National Defence committee  Absolutely. We have an incredible and hard-working group of senior staff, who have worked extremely hard for many years now, and Mr. Marques was definitely one of those staff. He unfortunately doesn't work with us anymore, but he is somebody I could turn to to follow up on any

National Defence committee  I was concerned, as I think I said in my opening statement. I was troubled by it, and that's why Elder and I talked through if there was anything else we could suggest to them to do, or anything else that could give us any sense of what this was about. He did keep pushing and s

National Defence committee  “Participate in” might not be the right word. I do have the great privilege of sitting in cabinet meetings at a table to the side of the room. In terms of Minister Sajjan and whether he and I spoke to this at the time, no, I don't believe we did. His office contacted us on hi

National Defence committee  Madam Chair, on March 2, I learned that the minister was seeking advice—

National Defence committee  Madam Chair, at the time, what I was wanting to ensure was done to protect the complainant was that the proper next steps were taken. That's what I did immediately, and that's what I took seriously. Then there was no more information to be had, as I've told you, except for the fa

National Defence committee  Madam Chair, I'd like to correct that. I believe the member is misinformed, because there was not a note that went to the Prime Minister about extending the tenure of the chief of the defence staff. There actually are not term lengths for the tenure of the chief of the defence st

National Defence committee  I believe, Madam Chair, that the member is actually referring to the performance management system that the Privy Council Office has in place. In a memo to do the performance management system, or a decision note that came directly from the clerk to the Prime Minister, there were

National Defence committee  I would just like to correct the member, Madam Chair, that in the briefing note, it was talking about succession planning and actually providing options, none of which were imminent around the chief of the defence staff, and planning ahead.

National Defence committee  Madam Chair, I'm not sure what the member is referring to here.

National Defence committee  Madam Chair, the Prime Minister—

National Defence committee  —became aware of the allegation, the nature of the allegation, the substance of the allegation, in March 2021, when it was publicly reported, and we all learned the details and the nature of the complaint.

National Defence committee  There are a couple of things there, and I want to try to deal with at least two of the things you've touched on. Why not the shortest route, as you suggested it? I remind you that the minister came to seek advice after this unusual circumstance, through his office. The advice gi

National Defence committee  Certainly, the advice to me and to Mr. Marques—to Elder—at the time was that it should be the Privy Council Office, responsible for the management of Governor in Council appointments across government, looking into these things. I don't think you would want political staff, let a

National Defence committee  I would remind you that we didn't know the nature of the complaint at all at the time. That is why we were trying to take the appropriate steps to follow up. We were taking it very seriously, however, right from the get-go. I would also remind you that this is one of the reasons

National Defence committee  I think you even actually asserted just a moment ago that there are many other types of complaints, so I'm not going to get into speculating on what they could have been, but there are many different types of complaints that can come forward.