, and here in Canada.

Status of Women committee  Every allegation deserves a full investigation, and we have to respect our values of due process and the rule of law. Every allegation that comes forward will be investigated and will follow due process.

Status of Women committee  If it is in the chain of command, one reporting to the other, it creates what we call an “adverse relationship”. If it is not in the same chain of command, it is not an offence, but we have to make very sure that there is not a perceived conflict of interest. One thing we need to get much better at understanding, though, in this case of rank differential, is power dynamics.

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, I don't have prepared remarks per se, but I will give you a few comments. First of all, thank you for the opportunity to address this committee. I will say up front that the current circumstances have shaken us, and I believe the armed forces are at an inflection point—an inflection point that we have to seize as an opportunity to come out better and make it a better place to serve all Canadians.

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, from my perspective, the Canadian Forces national investigation service has the mandate to investigate all allegations of a criminal nature. Thank you.

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, it's regardless of rank.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Minister. Madam Chair, sexual misconduct training is conducted annually for all members of the Canadian Armed Forces, but in my view annually is not enough, and there has to be a constant drumbeat to remind our members of what right looks like. In terms of gaps in that training, as I rapidly find my feet in this job, some of the gaps are becoming apparent, such as those to do with power dynamics and understanding the use and abuse of power in a hierarchy like our own.