Charges stayed against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman
Posted May 8, 2019 7:53 am.
Last Updated May 8, 2019 9:22 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – Vice-Admiral Mark Norman says he wants to go back to work as soon as possible now that his criminal case is over.
He also says he has an important story to tell “that Canadians will want and need to hear.”
This comes after federal prosecutors stayed charges against him on Wednesday morning, saying they had no reasonable prospect of getting a conviction.
Norman was the second-in-command of Canada’s military before he was suspended and then charged with breach of trust over alleged leaks of secret information.
The allegations claimed that Norman leaked government secrets to a Quebec shipyard and a journalist to influence decision-making at the federal cabinet table over a shipbuilding contract worth nearly $700 million.
The contract, negotiated by the Conservative government under Stephen Harper and finalized in 2015 by Justin Trudeau’s newly elected Liberals, called for the temporary retrofitting of an existing vessel into a desperately needed supply ship for the navy.
Norman, who was suspended in January 2017 because of the RCMP investigation, has long maintained he did nothing wrong.
The lead prosecutor told the judge that while Norman might have behaved inappropriately, that doesn’t necessarily make his actions criminal.
