National Defence committee  Again, I don't feel I'm in a position to state whether she did or did not because I would have to refer that again to the national investigation service.

National Defence committee  Sir, as it was related to me, no, she did not, and in reporting to the chain of command, likely I was her first point of contact because she trusted me.

National Defence committee  No, sir.

National Defence committee  Sir, I believe at my rank and pay level I made my best attempts to get it up to as high as possible. As I said in my earlier statement, I felt I had been running in circles all day and that I had the appropriate—

National Defence committee  Just so I can understand your question, you're asking whether the allegation against Admiral McDonald can proceed in a fair manner now that he's stepped aside as the chief of the defence staff. Is that your question?

National Defence committee  With respect to the timing about his stepping back as it relates to my reporting, I can't honestly answer that with any certainty. It would be, again, conjecture on my part. With respect to the investigation into Admiral McDonald by the appropriate authorities, again, I think I

National Defence committee  Sir, I'm going to have to interject because my use of French is quite old, and the interpretation service right now is simply not working for me.

National Defence committee  I'm only able to hear Mr. Fortin. I'm not able to hear anything in English. You have my apologies.

National Defence committee  Yes, ma'am.

National Defence committee  That's a good question, ma'am. I don't have access to GEDS, so I couldn't verify that. The name that she gave me was Amelie. I had asked if it was “Emily” and she said that it was Amelie—spelled with an “A”. I had asked—whether it was legal counsel or somebody else—who could i

National Defence committee  I'd have to refer back to my notes here. I got two calls from the national investigation service. One was from the warrant officer in Ottawa and one was from Esquimalt.

National Defence committee  They had relayed to me that they were going to bring the allegation to the minister. That was their statement to me.

National Defence committee  Yes. I do have a document here that I'm just bringing up. It has a chronology of events, so I don't confuse the matter here. It was on February 4 at 2:47 p.m., Pacific time, that I received the call from the warrant officer at CFNIS in Ottawa. He was inquiring about the complain

National Defence committee  From CFNIS...?

National Defence committee  That would have been the next morning. I got a call from CFNIS in Esquimalt. I think the time was approximately eight o'clock in the morning, at the start of business.