{"id":48270,"date":"2019-05-09T03:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T07:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=48270"},"modified":"2019-05-08T15:07:56","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T19:07:56","slug":"mv-asterix-delivers-for-the-royal-canadian-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2019\/05\/09\/mv-asterix-delivers-for-the-royal-canadian-navy\/","title":{"rendered":"MV Asterix<\/em> delivers for the Royal Canadian Navy and breach of trust charge is dropped"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid rumours that the Trudeau government is contemplating dropping the charge against Admiral Mark Norman, Matthew Fisher<\/a> retweeted a link to his article from last year, praising the ship and suggesting that it should be renamed in honour of the man who did everything he could to get the RCN’s only current replenishment ship to sea:<\/p>\n

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MV Asterix<\/em>
Photo via Canadian Defence Review<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Aboard MV Asterix<\/em> and HMCS Charlottetown<\/em> \u2013 The Trudeau government would have fits, but the Royal Canadian Navy should consider renaming the MV Asterix<\/em> the HMCS Admiral Mark Norman<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The controversial new replenishment ship, which entered service on time and on budget this past January, has been performing brilliantly for the navy during sea trials. That was the unanimous opinion of sailors on HMCS Charlottetown<\/em> and on MV Asterix<\/em> after a series of refuelling exercises with the Canadian frigate and American destroyers during a hunt for three U.S. nuclear subs that I witnessed recently in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

The only hiccup during the five-day war game was on the American side. The crew on one of the destroyers was unable to establish a good seal on the fuel probe Asterix<\/em> sent over as the vessels sailed at 15 knots in a two-metre sea with about 30 metres of water between them. However, it only took about 10 minutes to fix the problem.<\/p>\n

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, who ran the RCN before becoming the military\u2019s second-in-command, strongly supported leasing or buying Asterix<\/em>. The admiral was suspended early last year and subsequently charged with breach of trust for allegedly violating cabinet confidences. He is accused of passing on information pertaining to doubts that the Trudeau government was believed to have had about leasing the vessel. Although there were strong signals that it wanted out of the deal, the government eventually decided to honour a contract that Davie had with the Harper government to lease Asterix<\/em> for five years at will be a cost of $677 million,according to the Globe and Mail<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Asterix<\/em> is fantastic,\u201d said Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class Mark Parsons, the Charlottetown<\/em>\u2019s chief bosun\u2019s mate, who oversaw two approximately hour-long, problem-free fuel transfers from the tanker to his warship. \u201cWe have missed that capability since (HMCS) Preserver<\/em> was retired in 2014\u201d because of electrical problems and corrosion.<\/p>\n

Parsons\u2019 opposite number on Asterix<\/em>, CPO2 Steve Turgeon, served on the 48-year old Preserver<\/em> until 2013. Since January he has been training four deck crews of 11 navy sailors each to handle refuellings. This has allowed Canada to once again be an independent blue-water navy after several years in which it depended on NATO allies and leased Chilean and Spanish navy tankers for fuel at sea. A fresh group of navy sailors has just begun training on the Asterix<\/em>, which is participating with two Canadian frigates in the vast U.S.-led, 25-nation Rim of the Pacific naval exercise off Hawaii this month.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And on the legal front:<\/p>\n

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Just saw Admiral Mark Norman walk into Ottawa courthouse with his legal team. Andy Leslie, Liberal MP & retired three star general who was going to testify for Norman, gave the admiral a bear hug.Norman told media army: "it's a beautiful day."
It is for him but not for PM Trudeau<\/p>\n

— Matthew Fisher (@mfisheroverseas) May 8, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n