New Appointments announced for the Military Grievances External Review Committee

New appointments and reappointments were made this week to the Military Grievances External Review Committee (MGERC), the body responsible for reviewing grievances brought forward by military members.

These appointments include Caroline Maynard, the Interim Chairperson of the Committee for a three month period effective Jan. 4 and Nina Frid, member for a term of four years.

Also appointed to the board are Col. (ret’d) Dominic McAlea, who will serve as Vice Chairperson for a term of four years. Col. (ret’d) McAlea served in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) For more than 30 years, working within the CAF court-martial system and later served as the Canadian Defence Attache to Afghanistan.

Also on the board is Capt. (ret’d) Eric Strong, who will serve as part-time member for a term of three years. Capt. (ret’d) Strong served in the CAF as a Tactical Air Navigator for just over eleven years and later worked within the Department of National Defence for a period.

The member appointments will come into effect on various dates over the coming months.

“I am pleased with the appointment of these outstanding individuals to the Military Grievances External Review Committee, and welcome the re-appointment of Ms. Maynard as interim Chairperson. Their experience and knowledge will aid them as they review military grievances. Their work is essential to strengthen confidence in, and the fairness of, the Canadian Armed Forces grievance process,” said Minister of National Defence, Harjit Sajjan.

Formerly known as the Canadian Forces Grievance Board, MGERC is an administrative tribunal that is independent of the Department of National Defence (DND) and Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). The committee not only reviews military grievances but provides findings and recommendations to the Chief of the Defence Staff and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) member who submitted the grievance.

Grievances come to the committee when certain categories of grievances were not resolved to the satisfaction of the member. The CDS must then refer the grievance to the committee for an independent review.

MGERC was established in March 2000 to create an organization that could independently uphold the government’s public policy values of equity, transparency, and fairness.

The process is ongoing to select a chairperson and second part-time vice chairperson for terms of up to four years each.