Canada’s Corrupt Liberal Government

It’s the story that reaches to the top of the Prime Minister’s Office, that has caused damage to the Liberal government’s feminist brand, led to calls for the defence minister to resign and for the prime minister to fire his chief of staff.

At the heart of it is this question: What happened with an allegation against ex-chief of the defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance in 2018?

Or as some critics would say: Why did nothing happen with an allegation against Canada’s former top soldier, who remained in the position for almost another three years, and is now under military police investigation? And where was the follow up?

OTTAWA—Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has gone from bad-ass to bad asset.

A former Vancouver police detective, Canadian army reservist and military liaison officer to the Afghan police, Sajjan was a star political recruit for the Liberals in 2014. A real warrior who’d done three tours in Afghanistan, he instantly upped the Liberal party’s defence credentials.

Sajjan cut a striking figure posing in combat gear, wraparound sunglasses and a desert-sand-coloured turban. After Justin Trudeau’s win in 2015, he was the “bad-ass” soldier, an instant internet meme, picked to lead the Canadian Forces whose job it is to serve Canadian interests at home and abroad.

Will the Liberal government’s costly blunders and moral lapses never end? In the past few weeks Canadians have been subjected to assaults on their health, economic wellbeing and fundamental values. Yet by skillfully and cynically exploiting the pandemic, shifting blame to the provinces, claiming undeserved credit, never admitting fault and — especially — doling out hundreds of billions of dollars to those in need but also to many who were not, the Liberals have managed, so far, to avoid harsh condemnation from the public or from a largely forgiving media. It is all very remarkable.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s chief of staff Katie Telford repeatedly did not answer multiple questions from members of the defence committee Friday about who made the decision not to tell the prime minister about a 2018 allegation against Gen. Jonathan Vance.

Telford was asked roughly 10 times by Conservative members of the committee to clarify why Trudeau appears not to have been informed about the allegation. He has said he was not “personally aware” of the allegation in 2018 and that while his office knew of an allegation, they did not know the details.

One of these days, senior Liberals and key advisers in Ottawa need to start telling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau what goes on in his government. At the moment, he’s being left sadly ill-informed. No one tells him anything. He seems, with surprising frequency, to end up lost in the dark when important matters pop up.