Article content

OTTAWA — Dressed in his full military uniform, Vice Admiral Mark Norman walked out of an Ottawa courthouse on Wednesday free from a criminal investigation and charge that has plagued him for nearly two and a half years.

“Vice-Admiral Norman, you entered a plea of not guilty,” Justice Heather Perkins-McVey told him shortly after Crown prosecutors announced they no longer had a reasonable prospect of conviction and were staying the charge. “You are presumed to be innocent, and you remain so. You are free to leave.”

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Breaking his silence, Mark Norman says assumption of guilt took financial and emotional toll — and he wants his job back Back to video

But in a news conference shortly afterward, the former second-in-command of Canada’s military said he was alarmed by the persistent belief among senior government officials that he was guilty, and said their false assumptions took a significant financial and emotional toll on him and on his family.

He also said he wants to get back to work, though isn’t sure exactly what that will look like yet. “If I get the building pass sorted out,” he joked. “I think it’ll be surreal in some respects. I think it’ll be like I never left in some others.”