Evidence of meeting #23 for National Defence in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was investigation.
A video is available from Parliament.
April 6th, 2021 / 12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Benzen Conservative Calgary Heritage, AB
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Minister, for being here with us today.
Minister, I'm just curious about something. You said that you had worked under General Vance's command in Afghanistan. I'm curious; have you worked in another location with him or alongside him in any other place?
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Benzen Conservative Calgary Heritage, AB
Did you have a posting to Toronto where you worked with him, or alongside him? Did you have offices side by side?
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
I was a reservist in Vancouver. I did not work in Toronto, no.
I did not have any class B. I can explain that too—no class B, no class C, not even class A working in Toronto, no. Maybe somebody else might look like me, because there are a lot of turbaned members in the Canadian Armed Forces.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Benzen Conservative Calgary Heritage, AB
No, no, it was just a question.
You mentioned earlier today that every year, annually in the fall, you get a 15-minute phone call from the Clerk of the Privy Council where you talk about the chief of the defence staff. You have a little conversation. It's only about 15 minutes long. What kind of questions do you get asked in that 15-minute conversation about the chief of the defence staff? What do you talk about?
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Obviously, since my deputy minister is right here before me—
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Benzen Conservative Calgary Heritage, AB
So you don't talk about the chief of the defence staff.
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
No, I said we talk about the deputy minister, we talk about the chief of the Communications Security Establishment, and then we talk also about the chief of the defence staff at that time—
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Benzen Conservative Calgary Heritage, AB
My question was only in terms of the chief of the defence staff. What do you talk about?
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Okay. I just wanted to make sure that during that conversation it's not just about the chief of the defence staff. For example, they'll talk about the work in the mandate letter that we had. For example, when it came to the defence policy, the work that was done there, the operations that are currently under way—those are the types of things they're responsible for.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Benzen Conservative Calgary Heritage, AB
So they're things that happened throughout the year and you want to kind of give a little review, put it in context and make sure everybody is on the same page.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Benzen Conservative Calgary Heritage, AB
Okay.
Now, the clerk was Michael Wernick. He knew about the allegations that eventually got to him. He heard about the sexual misconduct allegations. Did that ever come up in your conversation with him in that review talking period?
12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
No, I don't recall that we did discuss that. Keep in mind also that my conversation with him would have happened the fall prior.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
