OTTAWA — Confusion and partisan bickering are clouding a Senate committee’s plan to examine the suspension and failed prosecution of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman.
Conservative Sen. Jean-Guy Dagenais on Thursday accused Sen. Peter Harder, the government’s representative in the upper chamber, of all but killing the study by refusing to let the Senate defence committee sit into the summer.
Dagenais sponsored a motion at the committee to study the circumstances that led to Norman’s suspension and breach-of-trust charge, which prosecutors stayed last month, and report back to the Senate by Aug. 1.
Committee members had hoped to hear from Norman, who previously served as the military’s second-in-command, as well as defence chief Gen. Jonathan Vance, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and others.
Speaking to The Canadian Press, Dagenais said Harder told Conservative whip Sen. Donald Plett on Tuesday that he would not agree to let the committee sit past the end of the current parliamentary session, which is wrapping up this week.
“Mr. Harder clarified the situation: No meeting during July. No extension,” Dagenais said. He’s one of two deputy chairs of the Senate defence committee along with Liberal Sen. Terry Mercer.
But Harder’s office says he has yet to receive a written request from the committee for permission to sit past the end of the parliamentary session, which is required by the Senate’s rules before an extension can be granted.
“We have not received a letter from the committee asking us to extend the sitting,” said Harder spokesman Brian Laghi. “That letter is supposed to be signed by the chair of the committee, by the vice-chairs of the committee, and we don’t have one.
“So asking us to approve an extension is kind of moot when the committee itself doesn’t seem to be able to decide whether they want it extended or not.”