Tory MP rode along on army flights to Ukraine

Canada’s junior defence minister has twice accompanied delivery of non-lethal military aid to Ukraine in photo-friendly events that initially caught the Air Force off-guard.

A series of documents released under the Access to Information Act show Conservative MP James Bezan and a staffer were last-minute additions to a C-130J relief flight that shipped helmets, protective vests, tents and sleeping bags to beleaguered Ukrainian forces.

Bezan, whose Manitoba riding of Selkirk-Interlake is home to a large eastern European population, also tagged along for the latest delivery run, which left Thursday.

A spokeswoman for Defence Minister Rob Nicholson says the government in Kyiv requested Bezan’s presence.

“Mr. Bezan was invited by the Ukrainian government to participate in a ceremony to thank Canada for its support upon the arrival of equipment to the country,” Johanna Quinney said in an email.

No one at the Ukrainian Embassy was immediately available to comment on Monday.

The Conservative government announced last week that it was shipping millions of dollars worth of surplus cold-weather gear, including jackets, boots and gloves to hard-pressed forces battling pro-Russian separatists.

Bezan’s first trip on Aug. 7 generated a flurry of emails among senior military communications staff and planners, who were given only about 36 hours’ notice that the MP would be on the flight.

The flight had been slated to depart the day before but was inexplicably pushed back, emails obtained by The Canadian Press show.

The request was made by Nicholson’s senior military assistant, according to an email chain, which made no mention of the invitation from President Petro Poroshenko’s government.

A separate memo, written the day before, shows that there had been contact with the Privy Council Office, which was informed by the military’s strategic joint staff that the plane would be needed elsewhere once the supplies were delivered.

Quinney didn’t indicate whether the cost of the return flight came out of Bezan’s travel budget.