National Defence committee  I think that is a hypothetical of what might have followed. It's not clear to me how the national security adviser would have added anything to the equation at the time. We knew there had been something raised by the ombudsperson and the most direct route was to talk to the ombudsperson.

National Defence committee  The investigation basically came to a halt around mid-March, I think, at the meeting of the 16th. We confirmed afterwards and we basically had the road blocked. As I said, how would you launch an investigation further from that with an anonymous complainant and no witnesses, and where it would have been inappropriate to just confront the subject of the complaint at that time?

National Defence committee  That was our judgment at the time. Perhaps in hindsight, and information came out later, there were other routes available. Our assessment at the time was that we had reached an impasse.

National Defence committee  A GIC appointment is an executive appointment. It's the gift of the Prime Minister. It's an executive branch appointment. The Prime Minister's department, the PCO, takes general responsibility for all of the processes: selection and appointment, performance review and discipline regarding GIC appointees.

National Defence committee  It's going to take a longer answer, and I'm happy to delve into that. I think in the Westminster system there is always an answerable minister. Ministers have to be answerable to Parliament and Canadians for various things. Even with the court system, even with tribunals and independent bodies, there is a fundamental answerability to Parliament.

National Defence committee  None—just that there was an issue concerning the chief of the defence staff that the minister wanted looked into. I learned of the specific allegations earlier this year in the media reports.

National Defence committee  I don't have the language of the emails in front of me. I think the language was “potential sexual harassment”. There is a back-and-forth of emails between Zita, Janine and Elder. I certainly would say that it was in the realm of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment, but I couldn't speak to the exact language.

National Defence committee  No. From our point of view, it was in the hands of PCO. I asked Janine to get in touch with Mr. Walbourne to see what we could find out. That led to the events of the following week. It took, I think—I'm reconstructing the timeline—a series of emails and calls to persuade Mr. Walbourne to meet with Janine.

National Defence committee  No. I think, in hindsight, that we were at the first step, which was to go and see Mr. Walbourne. We knew that Mr. Walbourne had brought something to the minister, so our first step was to reach out to Mr. Walbourne. There were no other steps that I'm aware of. I know that Ms. Sherman testified earlier, but I'm not aware of any other steps.

National Defence committee  No. I have no reason to think that the Prime Minister was aware of any of this at the time. The only person I know who would have been aware is Elder, and I don't know who he would have spoken to within PMO at the time. I think that, effectively, both Minister Sajjan and the PMO had given carriage of the file to us at PCO.

National Defence committee  I never have any knowledge of who speaks to whom within the PMO.

National Defence committee  The loop was closed after Mr. Walbourne met with Janine and effectively waved her off and said that he wasn't going to share anything, that he didn't have the consent of the—I think Mr. Lick used this phrase—constituent or complainant. We reached an impasse on March 16. There must have been conversations back with the PMO around March 16 or 17 to report back that we had reached an impasse.

National Defence committee  I'm not sure what testimony you're referring to, Mr. Bezan. I'll do my best to reconstruct the chronology. My research assistants are Google and Wikipedia, so I've been trying my best to reconstruct events of three years ago. My recollection of the sequence of events is that on Friday, March 2, Elder Marques came upstairs from the second floor, popped in and asked to see me and raised the issue for the first time.