Burn, Baby, Burn

I’d be remiss if I signed off until the New Year without touching one more time on the Canadian Afghan detainee scandal. I’ve been silent  over the past little while not for want of caring or lack of information, but only to sit back and watch how things shape up a bit before commenting again. As readers will know, I’ve been following and writing about the developing state of affairs pretty closely over the past month and a bit.

Where we’re at now is that after the generally expressed dissatisfaction over what the BC Civil Liberties Association has described as “heavily, heavily redacted” documents released by the government, Tories like the inimitable Stockwell Day have called asking for more transparency “naive” and fallen back on a ” you want more? take us to court” line of response, claiming that failure to maintain requisite secrecy could, “put Canadian troops lives at risk. Incidentally, in a public letter law clerk and parliamentary counsel Robert Walsh, a legal expert in the laws affecting Parliament, dismissed that reason saying (emphasis mine),

It would appear that providing the documents sought by the Committee without redaction presents concerns for the Government in relation to nation security matters. While the Committee might try in some manner to address these concerns, at the end of the day the Government is obliged to supply the Committee whatever information it requests in the performance of its mandate from the House.

The Special Committee and all House committees act in support of the constitutional function of the House of Commons of holding the Government to account. In keeping with the principles of responsible government, no part of the Government’s responsibilities can by law be categorically excluded or removed from its constitutional accountability to the House and its committees, otherwise it would soon become only partial accountability and perhaps after some years no accountability at all.

Pushing forward, the Opposition parties have sought to continue the work of the special committee calling for meetings past the holiday break of Parliament that the Tory members are now boytcotting. And to top everything off, there are also rumours swirling that Harper may seek to prorogue Parliament until after the 2010 Olympics in Canada. Given that this is rumour, there is no official rational given for such a move, though ostensibly it would be so that MPs could attend the Olympics, realistically it would be about attempting to further kill the momentum the detainee issue has been gaining over weeks, which has been slowly but steadily eating away at the leads both Stephen Harper and the Conservatives had realized in recent months.

For my part, I’m done escalating to new heights of outrage, this government has, to my mind, more than proven their lack of accountability, transparency, and trustworthiness. That they are trying to scuttle this issue is wholly predictable and no tactic they use comes as a surprise anymore.

Contra the venom of the Opposition parties though (and they might be thinking but not saying this), I sincerely hope that the Tories both continue to boycott the Special Committee’s meetings and attempt to prorogue Parliament before it resumes session in January. There may well have been a time that Harper and the Tories could have swept this issue under the rug, but their complete mishandling of the issue from the start has long since given the story stronger legs than they have a broom. Any attempt to prorogue Parliament will, in my mind, only add fuel to the issue’s fire, further erode the Tories’ integrity, and incite more Canadians to action over the hubris of their government.

So have a Merry Christmas, Stephen et al. And rest up, you’re going to need it. We’ll see you in the New Year.

Tagged as: accountability, Afghan Detainee scandal, Canadian politics, committee boycott, proroguing Parliament, redacted documents, Robert Walsh, Stephen Harper, tories