Article content continued

The military flight crew was prohibited from approaching the VIPs except to provide them with service. The crew felt they couldn’t do anything to put a halt to the antics as these very important people were Vance’s guests.

Williams has been charged with sex assault and assault. He denies the charges.

The $337,000 taxpayer-funded trip was planned by Vance’s office. Vance okayed the booze on the RCAF aircraft.

We know all of this now.

But almost right from the beginning, the Canadian Forces/Department of National Defence Staff Public Affairs branch appeared to try its best to mislead journalists – and ultimately the public – on what actually took place on that flight.

Shortly after Williams was charged by military police, Chris Henderson, the assistant deputy minister of public affairs, had a statement prepared to address Ottawa Citizen questions about the flight. On Feb. 13, 2018, according to Access to Information documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen, he consulted with Vance and Deputy Minister Jody Thomas. He also informed a host of senior government public relations officials about what his branch intended to tell the Ottawa Citizen. Those individuals included Brig.-Gen. Marc Theriault, Col. Jay Janzen, Privy Council communications chief Ken MacKillop and Byrne Furlong who is on Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s staff.

The DND/Canadian Forces statement to the Citizen suggested the VIP flight cost $15,000. The trip, it was claimed, went a long way to cheering up the troops.