|
|
Posted by Scott Tribe on April 27, 2010, at 4:12 pm |
“…accepting an unconditional authority of the executive to censor the information provided to Parliament would in fact jeopardize the very separation of powers that is purported to lie at the heart of our parliamentary system and the independence of its constituent parts.” – Speaker Milliken
Here is the basics, as liveblogged by CBC’s Kady O’Malley:
..The chair must conclude that it is within the power of the House to ask for the documents; is it also possible to put in place a mechanism to ensure those documents will be protected? That’s the question, isn’t it? Milliken points to various suggestions made, from swearing MPs into the Privy [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on April 27, 2010, at 12:12 pm |
It is reported by several media sources today that the Speaker of the House, Peter Miliken,will bring down his ruling today on the opposition parties privilege motions that charge the Conservative government being in contempt of Parliament for refusing to hand over unredacted uncensored documents pertaining to the Afghan detainee issue and what was known about torture. It is reportedly a 45 minute speech, so it’s obvious Miliken put a lot of thought into whatever his ruling says today. It will take place shortly after Question Period ends, at around 3 pm.
What will he rule? Warren seems to think the Speaker will “cave” to Harper – because he [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on April 20, 2010, at 11:20 am |
The arrogance (not to mention the paranoid secrecy) of this government can be highlighted by this particular exchange between a Justice Department lawyer and the Military Police Complaints Commission, in a dispute over the government not releasing documents to the Commission:
Commission counsel said it’s hard to know what documents are out there when the government gets to “unilaterally” decide what gets released and what doesn’t. “We have no idea what the universe of documents is that the government is reviewing,” lawyer Ron Lunau said. But Mr. Prefontaine argued the commission’s mandate is limited and certain documents are out of bounds.
The commission also took the government to task [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on April 17, 2010, at 1:20 pm |
For Canadians, debates between the leaders of the major parties is a routine thing (some observers/commentators are even of the opinion it’s a rather flawed tool when it comes to debating major issues).
For the UK however, party leader debates are a novel thing. This is the first time there has been a direct party leader debate format over there, and it appears that the Liberal Democrats and their leader Nick Clegg have benefited big-time from performing well at the format. Two new polls today (H/t to Taylor Owen at his Twitter page for drawing attention to the 2 polls) show that the Liberal Dems have made a [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on April 16, 2010, at 1:03 pm |
It appears that the Liberals declining to meet with this private investigator who is apparently the source of info for the Prime Minister and his officials that led them to make the decision turf Helena Guergis from the Cabinet and from the Conservative caucus was a wise move to make, when you read some of the details.
If the Liberals had decided to take the P.I’s call, and release his information publicly, you can be rest assured the Conservatives and Stephen Harper’s reflex and reactive action would have first been screaming “Liberal smear”, and accuse the LPC of politicizing the issue (and then of course engage in some attacks [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on April 15, 2010, at 11:28 am |
More explosive then Colvin’s testimony, if true:
An Afghan-Canadian who served as translator to Canada’s military levelled potentially explosive allegations at a Commons committee today, saying Canadian troops transferred “innocent” men to Afghanistan’s notorious intelligence service and once shot an unarmed man in the back of the head.
Malgarai Ahmadshah, adviser to the former commander of Canada’s Joint Task Force Afghanistan unit, was speaking to MPs probing the detainee issue and this country’s relationship with the Afghan National Directorate of Security…Mr. Ahmadshah also alleged the Canadian government transferred detainees to the NDS with the understanding they would be abused in order to extract more intelligence information from them. “They [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on April 7, 2010, at 10:45 am |
This document hardly makes the Conservative government look good. To paraphrase the article, (since I continue to refuse to directly quote the CBC news articles while they have that iCopyright scheme in place), the Conservative government was warned last year that our relationship with the Afghanistan government’s intelligence agency was not only risky, but possibly illegal.. and this warning was delivered while Canadian officials were defending the relationship.
Reports like this continues to suggest that the reason that the Conservative government continue to refuse to turn over unredacted Afghanistan detainee documents is less to do with national security, and more to do with at a minimum trying to prevent [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on March 23, 2010, at 2:19 pm |
Yea, the saying is usually a “red herring”, but I felt it appropriate to change it to blue to coincide with the Conservatives, whose colour is blue of course. Anyhow, regardless of the herring’s colour, that’s what this excuse for voting against a Liberal motion calling on the government to include family planning in any G8 maternal health initiative. Apparently, it’s anti-American:
Conservative MPs will vote against a Liberal motion today to include family planning as part of the G8 maternal and child health initiative..it was clear the government had seized upon the second part of the Liberal motion which attacks the right-wing policies of the former George Bush [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on March 19, 2010, at 12:35 pm |
If the Conservatives and Prime Minister Stephen Harper threaten to dissolve Parliament and force an election rather then be forced to turn documents over to Parliament (and having the spectacle of Parliament’s Sergeant-At-Arms seizing the documents/arresting Cabinet Ministers for contempt of Parliament), that’s their prerogative, and their problem. Nowhere in any of the motions of the opposition parties points of order do they state that the failure to produce documents would be considered a loss of confidence in the Conservative government.
The fact that the Conservative government would rather face an election then turn those documents over to either a public inquiry judge or a Parliamentary committee with proper [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on March 18, 2010, at 12:54 pm |
The Speaker has been handed 3 separate points of privilege by the 3 opposition parties today, all asking that the Speaker find the Conservative government in contempt of Parliament for their refusal so far to turn over all unredacted documents referring to Afghan detainees and their treatment (as demanded in a Parliament vote before Christmas), if they continue to refuse to turn over said documents to Parliament.
The liveblogging of the event here from Kady. The full wording of Liberal Derek Lee’s motion here at Maclean’s from Aaron Wherry.
What happens next? Well, the Speaker has reserved judgment for today after hearing arguments. If he rules in favour of [...]
|
|
