National Defence committee  For me, the key is a multidisciplinary group that includes many different points of view. Ms. Alleslev's point is very well taken, as you need some people who understand the military culture, because to read some of the documents, it has its own bureaucratic language, and there a

National Defence committee  The culture that exists now in the Canadian Armed Forces is sometimes referred to as a warrior culture. Now, this warrior culture came into the Canadian Armed Forces in the early 2000s when we started co-operating very closely with the United States in Afghanistan, and after 2005

National Defence committee  I think the first thing we have to do is understand what Operation Honour is. It was a campaign plan. As a campaign plan, it was to be a short, two-year intervention to address Madame Deschamps' report. As a campaign plan, if you read it, the active phase of Operation Honour actu

National Defence committee  To follow on from that, one of the issues is exactly about what leaders believe. General Thibault made a very perceptive comment, that his lack of belief in Justice Deschamps' conclusions was based in his own personal experience. He didn't see it, and we know from research that t

National Defence committee  I've read the latest DAOD 9005-1 on sexual misconduct, and frankly, it's very long. I find parts of it contradicts itself. I was discussing with a colleague the other day about duty to report. On one hand, it would say that you report here, disclose here, and it doesn't get repor

National Defence committee  I can start. That's a great question and a very complex one. It sounds like one that we go over in some of my seminars. I think the short answer in all of this is that armed forces are very good—and the Canadian Forces are excellent—in dealing with short-term, well-defined probl

National Defence committee  Personally, I think I'd separate them out. I think there needs to be one to supervise the culture change and then another one, perhaps, to hold individuals to account, because the culture change job is such a big project. It really needs a dedicated group. The most recent example

National Defence committee  Thank you. Madam Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I am Allan English and I teach Canadian military history in the history department at Queen's University. I have also taught senior officers at the Canadian Forces College in Toron

Veterans Affairs committee  Thumbs up.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll be contrary and say that it depends. If you look at Peter Neary's study that underlined or underpinned the new Veterans Charter, you'll see that he says it's important to look at the age of the veterans and their needs. If you look at the First World War veterans immediatel

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have a lot of knowledge of it, but I know that the critics have said that the long-term disabilities aren't large enough and that sometimes the transition support isn't sufficient. All I'd say is that in theory it's good, but I'd want to look a lot more closely at the det

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not aware of the latest information. No, I can't. I listened to the previous session, and I heard some of the testimony. I don't think it's improved, because as far as I know, the staffing level is still at priority 6. As long as it's at a six, it's not going to improve.

Veterans Affairs committee  On the military side, it's the staffing priority level, because that's what the military assigns to it. We heard someone talk about a career manager. If I'm a career manager, I have to fill a priority 1, 2, and 3 position, and so on. I don't have a choice. I can't fill a priority

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for that excellent question. Actually, as my biography indicates, one of my articles is about that and is available online. You can read it there. The short answer is no, we don't have a covenant, because a covenant implies a permanent commitment, and there has been n

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for inviting me to appear before the committee. It's a pleasure to be here. I'd like to speak briefly to two issues that have been a focus of my research recently, related to number 8 in your questions to witnesses: “What are the main o