National Defence committee  I can, one hundred per cent. We actually wrote a policy brief on this. It was part of this project that looked at immigrants in 12 countries. In some countries like the U.S.—and the U.S. is an example of the more open end of the spectrum—citizenship is not a requirement to join.

National Defence committee  My point was specifically about how in the recruiting centres it's very important that the recruiters highlight those aspects, because there are a lot of supports for families through the forces. These sorts of benefits and these supports are not always highlighted appropriately—

National Defence committee  That, I can tell you, is getting worse with this housing market being completely out of reach for most Canadians. The fact that somebody owns a house gives them reassurance that they are okay at least, but if somebody owns a house, say, in Gagetown—and I don't mean that in any wa

National Defence committee  Absolutely, I'd be happy to enlighten you. When we were doing research on the ROTP, which was requested by RMC, we asked to have access to the exit interviews of cadets who were releasing. We did not want to have names. We clearly asked for the data to be sanitized. We just wante

National Defence committee  That's a good question, Ms. Normandin. The simple answer is yes. I'll give you an example I myself experienced. This is not hearsay. Early in my career with the organization, I worked at the Canadian Defence Academy. I was chosen to be one of the civilians who would represent Ca

National Defence committee  I'm going to leave this question for the general. She's probably much better versed on this topic.

National Defence committee  The question was in English, so I answered it in English.

National Defence committee  I'm sure it would be helpful, but in terms of the specifics, I think General Whitecross would probably be best placed to answer this specific question.

National Defence committee  Thank you for your question. Based on the research we did on the ROTP, the regular officer training plan, and in looking at it through a GBA+ lens, we did surveys with officer cadets in the military college, officer cadets who were doing their degree through military universitie

National Defence committee  I'll let General Whitecross answer first.

National Defence committee  Just to follow up on what the general said, I am also feeling positive about the new minister. Her action on the interim report from Madam Arbour was swift. She did not hesitate. I've heard—and again this is anecdotal—that unfortunately in some of the cases of investigations that

National Defence committee  I can't name any specific reports with authors and dates. I've heard stories that show that French is not really the second official language in the forces. French is sometimes used when people say “bonjour” at the beginning of a public speech or “merci” at the end. That doesn't

National Defence committee  I don't think so, since the current recruitment system is bilingual. Everything is bilingual, including the forms and the staff at recruitment centres. If someone asks to be served in either official language, they will be. In terms of recruitment, I believe it's pretty much the

National Defence committee  That's a good question. I'm hopeful the new minister, Ms. Anand, will follow up and hold people accountable. I also believe she's going to make sure this time around that action is taken and we have tools to measure progress. I found it refreshing when the department admitted p

National Defence committee  As I mentioned, there are different pieces to this problem, one being that the face of the recruiters is not necessarily the face of all Canadians, so there's not enough diversity within the recruiters as a group. Their training is insufficient in terms of such things as diversit