National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms. Perron. I will be making my presentation in English, but I can answer questions in French. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me. I am Kristine St-Pierre, director of the WPS Group, which brin

National Defence committee  I obviously agree. I'd like to add that a lot of research has been done, in terms of barriers to women in the military around the world. Some may be actual barriers or the perception of barriers. We certainly have what Major Perron mentioned, such as the impact of moving on fam

National Defence committee  It really has to start at the beginning, with what Major Perron is doing in the schools in changing that perception, changing that mentality. Starting with the education, whether it's at RMC or even here, and showing that we can all work together is certainly a first step.

National Defence committee  First they need to determine whether women feel more comfortable reporting misconduct. They need to see, using questionnaires and discussions, whether there has been an improvement in the possibility of reporting misconduct. Has the environment women work in improved? Do they fee

National Defence committee  Yes. In Nigeria, I dealt with a group of female police officers. We discussed gender-based sexual violence and the way the police could accept the victims and reach them in interviews. With regard to training, I agree completely with what Ms. Perron said. Classroom training is no

National Defence committee  I'm going to reiterate the need for disaggregated data. It's not difficult, but it's in every situation. Whether it's peacekeeping or policing in the military, we're always talking about needing more data. Even in terms of setting targets for more women or more diverse groups, we

National Defence committee  I agree that you can't force people to come along, but I think there's a very big role to be played by the leadership and by leaders at various levels. For example, there's the sergeant, let's say, who gives a course on diversity and comes in and says, “Oh well, we have to do thi

National Defence committee  I think it would also be important to measure the ability of women to actually voice their opinions, to speak out. I think there's a specific way in which that could be measured. Certainly that would be quantity—how many come in, how many move up, and things like that—but also qu

National Defence committee  I think it could be part of.... Just as in the business world or in any organization in terms of performance management or promotion, they could look at these various commitments and ask, “Were you able to do this or that in terms of commitments to diversity and equality?”—make i

National Defence committee  I think that, especially in terms of the United Nations and UN peacekeeping, there has been a lot of research on the value of having women's meaningful voices at the table, whether it's peace processes, negotiation, mediation or peacekeeping operations. I think there is data that

National Defence committee  That is a very good question. I haven't studied all the countries. I've looked at Australia a little bit and Sweden in terms of diversity and equality. In Australia, they have certainly put some measures in place to improve that. That would be something to look at, but I can't g

National Defence committee  You pose a really great question, and with what Major Perron was saying about how you can't force a soldier to respect, those are very hard questions. The operational effectiveness is not a new thing. The UN has been using it throughout the 2000s to push for gender equality and

National Defence committee  That's what I've heard as well. I think it's quite similar to the rest of society. There's retribution and backlash, but certainly in the military, where it's very close-knit.... What we've seen in the media, as well, is the loss of career. When you've worked extremely hard with

National Defence committee  You go; I'll talk after.

National Defence committee  I think that when we say we want to bring in more women, more diverse groups, it's not just about brining them in, but also about recognizing that they're bringing different perspectives and different ways of doing things. It's about being open to challenging the status quo, or t