THE NORMAN QUESTION
Any charges could embarrass the Liberals
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he supports the decision to remove Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, who until earlier this year held the second-highest ranking job in the Canadian military, from his post.
“This is an important matter that is obviously under investigation, and will likely end up before the courts, so I won’t make any further comments at this time,” Trudeau said earlier this month.
In an affidavit unsealed this week, the RCMP allege Norman leaked sensitive information to industry contacts in an attempt to pressure the government. Neither Norman nor anybody else has yet been charged in the matter. But the Liberal government might rue the day if Norman is ever brought to court.
Any such trial would be expected to provide high drama, and a window into the government’s problem-plagued shipbuilding program and allegations the multibillion-dollar scheme has been dogged by political interference.
“You could potentially have a witness list that includes Trudeau, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and a number of cabinet ministers,” said Kevin Carle, a retired Royal Canadian Navy captain who knows Norman but didn’t serve with him. “There’s been allegations about political interference and if (a trial) gets into that I think there is a risk for major embarrassment for the Liberals.”
The RCMP believes Norman was involved in a breach of trust, and in wrongful communication of information and allowing possession of a document, both contrary to the Security of Information Act. But the RCMP allegations, contained in a newly unsealed affidavit which the Mounties used to acquire a search warrant to raid Norman’s Ottawa home and seize his computers and cellphone in January, haven’t been tested in a court. After more than a year of investigation — which included covert surveillance of the viceadmiral — no charges have been laid. Norman, off the job since Jan. 9 with full pay, vehemently denies any wrongdoing.
The allegations against Norman deal with Project Resolve, a program approved by the previous Conservative government to have Davie shipyards in Quebec quickly convert a commercial vessel into a much-needed supply ship for the navy.
The ship had already been delivered to Davie to begin the conversion process when James D. Irving, co-chief executive officer of Davie’s rival, Irving Shipbuilding, wrote a letter on Nov. 17, 2015, to then procurement minister Judy Foote and Sajjan. Irving requested its proposal for a similar vessel, already rejected by the Conservative government, be examined by the Liberals.
Liberal cabinet ministers Scott Brison, head of the Treasury Board, and Bill Morneau, minister of finance, were also copied on the Irving letter, which was included in the RCMP search warrant for Norman’s home and electronic devices. After receiving Irving’s letter the Liberal government put Project Resolve on hold.
In an email to a naval colleague, Norman complained about what he saw as the “blatant politics” of the file and what he called Irving’s efforts to block Davie. He considered resigning.
Details about the Liberals’ decision to put Project Resolve on hold, as well as Irving’s letter and details of cabinet discussions about the matter, were leaked to CBC journalist James Cudmore, who highlighted the issues in an article published Nov. 20, 2015.
In the sworn affidavit to obtain the search warrant, the RCMP stated its belief Cudmore’s report clearly showed someone had disclosed confidential information from the cabinet committee meeting. Cudmore, now director of policy for Defence Minister Sajjan, has declined to comment.
The leak embarrassed the new Trudeau government and sparked outrage in Quebec about the potential loss of hundreds of jobs if Davie were to lose the ship deal. The Liberals beat a quick retreat and shortly afterwards, Project Resolve went ahead. But the hunt was on to find whomever had embarrassed the government by leaking information.
Liberal cabinet ministers were clearly angered. Environment Minister Catherine McKenna told police on Jan. 19, 2016 she believed that because of the leak, “trust and confidence in officials was clearly put into disrepute.”
Brison, interviewed 10 days later, went even further. According to the RCMP search warrant, he told the officers he had never seen such a leak of sensitive information. “It impacted our ability to do our work.”
The RCMP’s affidavit, unsealed, confirms that Brison was the cabinet minister who had voiced concern about Project Resolve, the interim supply ship being constructed by Davie.
The affidavit also provides a glimpse into the inner workings of the Trudeau government and the behind-the-scenes battle over shipbuilding. In one email included in the affidavit, Norman
told Spencer Fraser, an executive with Davie’s Project Resolve company, that the Prime Minister’s Office and the Privy Council Office were “having kittens over references to explicit cabinet discussions in Cudmore article.” An investigation had been launched, Norman said, but he considered it a witch hunt that would distract the government from dealing with the navy’s problem of not having a supply ship.
On Nov. 24, 2015, Fraser emailed Norman saying that an individual he called “the Wolf ” had told them that Irving officials had taken Defence Minister Sajjan into a room where Brison was on the phone. The group talked extensively about the interim supply ship, Fraser said. “Wolf has also told us there is a (Irving) management team in town trying a ‘disruption move’ ” that he believed was related to Project Resolve. In the affidavit, the RCMP say they don’t know the identity of “the Wolf.”
Norman replied an Irving team was indeed in Ottawa, and that “no doubt they will use that opportunity to push their agenda.”
But the vice-admiral didn’t know about the alleged meeting with Brison, Sajjan and the Irvings that “the Wolf” had described. Norman, for his part, said he was with Sajjan from “start to finish” and “there was no obvious moment ... when (Sajjan) could have been taken aside for such thing.”
A spokesman for Brison said: “Mr. Brison denies he has had contact with any of the individuals involved, including the Irvings, because such contact would be inappropriate.”
But Carle and others supporting Norman question whether a double-standard is at work. In opposition the Liberals received confidential information and leaked it to the media, yet faced no police investigations. Since coming to power, Liberal government sources have provided to journalists confidential information on everything from this year’s budget to proposed policies being discussed by cabinet.
“It’s all part of the Ottawa political game,” said Carle, who worked in media relations at Department of National Defence headquarters. “Information is leaked by the government of the day in a controlled method to journalists. Yet you don’t see the RCMP investigating those releases of information, do you?”
Some of Norman’s supporters also raise questions about the information contained in the letter Irving sent to Brison, Morneau, Foote and Sajjan, which indicated that a contract for Davie for Project Resolve was awaiting approval. They question how Irving received such information, which arguably could be considered sensitive.
Irving spokesman Sean Lewis said in an email to Postmedia that at the time the letter was sent there had been no public announcement of a contract with Davie. “Therefore we assumed it would be a timely matter the newly elected government would be dealing with,” he said.
Irving Shipbuilding has also denied rumours of political meddling. Company president Kevin McCoy said in a statement that the firm reached out to the Liberal government to highlight its concerns and ask that its own proposal for a supply ship be fairly evaluated.
Norman’s lawyer Marie Henein released a statement in which the vice-admiral unequivocally denied any wrongdoing. Instead, the statement said, Norman has been “caught in the bureaucratic crossfire.”
Carle says many in the naval community believe Norman did nothing wrong.