Tories have gone too far on Sajjan attacks

The continuing assault on Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan by opposition parties in Ottawa is nothing more than a calculated attempt to make political hay for a short news cycle, a penny-ante political gambit which dishonours themselves as well as the valorous man who served Canada so well in the war in Afghanistan.

It is true Sajjan may have exaggerated his role in Operation Medusa in 2006, but anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of history of the battle knows it was one of the most crucial Canadian and NATO victories of the Afghan War, and that Sajjan played an extremely important role in building up trust with local clans to gain vital intelligence which the Canadians used to win the battle.

Was he the architect, as he bragged in a moment of lapsed judgment? No. But did his intelligence become the basis for the successful Canadian battle plan; absolutely it did. Sajjan put his life in jeopardy to interact with local villagers and warloads over and over again in the months leading up to Operation Medusa to gather the bricks necessary for the structure of the Canadian battle plan. He wasn’t operating from a military base safely tucked away in Kandahar. He didn’t have the advantage of a huge convoy of armoured personnel vehicles and tanks as he went about his duties. He was putting himself in extreme hazard to help save the lives of Canadian soldiers and to safeguard the lives of local villagers who chose to put their trust in Canada, despite the encroaching threat of the thousands of Taliban soldiers streaming into Kandahar province in the months leading up to the battle.

Sajjan has been credited over and over again by senior military officers with actual knowledge of the operation as being the most vital Canadian intelligence asset in the field during those months in his first tour in Afghanistan. Here’s what Sajjan’s former commanding officer, and one of the principal planners of Operation Medusa, Brig. Gen. David Fraser had to say about him.

“Sajjan tirelessly and selflessly devoted himself to piecing together the ground truth on tribal and Taliban networks in the Kandahar area, and his analysis was so compelling that it drove a number of large scale theatre-resourced efforts, including Operation Medusa... I rate him as one of the best intelligence officers I have ever worked with - fearless, smart, and personable, and I would not hesitate to have him on my staff at any time in the future.”

The Conservatives have accused Sajjan of “stolen valour,” which is demonstratively false. A large portion of that valour Sajjan claimed actually belongs to him, and rightly so. It is true he exaggerated his role, but it also true he has shown contrition and apologized deeply for this error. To continue after him as the opposition did on Monday with a nonconfidence motion, removes the albatross of condemnable behaviour from Sajjan and puts it squarely onto these politicians’ shoulders.

Conservative defence critic James Bezan said in tabling his non-confidence motion: “Some would say this is just politics,” Bezan said. “This is more than that.”

No, it isn’t. By keeping after Sajjan like this, and turning it into an attempt to publicly disgrace an excellent soldier who has earned great honour in a time of war because he happens to be a Liberal and not a Conservative, Bezan, and all who supported his motion, have lost any claim to the moral high ground they may have ever held on this issue.

“To continue after him as the opposition did on Monday with a non-confidence motion, removes the albatross of condemnable behaviour from Sajjan and puts it squarely onto these politicians’ shoulders.”