Defence lawyers receive heavily censored memo to Trudeau about Mark Norman's case

A 60-page memo about Vice-Admiral Mark Norman's breach of trust case — written by the country's top federal bureaucrat to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — has been delivered to Norman's lawyers with its contents almost completely blacked out.

Norman's defence team isn't happy with the redaction and plans to fight it in court.

The Department of Justice claims the document is subject to solicitor-client privilege and cannot be completely disclosed.

Marie Henein, Norman's lead counsel, has alleged political interference in the prosecution of the former head of the navy. Norman is accused of leaking cabinet secrets related to a $668 million shipbuilding deal.

Memos blacked out

She has subpoenaed documents from the Privy Council Office and the Prime Minister's Office — including emails, texts and personal notes — to make that case.

A number of records have been disclosed as a result of the court order, but some have arrived in redacted form due to claims of solicitor-client privilege, including the memo from Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick to Trudeau.

Both Judge Heather Perkins-McVey and Henein noted in court today that Wernick is not a lawyer. The clerk's degree is in economics.

Other large memos related to the case have been blacked out, including two written by the Privy Council's top lawyer, Paul Shuttle, to Wernick.

The disclosure of the clerk's briefing to the prime minister raised some eyebrows because, following previous searches, the Department of Justice reported to the defence that Wernick had no notes related to Norman's prosecution.

Two days have been set aside — April 16 and 17 — for the defence to make its case to see uncensored versions of the memos.

Norman is scheduled to go to trial in August, right around the time the federal election campaign gets underway.

The hunt for documents which could help defend Norman has been a slow process marked by missteps and confusion, and several sharp rebukes from the judge.

On Thursday, lawyers for two of the country's leading shipyards were in court to review the release of documents related to them.

The federal government has turned over hundreds of pages of internal records that both Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax and the Davie Shipyard, in Levis, Que., might consider commercially sensitive.

The documents might be pertinent to the defence and the judge asked the two companies to make sure they're comfortable with what the court will release to both the Crown and the defence.

Duplicate documents

The lawyer for Irving said the federal government had flagged nine documents for review, but the judge noted that she had seen at least 24 records that the company might also want to review.

Both shipyards left Thursday's hearing to examine the complete set of records.

The judge upbraided federal lawyers for sending her duplicate copies of the same documents — with some versions censored to purge cabinet secrets and others left untouched.

"Certainly you were supposed to be reviewing for duplication, but I can tell you, you haven't been," said Perkins-McVey.