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BREAKING - Lieutenant-General Michael Rouleau is resigning from his role as second-in-command of the Canadian Armed Forces after he and the commander of the navy went on a golf outing with former chief of defence staff Jonathan Vance, who is under military police investigation for alleged sexual misconduct.
A source with direct knowledge told The Globe and Mail Monday that Lt.-Gen. Rouleau will not be leaving the military but will be taking an indefinite medical leave. He was slated to move to a new post as strategic adviser to Acting Chief of Defence Staff Lieutenant-General Wayne Eyre in July and is being replaced by Lieutenant-General Frances Allen.
The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, which is the military police, reports directly to Lt.-Gen. Rouleau.
Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife reports here on the latest development in the story he broke over the weekend.
Bureau Chief’s Quote, Robert Fife: “The golfing outing has once again shone the light on the inability of senior military leaders to comprehend the serious crisis that the institution is facing with regards to its handling of sexual misconduct allegations. It highlights troubling concerns that women sexual harassment victims have been raising for years. Too often, they say, their allegations of sexual harassment against top ranking officers are ignored.”
Earlier Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the situation, “shows very poor judgment and sends entirely the wrong message to the whole country.”
Ms. Freeland, also finance minister, told a Monday news conference she was “surprised and disappointed” by what had happened.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, a former member of the military, said the outing was “completely inappropriate.”
During a news conference, he said, “It shows that there is a broken culture at the senior ranks in the Department of National Defence that they did not have the personal judgment to make a better decision.”
Mr. O’Toole added that the issue is also a lack of leadership from Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan given the manner in which he has handled sexual harassment allegations in the armed forces.
“Without leadership at the top, an important institution is withering before our eyes and, as a veteran, I am very concerned by that.”
TODAY’S HEADLINES
PM AT NATO SUMMIT - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Brussels Monday, for a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and then a Canada-EU summit, said it has been an “interesting” few years for NATO, and that the alliance is more united than ever, which is important at this crucial time in history. He said nations need to stand together to fight crises from COVID to climate change, and that there has been a geopolitical shift, with the world now seeing a general rise in authoritarianism, including from China.
TRUDEAU AND BIDEN TALK BORDER - Attending the G7 summit on Sunday, Mr Trudeau said he has spoken with U.S. President Joe Biden about how to lift pandemic-related border restrictions between the two countries but made clear no breakthrough has been achieved.
TERROR PROSECUTION IN LONDON TRAGEDY - Prosecutors say the attack against a Muslim family in Southwestern Ontario that left four dead and one injured was an act of terrorism. Federal Crown Sarah Shaikh says prosecutors have now received consent from the country’s Attorney-General to go ahead with terrorism proceedings against Nathaniel Veltman, 20, already charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in the June 6 incident in London, Ont.
GAPS IN VACCINE INFO - The Canadian government has not been tracking how many residents returning from abroad got their vaccines while away, leaving a gap in its understanding of how many people in the country have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
JUDGE OBJECTS - A senior judge of the Federal Court of Canada has strongly objected to showing respect for Indigenous people by acknowledging their unceded traditional lands in courtroom proceedings, a common practice at the Supreme Court of Canada as well as government and corporate events.
HOW IT WENT SO WRONG FOR THE PARTY FORMERLY LED BY GORDON CAMPBELL AND CHRISTY CLARK - BC Liberals have released a postmortem on the 2020 election they lost to the BC New Democrats as John Horgan led the party to its first majority government in 25 years. The debrief is here. See Vaughn Palmer column below:
TODAY IN PARLIAMENT:
Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland held a news conference Monday urging the minority Parliament to pass a handful of key bills before the House is scheduled to rise on June 23.
Ottawa Reporter Menaka Raman-Wilms reports that Mr. Rodriguez accused the Conservatives of filibustering the government’s agenda and urged the other parties to support procedural moves that will shut down debate on some bills, including the budget bill, so they can be approved before the summer recess.
“The Conservatives are jamming the Parliament,” he said. “To the other progressive parties, I’m saying, guys, let’s work together.”
The two ministers insisted the government bills are urgent and rejected suggestions that the Liberals are attempting to clear the legislative agenda ahead of a fall election.
“We don’t want an election. We want legislation,” Mr. Rodriguez said.
The Conservatives are strongly opposed to Bill C-10, which updates Canada’s Broadcasting Act. The bill emerged from committee on Friday following procedural limits on debate. It now requires approval at report stage and third reading before it can be sent to the Senate for a final review.
Ms. Freeland, who spoke from her attic where she is isolating from her family after returning from a trip to the G7, said that it’s particularly important for the budget bill to pass before Parliament breaks next week for the summer.
“I am here today to really underscore for Canadians the seriousness of the situation,” she said. “This is no ordinary budget - this is the budget that Canadians need to finish the fight against COVID and to come roaring back from the COVID recession.”
Ms. Freeland said that pandemic support measures are at stake, such as the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, which is set to expire this month. The government’s budget bill would extend the wage subsidy until September 25.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
In Brussels at the NATO summit, the Prime Minister attends private meetings. And then he meets with the Latvian president, Egils Levits, at NATO headquarters and then participates in a forum panel discussion with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. Next, he meets with Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general, attends the NATO leaders welcoming ceremony, participates in the North Atlantic Council meeting, meets with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. The Prime Minister also participates in a Canada-European Union plenary meeting.
LEADERS
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole holds a news conference.
PUBLIC OPINION
Philippe J. Fournier of 338Canada explains why a summer election would be a risky bet for the federal Liberals as the latest projection shows the party falling short of a majority. Details here. From Maclean’s.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on the WE Charity scandal being about a lot more than conflict of interest: “A report on the WE Charity fiasco released this month by the House of Commons ethics committee is yet another damning look at the Trudeau government’s handling of the matter, but it leads to an unexpected conclusion: that the conflict of interest scandal long seen as the heart of the affair wasn’t even the worst thing about it.”
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on a clubby outing that says the generals still don’t get the problem: “Of course they did. Of course two of the Canadian Forces’ most senior officers went for an outing with former chief of defence staff Jonathan Vance, even though the latter is still under investigation for allegations of sexual misconduct. Of course they went to play golf. It’s hard to believe they didn’t see the problem with it, especially Lieutenant-General Michael Rouleau, the current Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff, and therefore the person to whom the Forces’ national investigative service reports.”
Christine Van Geyn and Scott Hennig (Contributors to The Globe and Mail) on Ontario Premier Doug Ford invoking the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to overrule a recent Ontario court decision that struck down his government’s gag law: “To be fair, it wasn’t originally his gag law. Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government first brought in a law in 2016 that gagged citizens from using paid means of amplifying their voices – not just during the election, but a full 180 days before the election even started. But Mr. Ford doubled down on Ms. Wynne’s law when he introduced Bill 254 to expand the restrictions to a full 365 days prior to an election.”
Vaughn Palmer (The Vancouver Sun) on former BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson gets most of the blame in a post-mortem on the province’s pandemic election: “The B.C. Liberals have released a postmortem on last year’s election and the harshest verdict was directed at Andrew Wilkinson, who led them to their worst showing in seven campaigns. While it is not particularly useful to rehash criticisms of his character or actions,” wrote the authors of the report, “it is noteworthy that many people felt that Wilkinson struggled to come across well on television and online video. A common refrain was that on screen Wilkinson came across as ‘stilted,’ ‘combative,’ and ‘uncomfortable.’ Even in places where the Liberals did well, participants expressed broad dissatisfaction with his leadership.”
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