{"id":214795,"date":"2019-05-18T03:28:54","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T07:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=214795"},"modified":"2019-05-18T03:28:54","modified_gmt":"2019-05-18T07:28:54","slug":"mark-norman-affair-needs-public-inquiry-scheer-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/18\/mark-norman-affair-needs-public-inquiry-scheer-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Norman affair needs public inquiry, Scheer says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Speaking on Parliament Hill, Scheer said a full investigation is justified to examine how the military’s former second-in-command came to be charged over alleged leaks\u00a0of\u00a0cabinet secrets about a shipbuilding contract. (File Photo<\/a>: Andrew Scheer\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2014 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must launch a public inquiry into the case\u00a0of\u00a0Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Friday.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Parliament Hill, Scheer said a full investigation is justified to examine how the military’s former second-in-command came to be charged over alleged leaks\u00a0of\u00a0cabinet secrets about a shipbuilding contract.<\/p>\n

The Opposition leader also said he has questions about Trudeau’s role in launching the original leak investigation and whether the government behaved improperly in resisting the release\u00a0of\u00a0documents to Norman’s lawyers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call on Justin Trudeau to conduct a formal public inquiry into exactly how and why the RCMP were called in to investigate Vice-Admiral Mark Norman and to any other relevant issues surrounding this affair,\u201d Scheer said.<\/p>\n

Norman faced one count\u00a0of\u00a0breach\u00a0of\u00a0trust, over an alleged attempt to undermine the federal cabinet’s decision on buying a refitted supply ship for the navy from Quebec’s Davie shipyard by slipping Davie confidential information.<\/p>\n

The case collapsed last week after Crown prosecutors got new information from the defence that convinced them they stood no reasonable chance\u00a0of\u00a0landing a conviction \u2014 evidence apparently related to direction Norman received from the previous Conservative government about dealings with Davie.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Liberal majority on the House\u00a0of\u00a0Commons defence committee rejected an opposition effort to start a committee investigation into the Norman affair, accusing the Conservatives\u00a0of\u00a0ignoring the facts in a bid to tar the governing party five months before an election.<\/p>\n

Despite statements from prosecutors that the prime minister didn’t put political pressure on them \u2014 Kathleen Roussel, the head\u00a0of\u00a0the federal prosecution service, sent an unusual statement to that effect after the case ended \u2014 Scheer alleged Friday that Trudeau interfered.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis fingerprints have been on this from Day 1,\u201d Scheer said, adding that Norman deserves a personal apology from the prime minister.<\/p>\n

At an event for Royal Military College graduates in Kingston, Ont., Gen. Jonathan Vance told CTV News that Trudeau played no role in suspending Norman before he was charged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime minister did not pressure me to suspend him, OK?\u201d said the chief\u00a0of\u00a0the defence staff, Norman’s only superior in the Canadian Armed Forces. \u201cMy decision, my decision alone because\u00a0of\u00a0the Code\u00a0of\u00a0Service Discipline and the Queen’s Regulations and Orders. Not the prime minister, not the minister, me. I own it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tories will try to keep the issue alive when the House\u00a0of\u00a0Commons returns after a break week. On Friday, the party gave formal notice\u00a0of\u00a0a motion demanding the Prime Minister’s Office release a 60-page memo on the case that Michael Wernick, the then-clerk\u00a0of\u00a0the Privy Council, sent Trudeau in October.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must launch a public inquiry into the case\u00a0of\u00a0Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":193947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214796,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214795\/revisions\/214796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}