National Defence committee  Thank you very much for the question. Dr. Preston and myself have collaborated very closely since my appointment to harmonize the services provided by her centre and those provided by the military justice system. As to the support given to victims by the Canadian Armed Forces, the military justice system is...

National Defence committee  Obviously, the bill aims at introducing victims' rights within the military justice system, victims being men, women or members of different sexual identification. This bill would provide victims with a right to information: a right to be informed of every single step of the process, a right to be informed about the general information, the status of the investigation, and about the offender as well while in or released from a service prison.

National Defence committee  I'm not able to answer whether we have specifically consulted about the disposition of the bill. However, I can say that the director of military prosecutions has already in place a lot of these practices that we're currently looking at in the bill that would be enshrined in this legislation.

National Defence committee  I don't have this information at my fingertips. I would have to get back to the committee with that information.

National Defence committee  The information I have does not go back to the Second World War, but to January 2000. We noted that four charges were referred to court martial under section 98 of the National Defence Act. However, those four accusations were withdrawn when the court martial proceeded. As for summary trials, 13 charges were laid under section 98.

National Defence committee  I don't have that information.

National Defence committee  I want to repeat to the committee, as Honourable Minister Sajjan said, that the issue of mental health is very important to the Canadian Armed Forces. For several years now, we have been particularly sensitive and aware of this. The topic of section 98, paragraph (c) of the National Defence Act particularly, is indeed the intention of causing harm to oneself or feigning injury in order to escape service, as you indicated.

National Defence committee  In my capacity as legal counsel to the minister and the National Defence Department, as well as to the Canadian Armed Forces, I heard the exchanges that took place during the past hour. We will certainly support the committee when it does the necessary analysis before making decisions.

National Defence committee  Thank you. First, I would like to inform the committee that the Department of National Defence completely accepted and agreed with all of the OAG findings and recommendations, and developed a sound management action plan that is currently being implemented. It is not something that we're looking at over the horizon, item-by-item.

National Defence committee  Sentencing considerations as they pertain to indigenous people are very much in keeping with current practice, which has been implemented for years by courts martial. By enshrining these considerations in statute, the current practice of the court martial is very much guided by the 1999 decision in Gladue, from the Supreme Court of Canada.

National Defence committee  To put it bluntly, Canadians have an expectation that they will have a very disciplined force. This is at the heart of democracy. It is a force that can be controlled because it is a force that may be called upon to use up to lethal force in order achieve governmental objectives.

National Defence committee  Absolutely.

National Defence committee  I will pass this on to one of my two expert colleagues. I do not believe that we have specific data on how many of these offences have been dealt with within the military justice system. What that section of the bill would do, however, is align the military justice system with the rest of the civil and criminal justice systems, and it's a reflection of section 718.2 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

National Defence committee  If I may add, I think this is very much in keeping, from a legal policy perspective, with our efforts to ensure that we have a force that is free of these types of behaviours, one that is based on honour, honesty and integrity, so this is very much aligned with the military ethos as well.

National Defence committee  I think it's been said, and it needs to be reinforced, that any inappropriate sexual behaviour is something that is not acceptable in the Canadian Armed Forces or in any military. There are a variety of tools that we're currently using to eradicate such behaviour. Operation Honour is one of them, and it brings to bear the action of the chain of command, the Sexual Misconduct Response Centre, and the strategic response team regarding sexual misconduct.