Public Safety committee  I apologize for answering in English; it's just because of the translation issues. In many small communities that are policed by the RCMP, the RCMP is often the only federal presence in those communities. In some cases, it is the only governmental presence from outside a commun

Public Safety committee  I think the opportunity for the committee and the RCMP in the short term to effect immediate change is the recommendation to hold middle management accountable. There are many instances, to which the chairperson will also be able to testify, where I am puzzled that in an organiza

Public Safety committee  I think it demonstrates the value of having an independent review of organizations by parliamentarians of the changes that the government has put in place. I think the NISCOP report is very important for everyone to read. As you point out, it is the first independent triangulatio

National Defence committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. My presentation will be in English, but please feel free to ask your questions in either official language. This testimony draws in part on a piece I recently co-authored with Peter Kasurak on domestic operations of the Canadian Armed Forces that was pub

National Defence committee  Do you want me to stop for a few moments?

National Defence committee  Let me try to do this all in English. Does that work for the interpreter?

National Defence committee  Under Operation LENTUS, the Canadian Armed Forces' umbrella for domestic operations, the CAF executed Operation Laser, the CAF's response to the worldwide pandemic. The most important takeaway is one that has not been widely observed or reported. The greatest asset the CAF consis

National Defence committee  The 22,000 troops who were on standby to support Operation LENTUS, and specifically Operation Laser, is about one quarter of the entire deployable force, once you factor out people who are on medical leave or otherwise constrained. Inherently, that is a very significant commitme

National Defence committee  Because of the way the system is set up, I will reply in English. I have been instructed to stick with the one language, so I apologize. I could reply in French if we had the different system. In my view, you heard the Premier of Quebec asking the Canadian Armed Forces in the s

National Defence committee  The military will carry out whatever it is asked to do by the political authority. The question is what the federal government can do so that provinces do not inadvertently place burdens on the federal government and operational demands on the military that are best handled withi

National Defence committee  As you know there are 33, I believe, transfers, most of which are unconditional, some of them conditional. Unconditional means the province makes a decision on how it spends those funds. We can see by virtue of the fact that the Canadian Armed Forces were called into long-term ca

National Defence committee  Let me just give you some data on recent operations. There were 31 domestic operations from 2010 to 2020, including assistance activity for 23 operations. The number of and types of troops assigned for 29 of them, and the duration for 23 of them show the following patterns. The

National Defence committee  I would caution that what Canada needs is not necessarily a bigger military, because people always think that we need to recruit more people. We already have challenges on the recruitment side. We need a better military, and in many ways, a better organized military with the righ

National Defence committee  Well, certainly Russia continues its intrusions into the NORAD air identification zones, and those have gone unabated. There have been some instances of increased activity, especially in the air domain. If you consider the Canadian Armed Forces deployment to Latvia, then Canada

National Defence committee  I would refer you to the excellent “National Cyber Threat Assessment 2020” that was released last week by the Communications Security Establishment. I would highlight in that assessment that—to the best of my knowledge—for the first time, CSE specifically identified China and Chi