National Defence committee  May I respond to that? I'm sorry, but you've said that, and I do not, Madam Chair, want to be seen to be impugning...the former ombudsman. I was respecting the fact that he was respecting the confidentiality of the process, the complainant and his office. My only point is that he

National Defence committee  I am not in a position, I think, to speak specifically about individual conversations. My conversations were with the Clerk.

National Defence committee  That would be correct.

National Defence committee  Again, that would be information that is specific and I'm not in a position to answer that based on the protection of personal information.

National Defence committee  I understand.

National Defence committee  Again, you have seen the emails that did take place in terms of hearing about the allegations and—

National Defence committee  To be clear, I did not have information specifically provided by the ombudsman, either specific to the complaint or of a more general nature, but as I have described, if information is provided to us about an allegation, our role [Technical difficulty—Editor] supporting the manag

National Defence committee  I understand the point you're making, and I have said that we do take concerns being raised very seriously. We want to make sure that those concerns are heard and acted on wherever possible. We do have to understand and respect the confidentiality of the process. First of all, t

National Defence committee  Yes, I think that is being taken seriously. That can be said by virtue of the fact that, as specific allegations have come forward most recently, there are investigations under way. In 2018, we did not have specific information. I think it is fair to say that being aware of that

National Defence committee  No, and he did not provide me with any documents or information. We had a conversation based largely on the emails we had exchanged in terms of the importance of the confidentiality and how that was a responsibility for him and his undertaking to the complainant who had come forw

National Defence committee  I want to be careful in terms of the information that I can share. I'm trying to stay within the confines of the information that is available through our email exchanges. The conversation that we did have remains...I think it's important to keep that confidential I would say, t

National Defence committee  Just a clarification, I did not have information of a well-founded, investigated complaint. Indeed, we were—

National Defence committee  Thank you for that question—

National Defence committee  If I could clarify that, it is not my intent in any of my comments today to discredit the former ombudsman. In fact, our respect for his office, for his mandate and for his ability to manage the complainant and their wishes in regard to confidentiality and how next steps should b

National Defence committee  I cannot speak to the specific information about General Vance. That would be personal information. As I have said, we do take concerns that are raised very seriously. It is something that we did not...at the time of my conversation with the ombudsman in March of 2018 [Technical