A Canadian Forces officer in MacKay’s office then demanded to know who invited Simms for the ride and whether the MP had paid any money to reimburse the military for the flight.
It later turned out Simms went on the flight at the behest of MacKay’s office. That, however, didn’t stop MacKay from using the information gathered by the military to attack the MP in the Commons for his flight on a helicopter.
This raises a lot of questions and the Beaver and POGGE have covered them well, but one part of the report worries me even more and that is the one highlighted in the above quote.
The first is why the hell is an officer in our armed forces demanding anything about one of his master’s political opponents? That surely is a question for MacKay to be asking?
….the military documents outlining the search for information on Simms showed a “level of enthusiasm” among officers that the public should find disconcerting.
A corollary to this point is to note with disgust that this activity was carried out not only willingly but with enthusiasm.
Secondly, how can serving officers allow themselves to become part of a lie? These officers clearly knew that the Minister had invited Simms on the fly-along and then ignored that fact to attack the man in the HoC. In my mind that is a very good reason to be asked to be reassigned. Well it is if you actually are a person of integrity, which these sycophants clearly are not.
They appear to have forgotten the oath they took when they took the shilling and have allowed themselves to adopt the customs of those they serve in Ottawa; in short they need to be careful that they don’t further disgrace the uniform.
