National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, good afternoon. I'd like to thank the committee for inviting me to appear today. I am pleased to have this opportunity to meet with you concerning my appointment as chair of the Military Police Complaints Commission. I am truly honoured

National Defence committee  Upon my commencement in September 2007, then chair Mr. Tinsley and I decided that I would not start my duties as a part-time member in a formal sense until I retired from the police service on February 29, 2008. That was when I actually started. Certainly during that in-between

National Defence committee  The powers the commission has, including doing a normal investigation once we have received a complaint from a dissatisfied complainant, mean that we obviously oversee the complaints that the Canadian Forces provost marshal is handling. Once we have received a complaint from a di

National Defence committee  Could you repeat that? I didn't quite get it all.

National Defence committee  Our issues are not necessarily about studies. When our investigations are done and recommendations are made, some of them are very specific. They're not necessarily about studies. They could be specific recommendations about training; they could be about education; they could be

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Harris. I won't comment specifically on the current public interest hearing, but I will comment on the issues that centre around the issue of legal expertise, if I may. The way these commissions, and in particular ours, are structured, and this is public inform

National Defence committee  I would say two things. I'm satisfied that I have more than sufficient advice from counsel, both counsel in the room and our counsel outside. In addition, I'm not intimidated, in any fashion, whether it be through the Attorney General's lawyer or the complainant's lawyer or any o

National Defence committee  Thank you. I appreciate that. I tell my staff that. I have some of them here, and I tell them that quite often.

National Defence committee  Certainly, we operate under part IV of the National Defence Act, and everything comes out of there. In terms of independence, even from my own point of view, I can state that from the time I've taken the chair--and I can't comment prior to that--never have I or any of my staff

National Defence committee  Yes, and sometimes I listen to them a lot and take direction from them, because the staff there is very experienced and has been through many investigations and a lot of those experiences. I can certainly bring my experience and my demeanour to the office, so we can get the job d

National Defence committee  Generally, if it's a baseless investigation, chances are it's not going to come to us, unless the complainant is going to make that complaint. Many investigations go to the Canadian Forces provost marshal, and through their dealings, whether it be with the officers or with the co

National Defence committee  After the recommendations are made, a report would go to the Canadian Forces provost marshal; they would respond that they have accepted the recommendations. I'll take that in the affirmative, that they've accepted those recommendations. Maybe we've made two or three. One might b

National Defence committee  Sure we have. I would say there have been a couple of policy issues. Just this week, our general counsel met with Colonel Grubb. They discussed a variety of issues. I have not discussed issues with Colonel Grubb outside of the hearing. I'm staying away until we finish the hearing

National Defence committee  It's not an issue with our resolving the complaint. The recommendations have all been accepted. I'm not sure that every military police officer is happy with the recommendations, but they have been accepted and acknowledged. So we move on. Certainly, you learn a little bit with e

National Defence committee  Thank you.