National Defence committee  Claims and civil litigation.

Veterans Affairs committee  What we had recommended in the first report in 2002 and reiterated in 2008 is that they need to have statistics to know how many people are suffering from mental health issues so they know where to put the money, the training, the health caregivers. My understanding of what the

National Defence committee  I don't know if I've fully analyzed the inspector general model. I know that was looked at in 1998 when they created our office. It was decided that an ombudsman would be the appropriate model as civilian oversight for the Canadian Forces. Despite this report that only half the

National Defence committee  Our role, like every ombudsman that exists, is to review administrative actions and to use public pressure, by appearing before committees like this, to force the organization to do the right thing.

National Defence committee  What we observed when we did our reserve investigation was that reservists, depending on their contract--even though they had been hurt because of military duty--couldn't get the Canadian Forces to deal with them sometimes. They said they had to go to their provincial health care

National Defence committee  The special adviser to the CMP is a new initiative. I think it was created in November 2008. My understanding of the role is that it is to deal with non-clinical issues only, such as education and training. They have done initiatives like this in the past. After our report in 200

National Defence committee  We want to give them enough time to implement the recommendations, but after a sufficient amount of time has passed, we contact them and say we're going to do a follow-up in which they tell us what they've done. Then we get a response back from them and we investigate to see if w

National Defence committee  That's hard to tell. We did our report in 2002, then we did an initial follow-up nine months later. They had made progress, but probably it was a little bit too soon. We waited six years to do this one, but we would have to see how things were going to see when it was appropriate

National Defence committee  I believe they do use private contractors, yes.

National Defence committee  Yes, we have an advisory committee that meets twice a year to discuss broad issues affecting the office. However, this committee does not deal with individual complaints.

National Defence committee  I believe there are eight members: One or two from the Canadian Forces, at the chief warrant officer or captain rank, as well as a former ombudsman from Ontario. The members are from different backgrounds and we meet to discuss the policy directions of the office.

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  It provides us with direction during the meeting. This committee was set up because when the office was created, none of the employees had any military experience. The minister thus thought that it would be a good idea and included in the ministerial directives the creation of an

National Defence committee  The two former ombudsmen, Mr. Côté and Mr. Marin, were both of the opinion that we needed a statute. We should be in the National Defence Act. During my time as interim ombudsman, we were able to conduct our abilities and do our work and our investigations under the ministeria

National Defence committee  Certainly it was very profound in 2002, but it was still an issue that was raised at every base during the second investigation. It's still an issue that's raised. I've met with family members myself, and they still raise it as an issue, that it's still a problem. People are afra