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The long career of this one-time Toronto shopping mall security guard seems to have a trail of soot attending him wherever he goes. The late NDP MPP Peter Kormos, himself a practitioner of the scrappy and insubordinate mode of politics, once accused Fantino of line-crossing, lack of self-control and Rambo-styled policing. The charge was levelled by Kormos in one of several instances of alleged illegal wiretapping in which Fantino was a participant involving cell phone conversations with the Tyendinaga activist and rabble-rouser Shane Brant.

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Julian Fantino, the embattled veterans affairs minister who came under pressure to resign this week following a testy meeting with former soldiers, said he had no plans to step down and that the closures would proceed.

“I’m not leaving,” Fantino said during a special House of Commons debate focused on the escalating chorus of complaints from Canadian veterans across the country.

The minister also implored those suffering with mental illness to reach out for help.

“We have to overcome the stigma that is still too often associated with mental illness. We have to do everything to encourage men and women in crisis to seek the care they need,” he said.

“We have to reach out in every way to those are suffering in silence and we have to demonstrate to veterans and still serving members in the Canadian Armed Forces that true courage is admitting you need help.”