Sajjan rejects calls to step down
PM still has ‘full confidence’ in defence minister after exaggerated combat claims
OTTAWA— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he accepted Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s apology for exaggerating his role in a combat operation in Afghanistan and has no intention of firing him.
Standing in the Commons, Trudeau rebuffed Conservative calls for Sajjan’s resignation, saying Sajjan acknowledged his “mistake,” apologized and “this minister continues and will continue to have my full confidence.”
But the Conservatives, smelling political blood, launched an all-out attack on Sajjan, demanding he be fired and saying he’s lost all credibility with the military under his command.
Appearing before reporters Monday, two days after he apologized on social media for claiming at an Indian security conference that he had been the key “architect” of the 2006 Operation Medusa offensive against the Taliban, Sajjan appeared contrite. He would not explain what prompted his embellished version of the facts.
“I’m not here to make any excuses for my mistake,” Sajjan said five times. “Or to give reasons for it.”
“I want to be able to acknowledge my mistakes, own it, learn from it, and so I can continue to serve.”
Sajjan said he never intended to diminish “the great work that my former superiors and our soldiers have done on operations, and I’m truly sorry for it.”
He later repeated the same lines 12 times under fire in the Commons.
Asked by reporters whether he has misled on other issues as the Conservatives claim, Sajjan insisted he always works “diligently” with his staff “making sure we have all the right information.”
Conservative interim leader Rona Ambrose was adamant before Sajjan spoke to reporters. “He lied, and he should resign.”
In the Commons Ambrose said Saj- jan took credit for something he didn’t do. She said no one is questioning Sajjan’s “bravery as a soldier” but said misleading Canadians twice on his service record is “beyond an apology. People in the military have a name for what he did, it’s called stolen valour, when someone takes credit for the actions of another.
“He hasn’t just embarrassed himself and the prime minister, he’s violated a code of honour and ethics with the men and women in uniform that he once served with.”
“The minister made a mistake,” Trudeau said repeatedly. “This minister has served this country in many capacities: as a police officer, as a soldier and now as a cabinet minister, and he has my full confidence.”
Ambrose pressed further, portraying Sajjan as a serial exaggerator.
“He said that our allies were OK with pulling our jets out of the fight against ISIS (Daesh), and that was not true. He said our air force does not have enough planes to do its job, but the air force commander said that was not true,” she said.
But after Trudeau’s declaration of confidence, Sajjan rose to his feet a dozen times during question period and repeated his apologies. It was an abject followup to Saturday’s efforts on social media to make amends.
Sajjan wrote on Twitter and Facebook that he had “made a mistake” in describing his role to the overseas audience April 18. It later emerged that same day that Sajjan had also made the claim in a 2015 recorded CBC interview. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair joined the call for Sajjan’s resignation or firing. Mulcair slammed Sajjan for not making a “mistake” but for telling “a whopper.”
“A whopper is not something you apologize for, it’s something you step down for.” Late Monday, Gen. Jonathon Vance, chief of defence staff, issued a statement in response after last week declining to comment.
“Minister Sajjan has issued an unequivocal apology for statements related to the nature of his involvement in Operation Medusa and as far as I’m concerned, the matter is closed,” he said in a written release.