While Canadians remain consumed by the health pandemic and the lurid WE Charity Trudeau family corruption scandal headlines, another controversy is brewing which has not received the attention it should.
I am referring to the corrupt prosecution of a fine, outstanding Canadian Armed Forces Officer, former second in command Vice Admiral Mark Norman.
Canadians may recall Vice-Admiral Norman, was bumped from the National Ship Building Strategy after the Liberals accused him of leaking information about government plans to derail a naval supply ship project. He was charged with one count of breach of trust. After it was determined by the Public Prosecution Service there was no case against Vice-Admiral Norman, the charge was dropped.
The case against the career soldier fell apart when it was revealed in court that documents from the department proving the Vice-Admiral’s innocence were withheld from defence counsel. As a result of the case being dropped, Canadians never learned who in the Liberal government directed the obstruction of justice.
The illegal withholding of documents contravenes Section 67.1 of the Access to Information Act, obstruction of access to information. The Liberal Government’s Vice-Admiral Norman witch-hunt then caught the attention of the Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard.
Trudeau may have hoped the “Norman Affair” would go away much like the “Blackface” scandal, the groping of a young female reporter incident, and the SNC Lavalin corruption case have. The hiding of documents prompted Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard, who, after an initial investigation, referred the matter over to the Liberal Attorney General of Canada, who is also the Minister of Justice. The investigation has been stalled.
So what does this mean to the average enlisted woman or man in the Canadian Armed Forces who is sworn to uphold the law and protect the rights and freedoms of all Canadians when they don the uniform?
If an Officer who was once second in Command in the Canadian Armed Forces is vulnerable to the type of attack on his integrity and character that Vice-Admiral Mark Norman was at the hands of an unethical government, no soldier is safe.
Chief of the Defence staff General Jonathan Vance has just announced his retirement one day after the Information Commissioner informed Canadians on the lack of progress in the “Norman Affair”.
Coincidence?
Why is it the people who should be resigning are not, like our hapless “Wee” Finance Minister, and the people who are retiring from this government are getting out now?