Vice-Admiral Norman's trial offers glimpses of cutthroat political turf battles in Ottawa
READ MORE
Ottawa — to steal a word from Dickens — is infrequently a city of cutthroats in excellent linen.
Arguments in justice currently over a aptitude of sovereign papers to a rapist box opposite a military’s former second-in-command offering another reminder of that.
Lawyers for Vice-Admiral Mark Norman peeled behind a screen a small currently on some of a assertions they will make during his crack of trust hearing subsequent year.
In laying out a counterclaim justification for entrance to thousands of government documents, counsel Christine Mainville embellished a design of amour and bloody-minded domestic and central territory crusade over a $668 million devise to franchise a supply boat for a navy from the Davie shipyard in Lévis, Que.
Norman is indicted of leaking cupboard secrets associated to that contract. The Crown also alleges that a former commander of a navy sloping off a now-former CBC contributor about a formula of a tip Liberal cupboard cupboard preference to put a devise on reason in Nov 2015.
The Crown alleges Norman manipulated a routine in foster of a leasing project.
In a new court filing, prosecutors claimed to have email justification to behind adult their explain that Norman leaked trusted information on 12 apart occasions.
Norman’s lawyers have asked for a trove of sovereign papers to urge him, including cupboard records.
An end-run around a boss
Quoting from RCMP declare transcripts (which have not been tested in justice or entered into evidence), Mainville laid out how a Harper supervision discharged objections from bureaucrats who against a offer and set adult an “alternative” routine to broach a ship.
That routine — unusually — bypassed a then-chief of counterclaim staff and concerned a Harper Prime Minister’s Office traffic directly with Norman and a navy.
It also concerned changing regulations on sole-source contracts just before a final election.
Mainville says a Conservatives put a admiral underneath a gun.
“We have reason to trust they believed he was not doing adequate to pull this through,” she said.
While he was primary minister, Stephen Harper’s bureau asked Norman to pull adult a buying list of apparatus a navy needed.
It also customarily communicated directly with Norman about a devise to franchise a supply ship, Mainville said.
Then-defence apportion Jason Kenney also asked Norman for his opinion on how to get it done, Mainville alleged.
“So was he being constant or not?” Mainville said. “There is some-more to this story than a black and white design a Crown would like to paint.”
Those approach discussions with Norman took place over a objections and recommendation of comparison bureaucrats — including then-chief of a counterclaim staff Tom Lawson, who in a open of 2015 endorsed a cupboard not ensue with a Davie deal.
The Conservatives abandoned that recommendation and insisted a leasing understanding pierce forward.
Mainville also pronounced that, during a same time, a Harper supervision “was articulate to (the) Davie” shipyard in a run-up to a signing of a contract.
Mainville quoted from an RCMP interview with Mellisa Burke, a comparison Privy Council Office staffer.
She argued a approach communication between a Prime Minister’s Office and Norman contradicts a Crown’s explain that Norman was operative to criticise a sovereign cupboard and was leaking information to both Davie and a media to get his possess way.
No ‘rogue’ action, says defence
She argued a thousands of papers a counterclaim wants to see are vicious to creation a defence case.
“The indicate we wish to make here is that there were communications between Vice Admiral Norman and a Prime Minister’s Office,” Mainville said. “And it’s not a conditions where Vice Admiral Norman had left rogue.”
The Conservatives concluded to franchise a supply boat for a navy in a summer of 2015, though left a finalization of a agreement to a new Liberal government.
Also today, Norman’s lawyers were indicted of improperly perplexing to disprove one Liberal cupboard apportion and rambling a difference of another.
Lawyers for a sovereign supervision took issue, in a created justice filing, with counsel Marie Henein regulating statements from a House of Commons’ central record, Hansard.
The counterclaim “seeks to use a matter of Minister (Scott) Brison to cite his credibility,” pronounced a submission.
Federal lawyers indicate out that statements done in a Commons are absolved and can't be deliberate evidence.
They also indicate to Henein’s use of doubt duration answers from Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale about a employing of former CBC publisher James Cudmore — a publisher a Crown alleges was a target of Norman’s spill about a Liberal cupboard putting a brakes on a Davie leasing deal.
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~/73773040/0/usatodaycomwashington-topstories~Border-funding-bill-loses-steam-in-Congress/
Comments
Post a Comment