Letter to Dr. Cramm: Collaboration with the Families Matter Research Group

11 August 2023

 

Dr. Heidi Cramm
Families Matter Research Group

 

Dear Dr. Cramm,

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your invitation for formal collaboration with the Families Matter Research Group. The issues faced by military families have long been one of my top priorities as Ombudsman and have been the subject of numerous investigative reports published by my office.

My office, as an independent and impartial oversight body, is not able to enter formal partnerships with private or not-for-profit initiatives. Nonetheless, this does not prevent my office from sharing statistical information, data, emerging trends, or investigative findings that may be relevant to research initiatives, and this is how I offer my support of your work going forward. We would also appreciate learning from this initiative and the resulting areas of research.

Part of our office’s mandate is to serve as a “direct source of information, referral, and education for the men and women of the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces.” As such, I believe that we can help educate the Defence Community on the importance and relevance of your group’s research initiatives.

I believe that we share some of the same objectives, and I look forward to following your research initiatives and progress and supporting you in helping military families.

Sincerely,

Gregory A. Lick

 

Ombudsman