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Fifteen months ago, Harper rallied Canadians with a huge misinformation propaganda campaign. He tried to portray a perfectly legitimate attempt by opposition parties to create a coalition government that would have the confidence of the majority of members of the house of Commons as a Coup d’etat. With the connivance of the main stream media, and playing on the ignorance of Canadians about their own form of government he was successful, as the Liberals lost their courage and backed down, led by Ignatieff.
To-day, there is a real coup d’etat being attempted, this time by the executive branch (PMO) of the Governing party.
The attempt by Harper to ignore the order of Parliament to produce all documents relating to the Afghan detainee scandal, essentially usurps and makes baseless the constitutional power of the House of Commons, vesting it instead in the office of the Prime Minister.
Let us call this what it is, loud and clear. Harper is attempting a slow motion Coup d’etat, and if the opposition doesn’t get it’s act together immediately, he may well succeed.
See this :
Here is Derek Lee’s email addy should you all want to email him your thoughts LeeD@parl.gc.ca or if you wish to write Frank Iacobucci, hisself:
Write, phone, fax The Hon. Frank Iacobucci, from here.
Phone: (direct) 416.865.8217
Fax: 416.865.7380
Email: fiacobucci (at) torys.com
Mail:
79 Wellington Street West, Suite 3000
Box 270, TD Centre
Toronto, Ontario, M5K 1N2 Canada
ck, thanks for posting Mr. Lee’s e-mail address, and the contact information fot Mr. Iacobucci. This is potentially the most important constitutional challange to Canadian Democracy in our History. Do not let this slide by in a post olympic afterglow.
ck Reply:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:21 PM
Oh Don’t worry about me. If you’ve read my posts recently, I have boycotted those Olympics…
This has nothing to do with the PMO, the dispute is between Parliament and the government lawyers in the civil service who are forbidden by law to release certain documents.
Parliament has passed a motion that would require civil servants to break the law. The question is whether the rule of law is supreme, or Parliament. It is a legal question that hasn’t come up before, so we don’t really know the answer.
The Supreme Court might rule either way, if asked, but generally speaking in Westminster-style parliamentary democracy the law is considered to bind all equally; Parliament is the source of new laws, but is not above the law.
zoop, the issue of national security concerns has already been addressed by legal experts, in that there are already procedures in place with regards to Parliament viewing sensitive documents. Parliament is not breaking the law, or asking anyone else to, by demanding those documents — it is exercising its legal rights. The question of legality is simply a Harpercon stalling tactic.
Zoop, kindly quote the law which you say constrains civil servents from turning over the documents?