Roundup: Where is the civilian control?

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Something rather unusual happened yesterday in that both prime minister Justin Trudeau, and his deputy, Chrystia Freeland, publicly panned the decision by the Chief of Defence Staff to keep the head of the navy on the job after he went on that golf game with the former CDS, General Jonathan Vance, while Vance is under active investigation for past sexual misconduct. But it’s pretty crazy that this happened given how things work under our system.

https://twitter.com/mattgurney/status/1410275366292307969

This boils down to Harijit Sajjan and the fact that he’s not doing his job as minister. He is supposed to be the person in Cabinet who does the civilian control, who manages the CDS, and who ensures that the CDS is doing his job properly, but Sajjan hasn’t been doing that job. If he were, then he wouldn’t have been so incurious as to why the investigation into Vance never took off when the former military ombudsman brought forward the allegations, and he would have taken the opportunity to cycle Vance out of the job and put in someone new rather than renew Vance for another term. These are all things were things Sajjan should have done and didn’t do.

Trudeau, however, keeps insisting that Sajjan is the right person for the job, that he’s not part of the old boys’ club, but that’s part of the problem – Sajjan was an active member of the military when he got elected and had to process his resignation papers while he was named to Cabinet, because technically at that point, the CDS outranked him, which is not good when Sajjan is supposed to be exercising civilian control. That’s why we shouldn’t put former military people into the role – they are not civilian control. This can’t be stressed enough. Sajjan shouldn’t have been put in the role, and hasn’t properly done his job since he’s been in it. It’s time for a new minister, and the sooner the better.

Programming note: I am making a long weekend for myself, so no post tomorrow or Saturday. See you next week!

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau says that the flag on the Peace Tower will remain at half-mast on Canada Day to honour Indigenous children who died in residential schools.
  • Trudeau (now clean-shaven!) wouldn’t commit to not holding an election in the summer, and said they were in talks to bring the Senate back to pass C-6 and C-10.
  • Trudeau also announced $100 million over five years in foreign aid projects to help address the unequal burden women face in caregiving.
  • Trudeau joined with First Nations leaders to denounce the spate of suspected arsons that have claimed several Catholic churches across the country.
  • Chrystia Freeland has been touting the measures in the budget bill that got royal assent, including $15 minimum wage in federally-regulated sectors.
  • The government’s justice reforms didn’t get debated in the spring because of procedural warfare and dysfunction (but let’s just both-sides that fact).
  • Supporters of the government’s hate speech bill say that it will enhance free speech because voices being harassed and drowned out will be better able to participate.
  • The new PMPRB regulations on drug pricing got delayed yet again.
  • An outside review showed episodes of racism, homophobia and harassment at a border post in Cornwall (and CBSA still has no independent oversight).
  • The Star talks to Kim Campbell, Adrienne Clarkson and Michaëlle Jean about the current revelations of graves at residential schools, and the effect on Canada Day.
  • Annamie Paul is going to face a vote of non-confidence by her party’s federal council within three weeks because she has not disavowed her former advisor’s attacks.
  • Heather Scoffield looks at the April GDP numbers and the mockdown effected, and applies it to the public health effects of climate change we are feeling now.
  • Colby Cosh has some reasonable critiques of that now infamous speech of Senator Woo’s around the genocide of Uyghurs.
  • Jen Gerson contemplates the nature of national myths that work to unify us, and the agendas of those who would take them down for their own ends.
  • Robert Hiltz ponders the plans for partial Canada Day celebrations and the least-we-can-do efforts by governments in the wake of the national tragedy being uncovered.

Odds and ends:

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3 thoughts on “Roundup: Where is the civilian control?”

  1. Anyone notice the twit journalist who while supposedly asking the PM a question inserted his opinion that Trudeau had “cleaned up well.”
    Must be a closet Con. Nice hair though! Trudeau will give the O’Toolers a good haircut in the next election.

  2. Have a restful Canada Day weekend, Dale. Keep up the good work, doing political coverage *and* style analysis a lot better than the stuffed shirts and wannabes in the PPG and the TV punditocracy. Personally, I’d love to see PMJT *really* make the Cons’ hair flip (or lack thereof): he should appoint Brooke Lynn Hytes as Governor General! 😀

  3. I wouldn’t say Sajjan has NEVER done his job as defense minister, but perhaps he has lost some of the zest for it and needs a change of post. Not a particularly good time for a cabinet shuffle, though.

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