Roundup: A weekend of Norman

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Over the course of the long weekend, there was another push about the Vice Admiral Mark Norman story, but there were some problems in how this has all been unfolding. The National Post had a longread that was the first to interview Norman and his family about the ordeal, but in the process, in focusing on making Norman a martyr to his cause, I’m not sure that they did him any favours because it did seem to make it look like he did what he was accused of doing – this, while everyone kept tweeting about how enraging this story was on Norman’s behalf.

There were other threads – General Jonathan Vance, the Chief of Defence Staff, gave a somewhat exasperated sounding interview to state that the decision to suspend Norman was his and his alone, while the Globe and Mail reported that it was the former National Security advisor to the prime minister and the former Clerk of the Privy Council – both Harper appointees, it should be noted – that called in the RCMP to investigate the leak after their own internal investigation was inclusive. This blows up the narrative of the Conservatives that it was somehow a personal vendetta to destroy Norman’s career, or that the prime minister was personally directing this – though that narrative is also about trying to match up Trudeau’s stupid misspeaking about the Norman case likely winding up in court before charges were even laid that had them trying to spin a narrative about interference. (The Conservatives, meanwhile, keep hoping that there will be more embarrassing revelations, but they don’t seem to be coming). Likewise, the attempts to insist that the government was orchestrating the withholding of documents hasn’t actually matched up with the realities of the processes involved.

But while the Post story was curious enough, I found this analysis piece by the CBC’s Murray Brewster to have its share of framing problems, in saying that the allocation of responsibility was throwing people under the bus – like Vance (never mind that he admitted it was his decision). Brewster also seems to confuse the arguments that Crown prosecutors were making with those of “senior government officials” framing the prosecution, because I have never read anything about senior officials framing the prosecution – nor have I read anything coming from government or officials framing the allegations against Norman as an issue of civilian control, which is why I always found it odd because that’s at the heart of what was being alleged. Beyond that, Brewster wonders why the Liberals aren’t asking questions of the Conservatives about how they rewrote the rules on that procurement in the first place, or why the former Conservative ministers didn’t speak to the RMCP after the charges were laid, or why Norman would stake his career on this procurement – all questions that I don’t know why the Liberals would ask. They’re a little past holding the Conservatives to account because the Conservatives aren’t in power any longer, and it would seem to me that it would be more the role of journalists asking these kinds of questions of the Conservatives, as opposed to the government – perhaps more than trying to curry sympathy for Norman.

https://twitter.com/btaplatt/status/1128335527785193472

Good reads:

  • The retaliatory tariffs against American goods have now been lifted with the steel and aluminium tariffs, which means the push for New NAFTA ratification is on.
  • The revamped citizenship guide is still not ready for release, and there is speculation that it is now too close to the election for it to happen now.
  • Here is a look at where things are standing on the diversity of Governor-in-Council appointments post-Liberal reforms. (I have a column on this later today).
  • Bill Blair says that a handgun ban may still be a possibility before Parliament rises.
  • The federal government is getting antsy about the Quebec government not approving infrastructure spending, particularly for flood mitigation projects.
  • When Newfoundland and Labrador PC Leader Ches Crosbie slammed Lieutenant Governor Judy Foote, he was off the mark and suffered selective memory.
  • Kevin Carmichael talks to the head of EDC, and reflects on how Canada likes to call itself a trading nation while not doing the work necessary to really be one.
  • Chris Selley says that trying to stoke fears about limiting abortion in Canada based on what’s going on in the States is overblown. (I’m…dubious based on the rhetoric).
  • Colby Cosh wonders if the growing numbers of birth tourists will prompt federal action.
  • My weekend column looked at the number of bills being revised or recommended not to proceed in the Senate, and how that drama could unfold.

Odds and ends:

Excavation work on Parliament Hill has turned up some pre-Confederation military buildings, which includes the city’s first jailhouse.

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