OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is tapping the former procurement minister to become Canada’s next defence minister.
Anita Anand’s arrival in the position follows months of controversy surrounding the Liberal government’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations involving some of the military’s most senior officers.
Opposition parties, experts and victims’ support groups had been calling for Trudeau to replace Harjit Sajjan, who was accused of having lost all credibility when it came to leading the fight against military sexual misconduct.
Sajjan has been named the minister of international development, which is responsible for foreign aid. He is also being tapped to oversee the Pacific Economic Development Agency, which is responsible for providing federal government support to businesses in British Columbia.
Anand is only the second woman to serve as Canada's defence minister after Kim Campbell, who held the position for six months in 1993 before becoming prime minister.
As Canada’s procurement minister, Anand was responsible for Ottawa’s efforts to purchase vaccines, PPE and other supplies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anand also had significant oversight of various military procurement projects, including the planned purchase of new fighter jets and warships.
While Anand becomes only the second woman to ever serve as defence minister, she is also only the second person to serve in the role since the Liberals returned to power under Trudeau in late 2015.
When Sajjan first took over the role in early November 2015, the former Vancouver police officer was widely seen as a positive selection given his previous service as a lieutenant-colonel in the army reserves, which included stints in Afghanistan.
Yet Sajjan struggled to effectively communicate when it came to military matters, and was seen as being too deferential to those senior commanders such as then-chief of the defence staff Jonathan Vance, under whom he had served in Afghanistan.
Those concerns exploded into the public discourse in February after Global News reported several allegations of sexual misconduct involving Vance, one of which was flagged to Sajjan by the military ombudsman in March 2018.
The emergence of allegations against several other senior officers raised further questions about Sajjan's leadership, and eventually calls for his resignation amid complaints about a perceived lack of leadership from the minister.
