Shadow Minister for National Defence joins us to discuss the allegations that the Minister of National Defence knew about allegations of sexual assault within the ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces, but did nothing to stop them from coming to light.
00:08:23.220The former clerk of the Privy Council acknowledged today in the Globe and Mail that one of the memos circulating in the news now is that he was the one that was writing back and forth with Janine Sherman, who is the vice or the deputy secretary to cabinet.
00:08:41.760And they wanted to put things in writing.
00:08:44.240So, you know, there's memos drafted, there's briefing notes.
00:08:47.200And I'm sure that they went right to the top of the prime minister's office, because we know one of his top aides, Elder Marquias, was also briefed on this by Mr. Sajan's chief of staff.
00:09:02.400So, you know, there is just so many connections that Trudeau had to know.
00:09:06.260And now he, of course, has confidence in his minister of national defense, who has, you know, yesterday being International Women's Day, he failed to stand up for women in the Canadian Armed Forces.
00:09:19.440Now, according to National Post, this is written a couple of days ago, March the 5th.
00:09:23.040It's basically calling what's going on in the federal government a culture of secrecy within the Trudeau government.
00:09:30.260And we've seen it on a whole bunch of issues, whether we're talking about quarantine hotels, whether we're talking about vaccine procurement, they still won't release documents that many other countries have done within their structure, showing the citizens what exactly they've agreed to, the taxpayers.
00:09:47.240And we're seeing it, as you mentioned, with Mark Norman.
00:09:50.160We've seen it with our fighter jets, as you've talked about earlier, the capability gaps that were basically created by General Vance and others.
00:10:01.020This is just an ongoing, it just seems, tidal wave of diversion and just trying to hide from the truth.
00:10:11.500You know, it's deception at its purest form.
00:10:15.900It's common throughout the Trudeau government.
00:10:19.200And unfortunately, you know, Minister Sajan has taken a page right out of Trudeau's playbook here.
00:10:25.480And, you know, it is a failure of duty.
00:10:31.000It undermines the confidence and trust that members of the Canadian Armed Forces have in the minister.
00:10:38.620And because of his actions, the confidence of Canadians in our Armed Forces as well is being shaken to its core.
00:10:45.680So this has been very difficult on the morale of our troops, because they all take an oath to protect us and the minister has failed to protect them.
00:10:55.720And so it's our job as parliamentarians to get to the bottom of this.
00:10:59.220We don't want to, you know, politically interfere in the military investigation that's taking place right now.
00:11:04.500We want them to get to the bottom of what's happened, both from the standpoint of General Vance as well as Admiral MacDonald.
00:11:10.760We want to ensure that there is justice for all.
00:11:14.740But the policies, the procedures and the cover-up need to be fully investigated by parliament.
00:11:20.540And at the end of the day, I don't know how Minister Sajan can continue on in his job.
00:11:27.380But the way he can do it is because Justin Trudeau has confidence in his minister.
00:11:33.800Do you think there'll be a right, kind of the prime minister seeing that there was some serious errors made here and they will be asking the defense minister to step down?
00:11:45.560What we're seeing is Minister Sajan is denying any wrongdoing at all.
00:11:49.040And of course, as long as he has the support of Justin Trudeau, they're going to continue on with the cover-up.
00:11:53.460They're going to do everything in their power to try spin this story, including like they're calling the, you know, they referred it to the Privy Council Office to do the investigation.
00:12:09.500Like they have no investigative powers at all.
00:12:11.240They're just a nucleus of the bureaucracy of the civil service here in government in Ottawa.
00:12:17.940And, you know, the deputy ministers all report into the Privy Council Office.
00:12:21.980So when the clerk of the Privy Council Office is asking to put things in writing, when you have correspondence going back from the minister's office, as well as from the deputy minister's office into the PCO and up into the PMO, you know, everybody's implicated here in not getting to the bottom of this and making sure that the right steps were taken so that we could address sexual misconduct, you know, head on.
00:12:46.140We have a program in the military called Operation Honor and General Vahence was in charge of making sure that sexual misconduct was dealt with appropriately and quickly.
00:12:58.140And yet here he's caught in a scandal and the minister is giving him full coverage in this cover of it.
00:13:06.100It just it makes my mind spin looking at how much evidence has already been brought to light, how many complaints of sexual misconduct and allegations have been brought forward on these top commanding officers and that we still have a defense minister that's sitting on his hands.
00:13:22.520Now, this is just another step in, I think, how the Liberals have been treating the veterans and the military.
00:13:29.380We all remember that town hall meeting where that veteran, I believe, from Edmonton stood up and asked the prime minister a very serious question.
00:13:36.500And he basically came back with you're asking veterans are asking more than what Canada can give, which we all know was absolutely horrible.
00:13:45.420And the fact that he was never called out properly, I think, from the media and others for that comment, that that says a lot.
00:13:53.100But also the fact that we're having issues with we still haven't had an agreement on fighter planes yet.
00:13:59.400Our naval procurement and our shipbuilding is in trouble.
00:14:02.320We can't seem to get proper firearms for our military and the and the list goes on.
00:14:08.420They are the Liberals are failing our Canadian military every step of the way.
00:14:18.840And as long as they dither and delay, the cost of procurement goes up every time that we see a stoppage in the design phase of our surface commands.
00:14:29.640You know, it increases exponentially by billions of dollars.
00:14:33.820We see what the fighter jet program is that now, you know, the minister is looking at the bids that came in months ago, and he's still trying to analyze and everybody knows what what what these fighter jets can do.
00:14:46.440And I know that they got a scoring, but that is a relatively straightforward process to look at, you know, what the fighter jets capabilities are.
00:14:53.460Do they meet meet the statement of requirements of the military or Royal Canadian Air Force put forward?
00:14:58.980And, you know, how does the industrial technical benefits come back to to benefit the aerospace industry here in Canada?
00:15:05.660So, you know, there's things that have to go process you go through, but my gosh, you know, we're sitting with a fighter jet force that is very antiquated and way past its due date.
00:15:21.760It was supposed it's supposed to be retired before 2025.
00:15:23.740And and right now they're not talking about buying a new fighter jet until 2032.
00:15:28.800And, you know, as much as Minister Sage and I talk about this capability gap that we don't have enough fighter jets, and that's why he went with 88 fighter jets and bring in these old used Australian fighter jets.
00:15:43.640You know, the we have under 60 fighter pilots at this point in time, and so how are we going to put these these planes in the air, we don't got people that want to join the Royal Canadian Air Force and tell you recruitment is going to be a lot more difficult as long as we be these liberals in charge of defense.
00:16:01.580James, I know you got to go you got question period coming up very shortly.
00:16:05.700I always give the guests the last word so the floor is yours.
00:16:08.580Well, you know, Jamie, I just appreciate what you're doing and doing the blueprint, but I know that as we drive forward, you know, we've got our convention coming up here with our leader, Aaron O'Toole, and then we're going to be coming forward with platform as soon as this election gets called whether it happens in spring or happens in a year from now.
00:16:29.520We are developing policies that will position our party in a great light to be there to, you know, provide the tools, the equipment, the training and maintain the operational readiness of the Canadian Armed Forces is famous for, as well as recognize the great work that they've been doing.
00:16:47.580The men and women in uniform have done this incredible job in Operation Vector and Operation Laser and making sure that all of us are getting vaccinated in a timely manner, making sure the logistics are taken care of, and still being on guard to defend this from whatever threats that may be, whether it's natural disasters domestically of floods and forest fires,
00:17:08.100or, you know, having to go on international operations like we do in Ukraine or NATO presence in Latvia and so many other places around the world, like Afghanistan that we have done in the past or Iraq.
00:17:22.240So, you know, they're ready to be deployed. They are the best of the best. And, you know, we deserve to do the best for them since they always are standing on the wall to protect us.
00:17:33.940Thank you very much, James Bazan. You're a strong advocate. You're a great critic and also a strong voice for your constituents back in Manitoba, in Selkirk, Interlake-Eastman. We do appreciate that and all the work you're doing keeping this Liberal government in check.
00:17:49.080Thanks for joining us and good luck in Question Period. Remember, new content every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Please like, comment, subscribe, share to this program.
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00:18:09.560We can push back against the ever-moving Liberal agenda. And, of course, remember, as always, low taxes, less government, more freedom. That's the Blueprints. Thanks for joining us.