Is this dialog?

Our header declares “Democracy Requires Dialog”, part of such required dialog is that between those charged with the responsibility of representing our interests in parliament. This last week there have been a number of instances where the “dialog” has been less than cordial, less than circumstances required and even highly disruptive. It has been in fact not so much a dialog as a simply a waste of time and effort on the part of those participating in the committee “dialogs”!

Let us first look at the parliamentary committee examining bill C9 , the omnibus budget bill. As our friend over at Accidental Deliberations has so ably pointed out this 800 or so page bill contains much that should be considered separately and at length but our parliamentarians under the urging of the Harper Regime not only failed to split the non budgetary items off but spent an average of less than 30 seconds per clause in “debating” the merits of this legislation. That’s not a dialog, that’s a rubber stamp.

It now goes before the Senate and whilst there are those who are calling for a more rigorous examination (most notably Senator McCoy) it is improbable that those few who are genuinely trying to do their job will succeed in overriding those increasing numbers of Harperites in the red chamber who will simply do as the dictator says and add their rubber stamp to this enormous and far reaching bill.

The way in which the Harper Regiem wishes for our parliamentary system to run was show quite clearly in another committee this week when total chaos ensued in the inquiry into the Jaffer affair. Not only did the Harperites prevent the requested officials from attending said inquiry in contravention of the established rules and practices of such committees, but they sent certain Ministers to deliberately disrupt the meeting by interrupting the chair with points of order despite not having standing in said meeting. The ensuing shouting match reminded me of the pictures we have seen from other less democratic parliaments where fistycuffs have broke out. Are we to descend to that level of “dialog” in parliament, it seems that there are those who would do anything to stall proper debate and accountability in the House and so I would not be at all surprised if that happens soon. I wonder what loophole in the rules and procedures the Harper Regime will use to justify that?

Just to highlight just how little respect these folks have for democracy and the rule of law we have these two totally avoiding any dialog:-

“Two government officials are playing cat-and-mouse with a Commons committee bailiff trying to serve them a summons. MPs at the ethics committee are hearing how Prime Minister Stephen Harper's director of communications, and another political aide, did not return repeated calls from the bailiff over two days. The bailiff also told the committee clerk that he had shown up at their government offices, but was barred entry and could not deliver the summons.”

As for respect for the public, lying about the status of legislation hardly seems respectful or meaningful dialog:-

PMO Communications Director Dimitri Soudas: “We have a minority in the Senate, and since Parliament has resumed, not a single bill, including the budget bill, has been passed into law by the Senate.” Senator Cowan notes that 6 bills have been passed by the Senate since parliament resumed and that the budget bill has not yet arrived there.(h/t Kady O'Malley via Twitter and http://shorternet.blogspot.com/ )

If this post is rather more critical of our MPs that usual it should be no surprise to those who saw the above exchange. I felt physically sick when I saw a brief clip on the news, this is not debate or dialog, this is what the final death spasms of our parliamentary democracy look like. No party and few MPs are free of complicity in its demise for if you don’t protect and nurture our democracy but just stand by and watch you are no less guilty than those who are actively providing the poison and those who support the killer.

Would that more Canadians could see what an insidious poison the Harper Regime is and recognize the sickness brought on by it!

Support Democracy - Recommend this Post at Progressive Bloggers

More Contempt

Scott Tribe recently summed up the latest attack upon our democracy like this:-

You’d think the Conservatives would have gotten the idea that they are accountable to Parliament after the Afghan detainee document mini-crisis, but in less then a month, they’re going to try and avoid accountability yet again by trying to “ban” their political staffers from being subpoenaed in front of a Parliamentary Committee.

As multiple others have pointed out, they are not allowed to do that, as the laws of Parliament clearly state:

..the power of Parliament to “send for persons” is explained in chapter 20 of the second edition of House of Commons Procedure and Practice. A committee of Parliament can issue a summons to any individual, ordering their attendance at a specific time and place. Only the Queen, the Governor-General, provincial lieutenant-governors, members of Parliament, members of provincial legislatures and individuals not residing in Canada are, in practice, granted immunity from such a summons.

When the Conservatives attempt this stunt today, this clearly calls for another opposition point of order to the Speaker, and as far as I’m concerned, shows yet more “contempt for Parliament” as an institution by the current Conservative government. The opposition parties should act accordingly.

……………………………..

Here are some more extracts from the House of Commons Procedure and Practice Second Edition, 2009 as referred to in the above:-

The Standing Orders set out the powers held by standing committees.[135] Each is given the power to examine and enquire into all such matters as the House may refer to it, to report from time to time and to print a brief appendix to any report, after the signature of the Chair, containing such opinions or recommendations, dissenting from the report or supplementary to it, as may be proposed by committee members. Except when the House orders otherwise, committees are also authorized to send for persons, papers and records, to meet either when the House is sitting or when it stands adjourned, to meet jointly with other standing committees, to print from day to day such papers and evidence as may be ordered by them, and to delegate powers to subcommittees (except the power to report directly to the House).

Standing committees often need the collaboration, expertise and knowledge of a variety of individuals to assist them in their studies and investigations. Usually these persons appear willingly before committees when invited to do so. But situations may arise where an individual does not agree to appear and give evidence. If the committee considers that this evidence is essential to its study, it has the power to summon such a person to appear.[138] .

[138](This power, delegated to standing committees by the House, is part of the privileges, rights and immunities which the House of Commons inherited when it was created. They were considered essential to its functions as a legislative body, so that it could investigate, debate and legislate, and are constitutional in origin.)

Although they can send for certain persons, standing committees do not have the power to punish a failure to comply with their orders in this regard. Only the House of Commons has the disciplinary powers needed to deal with this type of offence.[151] If a witness refuses to appear, or does not appear, as ordered, the committee’s recourse is to report the matter to the House.[152] Once seized with the matter, the House takes the measures that it considers appropriate.[153]

.[151] The disciplinary powers of the House include the power to reprimand a person who is not a Member. They also include the power to suspend or expel Members from the House.

………………………………………..

It would seem to me that the refusal to attend a committee upon request is a clear violation of the standing rules and should be referred to the House. As the House consists of ALL our MPs, of which the Conservatives constitute a minority, it is also clear that the House could, if it so desires, suspend or expel such members that refuse to appear. It is unclear what can be done to “staffers” who do so whether directed by said “members” or not, or to those “members” who direct them to do so. In other word if the committee specifically request a particular minister to attend and he does not there is recourse, but if a minister shows up in the place of a staffer it is the staffer who is in contempt, and the penalty's for him are not at all clear but would seem to be “a reprimand”!.

It does not say (so far as I can see) that it is an offense to direct or otherwise block someone from appearing, which is perhaps the loophole that this antidemocratic regime is counting upon to continue on their path to being totally secretive and unaccountable.

The question is will those MPs not totally controlled by The Harper Regime (or those controlled by other “constraints”) have the gonads to actually DO something about it? It is a sad state of affairs when a party that has a stated goal of exiting the confederation looks more democratic and respectful of parliament than the party currently in power. At this point a Coalition, which could even includes those particular duly elected MPs (who have “disrupted” parliament far less than those actually in power), looks much better than the demise of our democracy as we know it. In recent days rumors have been circulating that such a possibility is being investigated, I for one would welcome such a move but I am sure that the “coalitions are not democratic” lies will soon also be circulating.

At this point a Coalition government would seem to be the only way to save our democracy from this dictatorial and dishonest Harper Regime.

Support Democracy - Recommend this Post at Progressive Bloggers

Not worth the paper its written on!

Anything agreed to by the Conservative regime that is!

The Star reported just last week that the agreement in principal regarding the Afganistan Documents included this:-

“Committee members will have access to government officials from appropriate departments to provide briefings and contextual information and reasons for protecting information.”

The Globe and Mail reports today that :- “The Conservative cabinet has decided to ban its political staffers from appearing as witnesses before committees................”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s director of communications, Dimitri Soudas, explained the new policy Sunday during an appearance on CTV’s Question Period. “Ministers are the ones who are accountable and answer to Parliament,” said Mr. Soudas, adding that a “government-wide” policy on the issue will be laid out on Tuesday.”

..............................

One wonder exactly how far this “government-wide policy” will go, we are rapidly reaching the point where even our elected representatives cannot access any meaningful information from “our government” let alone the public or the media.

We cant have someone who actually might know something testify before a committee now can we? Either parliamentarians have the right to know the truth and call witnesses or they do not, this is yet one more attack upon our democracy (what little we have left) by this corrupt and dictatorial regime.

Support Democracy - Recommend this Post at Progressive Bloggers