The Checkbox Defense

From the Globe and Mail:

Gen. Natynczyk claimed the case wasn't one of a Canadian-transferred detainee being maltreated by Afghans because the man was never officially listed as captured, even though Canadian soldiers stopped, questioned, and photographed him.

The government's defense seems to be we knew prisoners were being tortured, but we didn't "know" ours were. So, since this man was not checked off on our forms correctly, the government closed its eyes and didn't investigate how our captured prisoners were being treated. Is that about right? I suspect the prosecutors in the Hague would not look too kindly on that defense. "Me'lud we would have done something if only that soldier had ticked the correct box on his form."

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The Great Unraveling

The Conservatives' story is falling apart. The only question now is, for how long will Parliament be prorogued?

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Guess Where This Is Headed?

While Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised the committee will get "all legally-available" documents, Colvin's lawyer said the Justice Department has clamped down on him.

Lori Bokenfohr said government lawyers have told Colvin they do not accept an opinion that testimony - both written and oral - before Parliament is exempt from national security provisions of the Canada Evidence Act.

This government does not accept any interpretation of any law, other than its own, until forced to by the Supreme Court. I expect this will be no different. Oh well, the Harperites have absolutely no qualms about spending tax dollars on lawyers. None whatsoever.

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The Next Line Of Defence

Now that it is almost certain that emails were directed to Peter MacKay's office by Richard Colvin, the question is, how does he respond? My guess is he will use the tried and true "I can't be expected to read every email sent to me by an employee. After all there are hundreds of embassies and consulates all sending me emails, every day." Really, it's the only semi-plausible excuse for ignoring Colvin he has left. I suspect it won't fly very well, but it does work as an adjunct to the "Bucket Defence".

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We All Knew This Was Coming

“If you have the law on your side, you argue the law. If you have the truth on your side, you argue the truth. If you have neither, bang on the table with your fist, loudly and with as much conviction as possible.”

And if that doesn't work, make cheap appeals to jingoism.

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Question Of The Day

If the Conservatives fail in their attempt to manipulate the witness order of the Special Committee on the Mission in Afghanistan, will they shut the committee down with their infamous manual?

Update: Kady suggests an even more likely scenario. You have to hand it to the Conservatives. They may not be able to run a two seat shitter, but they sure know how to throw sand in the gears of democracy.

Update 2: So begins Operation Chaos.

Update 3: Does anyone know who is paying for Mr. Mulroney's flight back to Canada? Is he coming as a private citizen or as a representative of the government of Canada?

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Operation Point The Finger

Moves to a new level. Ottawa delivers less vaccine to the provinces than it promised and then stands back and lets the provinces take the blame for the shortage. Stay classy guys.

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H1N1 Follies

I am sure the Conservatives will use this fiasco, to a) laud their communication strategy and/or b) helpfully point out that health delivery is a provincial matter. My guess is it will go something like this. "Yes, Mr. Speaker we have seen an inundation of H1N1 clinics over these last days. This proves that we on the government side have been effective in telling people to get their shots. Also, yes Mr. Speaker there have been a few isolated cases of problems at clinics. I am sure the provincial ministries of health involved will soon have these problems smoothed out."

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The Rest Is Silence

I have been wondering why the Tories have been so quiet about their coup in getting Robert Fowler freed from captivity. Normally, they would be braying to the world about their genius in foreign affairs. But in this case, only silence. Do you think they are trying to hide something they are not very proud of?

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The Prime Minister Of Alberta

Getting it done, for his constituents, again.

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What's Up Next For The Government?

A poster for Black History Month featuring Lincoln Alexander eating watermelon?

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Go Ahead And Cheerlead

More Tory whining, this time about party sympathies and "double standards":

Another Conservative argued there is a double standard in Ottawa: "Of all the political parties in Canada, the Liberals enjoy the coziest relationship with their American counterparts, often bringing in American strategists and ad agencies for their campaigns in Canada."

Conservatives point out that the Liberals invited Howard Dean, the Democratic National Chairman, as featured speaker at the leadership convention that chose Stéphane Dion.

"The Liberals' out and out in your face cheerleading for the Democrats and its nominee seems to be acceptable interference," said Tim Powers, a Conservative strategist.=

To which I can only say, go ahead, by all means openly cheerlead for the Republican Party. What are you afraid of? It sure beats surreptitiously leaking diplomatic memos to AP.

Update: Also "another Conservative", I would be careful about opening up the whole discussion about importing U.S. talent into our campaigns. Mind you, I am all for having that talk, but you never know where it might lead.

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Confusion To Our Enemies

And by enemies, the Tories obviously mean the Canadian people. Why else would they apparently mislead the public about the cost of their defence rebuild? The hope seems to be (and they may be right, which really ticks me off) that if the government tosses several numbers into the air, the public will just throw up its hands and say "We can't follow this. It is way to confusing." and change the channel. This may be a good way to spend $100 billion without public oversight, but is is a pretty poor way to run a democracy.

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Oh Peter Van Loan

Why won't you learn, sir? You just have to make a fool of yourself every day, don't you? I was watching the Newman show at supper time and who did I see, but Duff Conacher (begin at 16:16) who said that Van Loan repeated half of a sentence uttered by Conacher on tv, in order to make it look like Democracy Watch supported the government's position on the in and out scheme. Conacher has demanded an apology.

Now, any normal politician, in any other political party would have admitted some kind of error. But, this is not ordinary politician from no ordinary party. Van Loan is now demanding that Conacher apologize to all Canadians for misleading him by making a false statement of support on television.

This is amazing to me, but illustrative of what we are dealing with here. A politician takes part of a statement by someone, uses it under false pretenses, gets caught and then blames the person whose statement he falsely used. It kind of sounds like the thinking behind the in and out scheme itself. These conservatives believe that the ends justify the means and they will not let anything, not even reality to get in their way.

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Four Horsemen Alert

There is a National Post editorial today with which I have only minor disagreements. In this paragraph:

The law under which Elections Canada is investigating the Conservative Party of Canada for alleged overspending on advertising in the last election is a silly and undemocratic law. It should be repealed. But until it is, it remains the law of the land. If Conservatives knowingly violated it, they should suffer the legal consequences.

I disagree with "silly" and "undemocratic" and with the idea that it should be repealed. However, I agree that if people and parties disagree with a law, the proper course of action is to bring in legislation to repeal the law, thereby suffering electoral consequences if the public disagrees. Ignoring and or deliberately breaking the law just because you don't agree with it is even sillier and more undemocratic than the law is supposed to be. It is the attitude of thugs and tyrants not parties of a supposed mature democracy. This is exactly the point I was trying to make with my commenter PaulM, yesterday. Thanks to the National Post for doing a better job of making my point.

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Note To Tories

Please do not repeat this over and over:

"The only point where we get hung up is whether it is acceptable for local riding campaigns to advertise or promote national leaders, national issues and national themes."

No one cares -- not even a little bit, if local campaigns highlight national leaders, issues or themes. We do care that you follow the spending laws in doing so. We care that you don't appear to fake invoices to advertising companies and we care that you don't try to cover up these actions by trying to tear down the idea of government itself.

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Beautiful Minds

The beauty of being paranoid is you can never be surprised. If the Tories lose this case, they will just add the courts to the list of co-conspirators ("no surprise here we knew they were in on it too!"). On the other hand if they win, the Tories will pat themselves on the back for the brilliance of their argument ("no surprise here we were right all along!") and count it as a victory of the "little guys" over the dark forces of Liberal hegemony. We are through the looking glass here people.

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Current Conservative Thinking About Responsible Government

Asked to explain why Defense Minister Peter McKay replied to questions about his department by referring to the NDP as the "communist corner", Mr. McKay's communications director told the press:

"They voted against the budget, the NDP, and then they ask questions," Dan Dugas said. "So are they concerned or are they not concerned? It’s called question period, not answer period, and there’s give and take in the House of Commons. I don’t find it that surprising." (emphasis mine)

Just another day at work for our glorious Conservative government.

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Flaherty's Mole Problem

Yet another Liberal public service mole has surfaced, this time in Jim Flaherty's department. It seems this mole told Jim he was breaking the rules by giving an untendered contract to a good Conservative. Damn those Liberal moles, they are everywhere in the public service. Everywhere!

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Break Out The Tinfoil Hats

I guess when you are so used to manipulating the media yourself you assume everyone else does it too. Don Martin confirmed probably the worst kept secret in the world -- that the Tories deliberately leaked the announcement of Hillier's retirement in order to blow the raid on its headquarters off the front pages and newscasts. No wonder the Tories see conspiracies everywhere.

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