Taxpayers pay for Trudeau’s lawyers while Vice Admiral Mark Norman gets the shaft

Vice Admiral Mark Norman, requested financial assistance under the Treasury Board’s rules on Legal Assistance and Indemnification that allows for government officials to use financial assistance and hire outside legal aid and financial assistance if under threat of a lawsuit.

He was denied that privilege while PM Justin Trudeau and his top advisors secured public funding “in case of an RCMP investigation.”

Vice Admiral Mark Norman’s case has gained attention ever since the government had been accused of using his as a scapegoat for covering up its embarrassment after leaks revealed a halt of a contract for a naval supply ship in 2015.

Norman, previously second-in-command in the military, was charged with breach of trust for allegedly leaking the failed $700 million naval contract.

In the end, Trudeau’s government did back out of the naval contract.

Conservatives have been advocating for the Department of National Defence to cover Norman’s legal bills, although Liberal Defence Minister Harriet Sajjan refused to grant the request.

It is estimated, as reported by Postmedia, that the government has spent between $10 million and $15 million for prosecuting the case against Norman.

Currently there is a GoFundMe page set up for Vice Admiral Mark Norman in order to help pay for his legal costs.

But, for Trudeau, taxpayers are left to pay for his legal counsel just “in case” the RCMP decide to prosecute against him or his senior officials regarding the allegations of Trudeau’s ethical wrongdoing in the SNC-Lavalin Group criminal prosecution.

Although Norman’s case has been going on since 2017, this does not put more importance or significance of Norman’s need under the Treasury Board’s determination of financial assistance.

There are now allegations that Trudeau could have been involved with the denial of Norman’s funding.

Ottawa Citizen reported that officials from the Privy Council Office or the Prime Minister’s Office itself, may have been involved in the decision to decline Norman’s petition.

Privy Council Michael Wernick resigned Monday in connection with the SNC-Lavalin controversy.

His resignation is in response to opposition parties calling for him to step down ever since he defended himself against allegation of associating with the pressure put on former Attorney General Jody WIlson-Raybould in not going through with criminal prosecution against SNC-Lavalin.

The Department of National Defence denies this.

Not only has he been accused of putting pressure on the former attorney general in order to not pursue a criminal prosecution against SNC-Lavalin, a top liberal donor corporation, now he is received taxpayer-paid financing for his legal counsels involving his role in this case.

Recently, Trudeau announced in Parliament that the Liberals are launching an investigation of the former attorney general and justice minister in seeing recent issues.

Conservative MPs could hardly listen to Trudeau’s announcement as they laughed on with Conservative leader Andrew Scheer who rightly summarized Trudeau’s investigation, “Liberals investigating liberals!”