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National Defence committee I think that is a hypothetical of what might have followed. It's not clear to me how the national security adviser would have added anything to the equation at the time. We knew there had been something raised by the ombudsperson and the most direct route was to talk to the ombud
April 6th, 2021Committee meeting
Michael Wernick
National Defence committee The investigation basically came to a halt around mid-March, I think, at the meeting of the 16th. We confirmed afterwards and we basically had the road blocked. As I said, how would you launch an investigation further from that with an anonymous complainant and no witnesses, and
April 6th, 2021Committee meeting
Michael Wernick
National Defence committee That was our judgment at the time. Perhaps in hindsight, and information came out later, there were other routes available. Our assessment at the time was that we had reached an impasse.
April 6th, 2021Committee meeting
Michael Wernick
National Defence committee A GIC appointment is an executive appointment. It's the gift of the Prime Minister. It's an executive branch appointment. The Prime Minister's department, the PCO, takes general responsibility for all of the processes: selection and appointment, performance review and discipline
April 6th, 2021Committee meeting
Michael Wernick
National Defence committee It's going to take a longer answer, and I'm happy to delve into that. I think in the Westminster system there is always an answerable minister. Ministers have to be answerable to Parliament and Canadians for various things. Even with the court system, even with tribunals and in
April 6th, 2021Committee meeting
Michael Wernick
National Defence committee None—just that there was an issue concerning the chief of the defence staff that the minister wanted looked into. I learned of the specific allegations earlier this year in the media reports.
April 6th, 2021Committee meeting
Michael Wernick
National Defence committee I don't have the language of the emails in front of me. I think the language was “potential sexual harassment”. There is a back-and-forth of emails between Zita, Janine and Elder. I certainly would say that it was in the realm of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment, but I coul
April 6th, 2021Committee meeting
Michael Wernick
National Defence committee No. From our point of view, it was in the hands of PCO. I asked Janine to get in touch with Mr. Walbourne to see what we could find out. That led to the events of the following week. It took, I think—I'm reconstructing the timeline—a series of emails and calls to persuade Mr. Wal
April 6th, 2021Committee meeting
Michael Wernick
National Defence committee No. I think, in hindsight, that we were at the first step, which was to go and see Mr. Walbourne. We knew that Mr. Walbourne had brought something to the minister, so our first step was to reach out to Mr. Walbourne. There were no other steps that I'm aware of. I know that Ms. Sh
April 6th, 2021Committee meeting
Michael Wernick
National Defence committee No. I have no reason to think that the Prime Minister was aware of any of this at the time. The only person I know who would have been aware is Elder, and I don't know who he would have spoken to within PMO at the time. I think that, effectively, both Minister Sajjan and the PMO
April 6th, 2021Committee meeting
Michael Wernick
National Defence committee I never have any knowledge of who speaks to whom within the PMO.
April 6th, 2021Committee meeting
Michael Wernick
National Defence committee The loop was closed after Mr. Walbourne met with Janine and effectively waved her off and said that he wasn't going to share anything, that he didn't have the consent of the—I think Mr. Lick used this phrase—constituent or complainant. We reached an impasse on March 16. There mus
April 6th, 2021Committee meeting
Michael Wernick
National Defence committee I'm not sure what testimony you're referring to, Mr. Bezan. I'll do my best to reconstruct the chronology. My research assistants are Google and Wikipedia, so I've been trying my best to reconstruct events of three years ago. My recollection of the sequence of events is that o
April 6th, 2021Committee meeting
Michael Wernick