By Tim Ryan

Conservative MP James Bezan was on X on Jan. 10 going after the Trudeau Liberals about their record on defence spending and support for the Canadian Forces.

“The Trudeau Liberals have destroyed our military,” Bezan tweeted.

It is probably safe to say Bezan didn’t expect the blowback from Canadian Forces veterans that came next.

There were a couple of hundred comments pointing out how Bezan and the Harper Conservatives were far worse when it came to the Canadian Forces as well as the treatment of veterans.

Bezan was blasted by the commentators as a liar who was part of the Harper government which not only went after veterans but made significant cuts to the Canadian Forces. (Bezan was appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in September 2013 as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence.)

Readers may recall the Conservative government’s court action in which $700,000 was spent to ensure the Harper administration was under no obligation to provide veterans with any special treatment. Pensions as well as veterans programs were cut.

And who can forget Harper minister Julian Fantino’s insults to a delegation of veterans as well as cutting jobs at veterans affairs. Bezan was silent throughout all of this, seen by a number in the defence community as failing to support veterans and the Canadian Forces.

Harper also ignored the NATO spending guideline despite signing on to the initiative in 2014. Instead, the Conservatives instituted significant cuts to the Canadian Forces budget. At the time, journalist Murray Brewster reported that involved $2.5 billion in cuts. In addition, the Harper government postponed $3.1-billion in capital spending on equipment, Brewster reported.

Interestingly, Bezan in his tweet was citing a March 18, 2024 article Jack Granatstein wrote for the Conservative-linked Macdonald Laurier Institute. The article lays blame on all of the problems the Canadian military has faced since the Second World War squarely on the Liberals. Granatstein conveniently avoids any criticism of the Harper era in his article.

Conservative MP James Bezan and the Macdonald Laurier Institute have been caught up in a Russian spy debacle, the Globe and Mail has reported

By Tim Ryan

A prominent Conservative member of parliament and a high-profile right-wing think tank have been caught up in a media story involving an accused Russian asset.

Conservative MP James Bezan and the Macdonald Laurier Institute were reported by the Globe and Mail newspaper to have been involved with the Free-Nations of Post Russia Forum held Nov. 19 in Ottawa.

The Macdonald Laurier Institute and the League of Canadian Ukrainians were organizers for the conference that was supposed to have been anti-Kremlin event. MacDonald Laurier Institute fellow Marcus Kolga, who is billed as a “disinformation expert”, also spoke at the conference. Ludwik Klimkowski was also there to represent Tribute to Liberty, the organization behind the Victims of Communism memorial in Ottawa.

The forum was held at the Wellington Building; that building contains MPs’ offices and committee rooms and is part of the parliamentary precinct.

But the Globe and Mail also reported that one of the speakers at the event was a Russian political consultant recently accused by the FBI of working for Moscow’s spy agency.

Nomma Zarubina, who appeared at the forum, was arrested in New York on Nov. 21, after returning home from the Ottawa conference, the Globe reported.

Here is what the Globe wrote:

“The Russian was charged with two counts of false statements, according to filings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

A criminal complaint by a Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent alleged that she told them she had not been in contact with members of the Russian government or its intelligence services, “when in truth and in fact” Ms. Zarubina was in communication with an agent of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation. The FSB is the successor to the Soviet Union’s KGB. The agent alleged in the filing that Ms. Zarubina had been in “regular communication” with an FSB officer since about December, 2020 through 2022 “and had agreed to help the FSB with particular tasks to perform in the United States.”

Zarubina has denied the charges and the allegations that she is working for the FSB.

It is unclear why Bezan used his influence to allow this group access to parliamentary facilities. In response, he told the Globe that the event was organized by the Macdonald Laurier Institute.

But this incident does raise questions such as:

--Why did organizers invite Zarubina to this event?

--How much did this event cost taxpayers?

--What relationship did Bezan and the Macdonald Laurier Institute as well as the other conference speakers have with Zarubina?

--Was parliamentary security compromised by Bezan when he arranged for this group to have access to a secure parliamentary building? This would require a House of Commons security group investigation of this incident.