Lieutenant-General Trevor Cadieu, who was set to take charge of the Canadian Army, is under investigation by military police for sexual misconduct. The Department of National Defence confirmed that his appointment to commander has been postponed.
Acting chief of defence staff General Wayne Eyre was told about the investigation into “historic allegations” against Lt.-Gen. Cadieu on Sept. 5, according to a joint statement from the Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces. That same day, Gen. Eyre told Lt.-Gen. Cadieu that the change of command ceremony would be postponed so the investigation can “run its course,” the statement read.
Lt.-Gen. Cadieu was set to take command of the army on Sept. 7.
In a statement provided to The Globe and Mail by the Department of National Defence, Lt.-Gen. Cadieu denied the allegations.
“The allegations are false, but they must be investigated thoroughly to expose the truth,” the statement read. “I believe that all complaints should be investigated professionally, regardless of the rank of the accused.” Lt.-Gen. Cadieu also said that he asked Gen. Eyre to “consider selecting another leader” for the army.
These allegations are the latest in the Canadian military’s sexual misconduct crisis, and a growing number of major commanders have had to step aside pending investigations into complaints against them.
Earlier this year, military police launched an investigation into former chief of defence staff Jonathan Vance over allegations of sexual misconduct. Though that probe resulted in no charges, Mr. Vance was charged with obstruction of justice in connection with the misconduct investigation.
Mr. Vance’s replacement, Admiral Art McDonald, also had to step aside when the military looked into an allegation against him. In August, the military police said they didn’t find evidence to charge Adm. McDonald.
That same month, Major-General Dany Fortin, the former head of Canada’s vaccine rollout, was formally charged with sexual assault.
The growing crisis spurred the appointment of former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour to study the creation of an independent reporting system for such incidents.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Ian Bailey. Today’s newsletter is co-written with Menaka Raman-Wilms. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If you’re reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
As supply-chain congestion in Canada and the U.S. continues, concern is rising about the upcoming holiday shopping season. Though Canada is also facing these challenges, the dysfunction is nowhere near as severe as it is south of the border, where the U.S. government has intervened to try and ease the massive backlog of shipping containers off the California coast.
Taiwan warned China of strong countermeasures on Wednesday if Chinese forces get too close to the island. Military tensions between the two have risen as China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, has increased its incursions into Taiwan’s air-defence zone.
The national council of the Conservative party has voted to suspend an Ontario councillor after he launched a petition to oust leader Erin O’Toole. Councillor Bert Chen, who started an online petition against Mr. O’Toole the day after the election, has been suspended for two months. From The Hill Times.
Some Afghans who are being targeted by the Taliban and want to come to Canada say they’re unsure how to secure Canadian visas. Though the Canadian government has pledged to bring 40,000 Afghan refugees into the country, the process and details of getting people here hasn’t always been straightforward. From CBC.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
The Prime Minister is in private meetings in Ottawa on Thursday, according to his public itinerary.
LEADERS
No public itineraries were issued by the other leaders on Thursday.
HOW TO BE A PRIME MINISTER
From Governing Canada: A Guide to the Tradecraft of Politics by Michael Wernick (published by On Point Press, an imprint of UBC Press)
The Politics Briefing newsletter is featuring excerpts from Governing Canada, a new book by Michael Wernick, the former clerk of the privy council. Our focus is a key chapter, Advice to a Prime Minister. (Parliamentary reporter Kristy Kirkup reported on the project here.)
Today’s excerpt features some key points of Mr. Wernick’s advice on how a prime minister and their team can plan for the known and unknown:
“Early on, you should ask your political staff and the public service to take a stab at mapping out their best approximation of the full mandate. If you have a majority, you should be able to deploy four budgets and eight sessions of Parliament- two fall and two winter-spring. There will be obvious big events that you can plug into that map, such as hosting or attending international summits and major commemorations…
“No work plan or agenda will survive contact with realities, and there will be major shocks and surprises to come. But there will be value in reducing the numbers of true surprises and in having a compass to steer by. While you are personally dealing with any crisis, other parts of your team and the public service can be working to keep initiatives moving forward until you are ready to focus on them.”
OPINION
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on how the Liberals intervened too little in Canada’s military, not too much: “It is as though the top politicians in the Liberal government don’t realize that it is Mr. Sajjan’s job, and their job, to fix problems in the military. Especially when the leadership of the Canadian Forces has shown that it cannot fix itself. Over the last six years, the politicians have abdicated responsibility, except for tut-tutting about the culture.”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on how Chrystia Freeland’s mystique is about to get its first real test: “That ability to turn her natural enemies to mush remains Ms. Freeland’s signature talent as she moves closer to the top job. Before she gets there, however, she faces what promises to be a wrenching post-COVID fiscal moment of truth as the income supports that have kept millions of individuals and businesses afloat for the past 18 months are wound down.”
Naheed Nenshi (special to The Globe and Mail) on leaving his job as Calgary’s mayor and grappling with the crises we are facing: “In one way, the pandemic has been helpful (the only good thing about the pandemic) in that it has upended all of our expectations about how society works. Now it’s up to us to form something new. We are in a wet clay moment; we must mould the future now, before it sets.”
Lawrence Martin (special to The Globe and Mail) on why the fall of Joe Biden has been much exaggerated: “With Trumpism on the ballot, no one should count out Mr. Biden. Just as when he was deemed a loser by the media – myself included – after his first nine months of campaigning for the Democratic nomination, he is being written off too early now.”
Wes McLean, former deputy chief of staff to New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs (CBC)on how the provincial government set aside partisanship to deal with the pandemic: “Later that same day, a new era of co-operation was embarked upon. Premier Higgs authorized the formation of the cabinet committee on COVID-19, and invited all three opposition party leaders to join. All three agreed and were sworn in. There were rumblings that this new model would not work; would the other party leaders have outsized influence? Would cabinet effectively rubber stamp the committee decisions? Or conversely, would the committee’s decisions be altered by the full cabinet? It was a “beau risque,” in the words of René Lévesque, and it worked. There would be moments of disagreement, but the maturity of all four leaders, and the overarching purpose of the committee’s work, meant that harmony prevailed most of the time…A routine highlight of the cooperative model came on Friday mornings, when all four party leaders would appear on CBC Radio’s Information Morning. Not every decision was agreed upon all the time by all leaders, but the theme throughout the work of the COVID-19 cabinet committee was unity of mission and purpose.”
Send along your political questions and we will look at getting answers to run in this newsletter. It’s not possible to answer each one personally. Questions and answers will be edited for length and clarity.
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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
