QUESTION PERIOD — Justice
Vice-Admiral Mark Norman
May 8, 2019
My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate and has to do with the decision announced in an Ottawa court this morning to stay the single criminal charge against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman.
There are obvious comparisons here to the SNC-Lavalin scandal. In both cases, the Prime Minister sought to discredit and ruin an individual who stood up to him. The former Attorney General lost her cabinet post. The Vice-Admiral lost his life’s work and might have lost his freedom. On two occasions well before Vice-Admiral Norman was charged, the Prime Minister stated publicly twice that this matter would end up before the courts.
Senator Harder, what possible reason would the Prime Minister have to make public comments like that not once but twice?
I thank the honourable senator for his question. Let me reassert that in the case of Vice-Admiral Norman, the prosecution in question was handled entirely through the Public Prosecution Service of Canada which, as the honourable senator will know, is arm’s-length and operates independently.
The director of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada stated in February — and then repeated today — that there was no contact or influence from outside the Prosecution Service in either the decision to prosecute or in the decision to stay the charges of today.
I think it’s important we all recognize that this case is one that has followed entirely through the appropriate arm’s-length decision-making of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.
Thank you, Senator Harder. That’s not the issue that we brought up. It is clear that the prosecutors conducted themselves accordingly. The question is whether the PMO and Privy Council interjected. That will come out in the near future, in terms of whatever quality information is dug up.
After what has been surely a terrible ordeal, it is my hope that Vice-Admiral Norman will be able to regain his normal life and his career of service to Canada. That should begin with an apology from the government for all that has been inflicted upon him and his family over the last several years.
Senator Harder, will the government do the right thing and apologize to Vice-Admiral Norman immediately and without reservations? As well, could the Government Leader please tell us if he will be reinstated?
What I can tell the honourable senator, as he will undoubtedly know, is that the government, acting on the advice from the deputy minister of National Defence, has made the decision to compensate the legal fees of the honourable Vice-Admiral. As to the question the honourable senator has asked, that is before the government for decision.
Honourable senators, my question is for the government leader and also concerns Vice-Admiral Mark Norman. While the lawyers in this case came out today and denied there was political interference to stay the charges — although I am not sure how the defence would know that — let’s be clear this case has been politically motivated from the start.
The Prime Minister was politically embarrassed by a leak of a very political decision and he wanted someone to pay for that, going as far as to say this matter would be before the courts long before Vice-Admiral Norman was ever charged. When it came down to it, the government dragged its feet in disclosing documents to the Vice-Admiral’s lawyers. When documents were released, government leader, they were heavily censored, like the 60-page memo to the Prime Minister from the former Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick, which was fully redacted. Although the charges have been stayed, Canadians still deserve to know what happened and why, perhaps now even more than ever. What was the government so afraid of in these documents that they would reveal? Will the government commit to full disclosure of the details that led to collapse of their case against Vice-Admiral Norman or is this the same as the threatened lawsuit against Andrew Scheer, in which Justin Trudeau got ahead of himself and now realizes that he is the one who actually has something to hide?
Let me repeat that the decisions to prosecute and to stay the prosecution were made by the director of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada and not at the direction of the government, and that the consequences of the decision to stay the procedures were made by the director through the appropriate channels at the time that the director felt it was appropriate.
Government leader, as far as the lawyers in this case coming out today and denying there was political interference in the decision to stay the charges, did they make that statement as a condition of having these charges dropped? We have heard today that the government has already made a financial agreement with the defence, but have there been other conditions attached to this particular agreement? For example, have confidentiality agreements been attached to this agreement? How far is this government willing to go to cover up its own corruption and at what cost to taxpayers?
You said earlier in an answer with regard to the prosecutor’s office making it clear today in a statement that there was no political interference in the Vice-Admiral Norman case. Why didn’t they make the same clear defined comment when it came to the SNC-Lavalin case? Can the government ask the prosecutor’s office to make the same declaration they did today on the Norman case regarding the SNC-Lavalin case — that there was no political interference in the DPA request?
I thank the honourable senator for his plethora of questions. Let me simply repeat that the government had no role in determining whether a prosecution proceed. As I and the director have indicated, the government did not make the decision to stand the prosecution. That was made independently by the arm’s-length Public Prosecution Service of Canada. With respect to the speculation of the honourable senator with regard to what conditions may or may not be attached, I frankly would have to take that under advisement.
