Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, we have had several initiatives in place for many years to encourage women to join the Canadian Forces. Our recruiting organization engages in a number of outreach activities with professional groups, with women's associations, with school organizations, and has spec

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, I think I will refrain from that due to not being sufficiently conversant with the circumstances of the RCMP's problems. We would certainly welcome any request for information they wish to put to us.

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, we have used ADR very extensively. You can look at individual responses across a spectrum of perceived social costs and benefits. In other words, when you engage in a grievance, you are entering into a kind of quasi-adversarial process, and you can escalate that if y

Status of Women committee  Yes, Madam Chair. In fact, I'll quote directly from the policy. The policy is our defence administrative order and directive 5019-1: “Personal Relationships and Fraternization”. Fraternization is defined as follows: “Any relationship between a C[anadian] F[orces] member and a p

Status of Women committee  Well, it depends. If they're in the same chain of command, it's disallowed. For example, you could have people in a personal relationship at a military base but working in different subunits, so there's not necessarily any conflict of interest there.

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, I think the risk is always there. As to how that plays out, maybe Tony can add something on that.

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, I'm not aware of any systemic policy issues. I know the ombudsman has addressed individual complaints and serves as an important neutral third party in assisting us to resolve some of these complaints. I'll ask Tony if he's aware of any policy recommendations.

Status of Women committee  I would add that conflict resolution is a fundamental leadership and management skill. There are all kinds of conflicts that arise in the workplace, so we see this as an essential basic skill that all leaders must have.

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, I will provide a general answer, and then I'll defer to my colleagues, who may have had some experience in that kind of environment. I would say that simply because we go into operations or a combat environment doesn't mean that we set aside the rules and regulations

Status of Women committee  I think the initial changes, Madam Chair, occurred within the year. I think the story came out in early 1998, and before the end of 1998 this hotline was set up. The CDS had issued directives to look at our policy and procedures. We moved very quickly on this. I think that's an

Status of Women committee  It's a very difficult question, Madam Chair, but I'll attempt to give an answer. I think it's not just on the integration of women that Canada is perceived to be ahead of the issue. I think in a number of areas of social change, such as the acceptance of homosexuals into the mil

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, I'll answer the first part of the question, then I'll ask Commander Crewe to flesh it out with a bit more detail. I think what the training did was establish very quickly a common frame of reference for all members of the Canadian Forces and departmental employees as

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, I think one of the biggest assets a formally hierarchical organization, such as the Canadian Forces, has is its ability to regulate the behaviour of its members, which is reinforced by the code of service discipline. I'm not entirely familiar with what the RCMP have

Status of Women committee  I believe it is. Our experience has shown that it's been very successful for us. It also preserves or assists in preserving the teamwork and cohesion necessary to the function of that kind of organization. The idea is to use discipline and punishment when necessary, but to the ex

Status of Women committee  I may defer that question to Commander Crewe, since he has a little more familiarity with that process.