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That the minister lied isn’t in dispute. What’s less clear is why he would tell a lie so easily disproven and so damaging to his reputation when disproven it was.

One possibility: Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan sits somewhere on the continuum of a pathological liar, compelled to tell tales of military feats more illustrious than reality could confirm, to hell with the consequences. Another possibility: he sits somewhere on the continuum of an idiot, unaware that lying even has consequences.

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Possible, but so unlikely as to be absurd.

He has no known record of compulsive deception; rather, he has a record of intelligent decision-making. Lacking much historical evidence to the contrary, fair-minded people must assume that the formerly well-regarded minister is neither psychotic nor stupid.

There’s a third explanation though, one having perhaps less to do with the man who lied than the context in which the lie was told.