As a result of their deliberations committees may make recommendations which they include in their reports for the consideration of the House of Commons or the Government. Recommendations related to this study are listed below.

Recommendation 1

That the Government of Canada prohibit the use of transparency avoidance tactics within the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces, such as using pseudonyms and code words that obscure the description of individuals or evidence, to prevent internal and external communications regarding individuals to be searchable.

Recommendation 2

That the Government of Canada ensure that the ATIP requester is informed any time an ATIP is divided into parts and/or assigned a new number.

Recommendation 3

That the Government of Canada enforce consequences for Department of National Defence personnel and Canadian Armed Forces members who breach privacy of individual requests, such as through improper sharing of personnel files.

Recommendation 4

That the Government of Canada ensure that the officers responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct have no conflict of interest.

Recommendation 5

That the Government of Canada reexamine the classification of information system within the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces with a presumption of open-source information.

Recommendation 6

That the Government of Canada release a plan and timeline for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces to comply with all outstanding orders made by the Information Commissioner of Canada.

Recommendation 7

That the Government of Canada implement a continuity of records system within the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces to ensure that records are available and searchable upon the retirement or release of an individual record holder.

Recommendation 8

That the Government of Canada take comprehensive measures to protect individuals serving in the Canadian Armed Forces from any disciplinary action and any discretionary decision that will consequently affect the future career of the complainant because of submitting a military grievance or submitting an Access to Information and Privacy request.

Recommendation 9

That the Auditor General of Canada undertake an audit of the Department of National Defence’s and the Canadian Armed Forces’ Access to Information and Privacy systems.

Recommendation 10

That the Government of Canada restore the budget and human resources cut from the Office of the National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces Ombuds and remove other impediments to performing their mandate.

Recommendation 11

That the Government of Canada require mandatory disclosure of search terms used by individual record holders in response to information requests.

Recommendation 12

That the Government of Canada take comprehensive steps to protect the personal and medical information of members of the Canadian Armed Forces from third party contractors. However an exception must be provided for front-line health care service providers who need access to these medical records.

Recommendation 13

That the Government of Canada take comprehensive steps to ensure tangible implementation details and minimize the response time from reports released by the Office of the National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces Ombuds to no more than 30 days from its release.

Recommendation 14

That the Government of Canada implement all recommendations in the Office of the National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces Ombuds’ report entitled Hidden Battles, A systemic investigation into the identification of mental health needs and support for Primary Reserve members participating in domestic operations.

Recommendation 15

That the Government of Canada consider enacting Private Member’s Bill C-362, the Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombud Act, to establish an independent officer of Parliament to oversee the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence.

Recommendation 16

That the Canadian Armed Forces provide all members with a copy of their full medical and personnel files upon their release, in a modern format.

Recommendation 17

That the Government of Canada immediately begin the statutory review of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians and the National Security Act.

Recommendation 18

That the Government of Canada give the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada the authority to issue binding orders for federal entities to comply with the Privacy Act.

Recommendation 19

That the Government of Canada develop a privacy impact assessment to be conducted prior to the introduction of new programs or new tools that may have significant consequences for privacy, as it relates to the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces.

Recommendation 20

That the Government of Canada conduct a comparative review between our allies’ and Canada’s declassification systems.

Recommendation 21

That the Government of Canada enact recommendations from Justice Morris J. Fish to make Military Grievance External Review Committee decisions binding if the Chief of the Defence Staff does not respond within 90 days, and that the Government of Canada consider whether all final decision making should be referred to the Military Grievance External Review Committee.

Recommendation 22

That the Government of Canada empower the Military Police Complaints Commission with the power to compel all necessary documents for investigations.