Tight grip draws ire of defence watchdog

Office should be independent, Walbourne says

OTTAWA • Canada’s military ombudsman has dropped the gloves in what appears to have become a tense battle with National Defence, accusing officials of “insidious” attacks whenever his office releases a report critical of the department.

Gary Walbourne said those attacks have affected his ability to hold the Defence Department to account, which by extension is having a negative impact on the military personnel he is working to help.

The ombudsman said the best way to solve the problem is to make his office, which was created in the aftermath of the Somalia Inquiry, fully independent from the department.

“I think this office should report to Parliament,” Walbourne told The Canadian Press. “That way there is a certain standard and process that has to be respected.”

The Trudeau government has so far rejected Walbourne’s request, with Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan encouraging the two sides to work together to resolve their differences.

Sajjan noted in a letter to Walbourne that the current relationship, in which defence officials oversee the ombudsman’s finances and human resources, was the result of a scathing auditor general’s report. Auditor general Michael Ferguson blasted the department in 2015 for not keeping closer tabs on Walbourne’s predecessor, Pierre Daigle, who approved his own expenses and flouted contracting rules.

Sajjan said that while he valued the ombudsman’s mandate and “operational independence,” in his view the current arrangement was working. “In addition, this model mirrors almost all other similar offices across government and meets the test of proper stewardship of resources,” Sajjan wrote.

The ombudsman’s office has a budget of about $6 million per year and, according to officials, receives about 13,000 calls from active and retired military personnel each year.

It is currently working on 1,900 cases, many of which officials say relate to problems with the transition from military to civilian life.

Walbourne, who took over as ombudsman in April, 2014, said he has worked hard to clean up Daigle’s mistakes, but the department’s tight grip on his office’s finances is now being used against him.

He alleged a pattern has developed where defence officials make life more difficult for his office any time it releases a report they don’t like.

“You can almost trend my administrative burdens and the way this office is received with my systemic reviews when I release them and there’s a challenge to the department to change something,” he said. “Things get delayed a little bit. It’s insidious.”

JULIE OLIVER / POSTMEDIA NEWS Ombudsman for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces, Gary Walbourne, says he has fundamental concerns about the way ill and injured soldiers and cadets are treated, and about how his office is treated by the department.