National Defence  Mr. Speaker, I want to make this very clear. As I said at committee, I did not know the nature, the specifics or the details. The former ombudsman brought up concerns of misconduct involving the former chief of the defence staff, but did not provide any details. Who had the deta

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, I have repeated the answer many times. As I stated, he did not provide any details or specifics of the case. One thing we have done is make sure we take action to provide support to women. We know that more work needs to be done. While the official opposition and th

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, I have all the respect for the work done—

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, we are absolutely committed to rooting out any type of misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces. As I stated before, and at committee, I did not know the nature of the specifics of the case that Mr. Walbourne brought up concerning misconduct involving the former chi

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, I want to be very clear that I disagree with the assertion the member is making. Any misconduct is taken extremely serious, and that is exactly what we did: take immediate action. However, no politician should ever be involved in any type of investigation for any typ

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Armed Forces members make enormous sacrifices to protect Canadians, regardless of rank or gender, and have an undeniable right to serve with safety. It is clear that we have not lived up to our responsibility to protect our members from misconduct, and

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, we are absolutely committed to making sure that we have an inclusive environment for all, especially women, in the Canadian Armed Forces. We have absolutely no tolerance for misconduct. Institutional culture changes are complex, but the time for patience is over. It

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, we will always take strong actions when it comes to protecting women in the Canadian Armed Forces, but last week we learned some very troubling news. Former Prime Minister Harper appointed General Vance in July 2015 even though he was under active investigation by th

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, as I said at committee, no, I did not know the nature of the specific details. I repeat that Mr. Walbourne brought up concerns of misconduct involving the former chief of the defence staff. He did not give me any details. However, who did have the details? The leade

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, as I said at committee, I did not know the nature of the specifics of the details. However, and I want to repeat, Mr. Walbourne brought up concerns of misconduct involving the former chief of defence staff. He did not give any details, but we know who had the details

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, I have always respected the work done by my colleagues at the committee. For this study, I have appeared at the committee for six hours along with senior defence officials. The committee has already heard from Ray Novak, who laid out the process that was followed whe

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, one thing I can assure you is that we took immediate action. The complaint was immediately passed on to the Privy Council Office, as I stated before, so that the Governor in Council appointment could be looked into, exactly the same process that the previous governme

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, the Canadian Armed Forces members make enormous sacrifices to protect Canadians, regardless of rank or gender. They have an undeniable right to serve with safety. It is clear that we have not lived up to our responsibility to protect our members from misconduct. Tha

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, we have heard from survivors. We have conducted round tables with experts. The announcement today was about taking action on what we have heard, immediate action when it comes to providing greater support and peer-to-peer support. There are the announcements that we

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, we will continue to take strong action, and that is exactly what today's announcement was about. As I stated before, in July 2015 when an investigation was going on, why did they appoint General Vance at that time? The member opposite was the parliamentary secretary