Sajjan says he supported chief of defence staff’s decision to suspend Norman
OTTAWA — Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says he supported the chief of defence staff’s decision to suspend Vice-Admiral Mark Norman in 2017, more than a year before he was charged with breach of trust for allegedly leaking government secrets about military procurement.
But Sajjan told the House of Commons on Wednesday that the decision was Gen. Jonathan Vance’s alone.
The public prosecutor abruptly stayed the charges against Norman last week, fuelling opposition charges that the Liberal government interfered politically in the case. Sajjan systematically rejected those accusations Wednesday as he withstood a four-hour opposition grilling in the Commons about the case and other hot defence issues.
Sajjan insisted the Norman case was handled independently of the government “from start to finish” — beginning with Norman’s suspension and including the RCMP’s decision to charge him and the public prosecutor’s eventual decision to drop the matter.