Letter to ADM (HR-Civ): Ombudsman launches process reviews on civilian complaint  mechanisms

28 April 2023

 

Ms. Isabelle Desmartis
ADM (HR-Civ)
Department of National Defence and
The Canadian Armed Forces
101 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, ON K1A 0K2

 

Dear Ms. Isabelle Desmartis:

This is to advise you that the Office of the Ombudsman will be conducting a review of the following three processes within the Department:

• Civilian Grievance process
• Harassment and Violence resolution process
• Internal Disclosure of Wrongdoing process

We have previously identified a lack of consistency with respect to the application of procedural fairness in multiple departmental processes. We recommended that the Department examine its processes and implement standard safeguards to ensure administrative fairness in all decision-making. 

The intent of our current review is to follow-up on the implementation of our recommendation and to address any specific gaps or points of failure in each of the above-mentioned processes. We also intend to identify best practices for successful and fair decision-making.

As the Civilian Grievance process falls within your area of responsibility, we would like to schedule a meeting with you as soon as possible to provide you with details of this initiative and to establish a contact-list of relevant personnel within your organization who will be able to respond to our questions. Our inquiries will include the areas of documentation, service standards and performance statistics, resourcing, and organizational accountability structures, among others.

We will be scheduling meetings as soon as possible and expect to share our findings within the fiscal year. If you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to reach out Roland Troke-Barriault at 343-xxx-yyy or by email at Roland.Troke‑Barriault@forces.gc.ca.

Sincerely,

 

Gregory Lick

Ombudsman