Government officials claimed Ontario police were investigating military efforts to allegedly hide documents in Mark Norman case — that turned out to be false

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman leaves court in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 8, 2019. Errol McGihon/Postmedia ERROL MCGIHON / Postmedia

An Ontario police investigation into allegations the Canadian military tried to hide documents in the Mark Norman affair never happened despite official federal government claims to the contrary, this newspaper has confirmed.

The investigation was supposed to have been turned over by the RCMP to the Ontario Provincial Police more than a year ago but that was only done on Sunday — four days after this newspaper began questioning whether an investigation had actually been done.

The alleged attempts to hide the documents, requested from the defence department and Canadian Forces under the Access to Information law, was revealed in December 2018 pre-trial proceedings in the case of Vice Adm. Norman.

That bombshell further fuelled concerns among Norman’s supporters who alleged the Liberal government and senior military officers were trying to railroad the vice admiral, who was once the second in command of the Canadian Forces. Norman had been charged by the RCMP with one count of breach of trust for allegedly revealing information about Liberal government plans to derail a supply ship project. But the case against Norman collapsed in May 2019, with the vice admiral exonerated and a large financial settlement paid by the federal government to the naval officer.

During pre-trial proceedings in the Norman case, a military officer testified that his boss, a brigadier general, bragged that Norman’s name was deliberately not used in internal military and Department of National Defence files — meaning any search for records under the Access to Information law about Norman would come up empty.

The testimony was enough to prompt Caroline Maynard, the federal government’s information watchdog, to begin an investigation into the Canadian Forces and DND’s handling of access requests in the Norman case. She revealed two weeks ago that the results of her initial investigation into the matter showed evidence of the possible commission of an offence under the access law and she had referred the issue to the Attorney General of Canada back in February 2019 for further investigation.

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Source: David Pugliese | Ottawa Citizen