National Defence committee  Thank you. Merci, Madam Chair and members of the committee for focusing on this issue. I care deeply about this topic, and perhaps as a reflection of that, I submitted a somewhat lengthy written statement, but do not worry, ne vous inquiétez pas, I will keep my opening remarks

National Defence committee  No, I did not.

National Defence committee  I don't have that data, sorry. I can't speak to it. General Bourgon is raising her hand, so perhaps she can answer.

National Defence committee  I'm not best placed to speak to the specifics of what exactly is working with respect to Operation Honour and where the challenges still lie. What I will say is that clearly, to me, the strongest signal has come from senior leadership. I've worked with armed forces and militarie

National Defence committee  An enormous number of components go into this. We've heard General Vance talk about this on several occasions. There isn't one single step that will solve the problem. Whether or not that is implemented or required is a decision that needs to be made, but I will say that one of

National Defence committee  Thanks so much for the question. I know that resolution 1325 is well known to the committee, but as you mentioned, not all Canadians know it that well. It's the first time that the highest security-focused body in the world—the UN Security Council—has said that women are not onl

National Defence committee  Thanks. That's a great question. You mentioned security forces as being a key part of the mission as well. When this question comes up about why it's important, I think we've seen data from the private sector, from industry and from elsewhere to show that diversity leads to bett

National Defence committee  Thank you for those questions. Your first one relates to how it's integrated across the department, the now consolidated department of Global Affairs Canada. Really, the North Star essentially is our national action plan on women, peace and security. When I started the role, I

National Defence committee  I'd say a few things. I have a lot of druthers. One would be to just get people aware of what the principle is. I think there are still a lot of misconceptions that women, peace and security is about saying women are inherently more peaceful than men or better than men at some

National Defence committee  I don't think it's clearly reinforced by the chain of command. I think there are some instances that are exceptionally disturbing and troubling, and I am as concerned as you are about the fact that this still exists. I think about that from a range of perspectives, including the

National Defence committee  Thank you very much for the question. To your first question about what else Canada can do to continue to strengthen its work, there are two things that have been put in place recently and that we're still experiencing the benefits from, or getting increasing benefits from, rela

National Defence committee  I'll try to be quicker this time. At the highest level, I'd say we're trying to progress to a point where half of the population doesn't have to explain why it belongs in certain conversations. We're trying to get to a point where everybody has at least the option to participate

National Defence committee  It's a very short question there. Culture is a big one: traditional expectations and traditional roles. That said, times of conflict tend to be highly disruptive. We see that a lot of progression and leaps forward can be made in times of conflict. There's a lot of reordering goi

National Defence committee  I was included in the discussions on the structure of the women, peace and security agenda, the role of those who are in charge of it and the way to train counsellors on gender equality. I now turn to the Brigadier General, who could give you more information.

National Defence committee  Thank you. I appreciate that. I'll be quick. The member had asked about our contributions and our work around the Elsie initiative for women in peace operations, which has numerous parts. One of the parts is an international fund called the Elsie initiative fund. It was set up l