Pierre Paul-Hus

[Business of Supply, May 14th, 2019]

Madam Chair, the PMO decided to lay charges against Admiral Norman before the RCMP got involved.

Can the minister confirm that?

[Business of Supply, May 14th, 2019]

Madam Chair, can the minister tell us why Admiral Norman was chosen to be the scapegoat?

[Business of Supply, May 14th, 2019]

Madam Chair, I have some brief questions for the minister.

It is clear that the government attempted to interfere politically in Vice-Admiral Mark Norman's trial. His lawyer said that we should be very concerned when anyone tries to erode the resilience of the justice system or demonstrates a failure to understand why it is so fundamental to the democratic values we hold so dear. She added that there are times when we agree with what happens in a courtroom and times we do not, and that is fine. However, what one must not do is point a finger and try to weigh in on the scales of justice. That is not what should be happening.

I want to ask the minister why his government tried to use Vice-Admiral Norman as a scapegoat.

[Justice, May 14th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, they always blame others.

The Prime Minister should be ashamed for having tarnished the reputation of Admiral Norman. Instead of showing remorse, the Liberals are trying to hide their plot against Admiral Norman by staying the charges against him.

If the Prime Minister had disclosed the documents the defence requested, the RCMP and the prosecutor never would have laid charges against Admiral Norman. Is that true or false?

The Prime Minister betrayed one of our best soldiers. Will the Prime Minister let us get to the bottom of this case and allow the Standing Committee on National Defence to investigate?

[Justice, May 14th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals willingly withheld documents in the Asterix file. These documents would have given the RCMP and the prosecution a more complete picture of the situation for their investigation.

Furthermore, the Liberals knew that Mark Norman's defence counsel needed those documents to make its case, but the Liberals never agreed to provide them.

Why did the Prime Minister not give these documents to all those who needed them to mount Vice-Admiral Norman's defence?

[Justice, May 13th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, if the Prime Minister did not have a grudge against Vice-Admiral Norman, he would have given the 73 names to the RCMP. He would not have prevented Mr. Norman's lawyers from getting the documents they requested. He ruined Vice-Admiral Norman's reputation and nearly succeeded in making Davie lose a large contract.

Will the Prime Minister allow the Standing Committee on National Defence to shed light on this affair, or will he continue with his political obstruction?

[Justice, May 13th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, do the terms “Kraken”, “C34” and “The Boss” mean anything to you? They are code names used to secretly identify Admiral Norman to prevent information about him from being released under access to information requests.

What is more, the Privy Council Office confirmed that at least 73 people were aware of the Liberal cabinet discussion about taking the Asterix contract away from the Davie shipyard. However, the Prime Minister only gave the RCMP the name of Vice-Admiral Norman for investigation. That is political interference.

When will the Liberals admit it and apologize?

[Justice, May 9th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, is it true that the first decision of the Prime Minister and cabinet was to seek to cancel the Asterix contract, hurt Davie and eliminate 1,000 jobs in the Quebec City region? That was this cabinet's first decision.

They also refused to hand over thousands of pages of documents that were requested by Norman's defence team. The documents that were received recently were redacted. They did not want to provide these document before because they knew full well that the charges would be dropped. They did not want to question important witnesses and it was the Prime Minister himself who asked the RCMP to investigate.

Why are they trying to convince Canadians that there was no political interference?

[Justice, May 9th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, one thing we do know is that former minister Scott Brison stepped down because he did not want to have to answer questions about taking the contract for the Asterix away from the Davie shipyard and handing it over to his buddies.

What is more, the Prime Minister implicated himself by going out of his way to prevent the disclosure of documents. If he really wanted to know the truth, he would have allowed Vice-Admiral Norman's defence team access to all the requested documents, even his own emails.

Does the Prime Minister still believe there was no political interference?

[Justice, May 8th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the Attorney General that, upon leaving the courthouse this morning, Vice-Admiral Norman's lawyer said there had been political interference because the government did not provide the document requested. This story is not over.

Will the Prime Minister apologize to Admiral Norman?