Skip to main content

Defence committee rises without report on Vance allegations

Share
OTTAWA -

The House of Commons defence committee ended months of hearings on the Liberal government's handling of sexual misconduct allegations involving senior military officers without producing a report.

Liberal members spoke for nearly the entirety of today's final two-hour meeting before the committee rose for the summer break.

Liberal member Anita Vandenbeld spent nearly 30 minutes blaming opposition parties for letting the debate drag on by trying to limit the parameters for writing the report on military sexual misconduct.

Conservative defence critic James Bezan, the only non-Liberal to speak, fired back at the Liberals while lamenting the impact on victims of military sexual misconduct.

The committee had been investigating the government's handling of complaints against former defence chief general Jonathan Vance as well as current chief of defence staff Admiral Art McDonald since February.

Several experts bemoaned the committee's failure to finish its report, with some blaming the Liberals while others suggesting the study was doomed to fail from the beginning because of political finger-pointing.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2021.

IN DEPTH

Who is supporting, opposing new online harms bill?

Now that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's sweeping online harms legislation is before Parliament, allowing key stakeholders, major platforms, and Canadians with direct personal experience with abuse to dig in and see what's being proposed, reaction is streaming in. CTVNews.ca has rounded up reaction, and here's how Bill C-63 is going over.

Opinion

opinion

opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike

When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

BREAKING

BREAKING Feds cutting 5,000 public service jobs, looking to turn underused buildings into housing

Five thousand public service jobs will be cut over the next four years, while underused federal office buildings, Canada Post properties and the National Defence Medical Centre in Ottawa could be turned into new housing units, as the federal government looks to find billions of dollars in savings and boost the country's housing portfolio.

Local Spotlight

Stay Connected