Canada’s Official Opposition is leading the charge against Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan’s poor handling of sexual misconduct allegations exploding from within the ranks of the Canadian military.
The issue came to a head this week when O’Toole took Sajjan to task once again during a question period.
Conservatives lambasted Sajjan’s milquetoast approach to addressing a sexual misconduct report released in 2015 by former Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps.
Having had 6 years to remedy the situation and having not applied the majority of the 2015 recommendations, O’Toole suggested that Sajjan “do the honourable thing and resign.”
Bob Benzen, the Conservative parliamentarian overseeing the the Canadian Armed Forces on the Defence Committee spoke to The Counter Signal about the embattled minister.
“I think the best thing for him would be to move on, and I think the best thing for the Armed Forces would be for a new leader to come in and start fresh,” Benzen said. “I just think it is so toxic now that I think it would be really hard to make anything good happen.”
According to Former Supreme Court justice Morris Fish, who released a follow up review on June 1, he felt that extensive evidence “confirmed the factual findings” of the 2015 report and that “The nature, extent and human cost of sexual misconduct in the CAF remain as debilitating, as rampant and as destructive in 2021 as they were in 2015.”
The crux of the issue today emanates from years of cover ups and an ongoing investigation into accusations levied against former Chief of the Defence Staff Jonathan Vance, who has denied the allegations.
Minister Sajjan’s incompetence as a defence minister is not his only issue either – as a representative of the Government of Canada, Sajjan has brazenly praised the Chinese Communist regime while attending an anniversary celebration of the genocidal government in Vancouver.
Rather than address opposition grievances over the sexual misconduct issue his ranks, Sajjan deflected the issue by revealing that he is partisan leader and will not take any advice from Conservatives when it comes to running the military.
This was followed by Sajjan assuring everyone that he is working towards creating a “more inclusive environment” in the military – whatever that means.
