Thought For Sunday

I wonder. Is the intervention of the Israeli Ambassador into Canadian politics and the Prime Minister's subsequent condemnation of criticism of Israel as "Antisemitism", preparing public opinion in Canada for an Israeli preemptive strike against Iran? I am not running for my tinfoil hat yet, but I see similar signals coming out of Washington.

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When Evasion Becomes Pathology

One of the things that drives me nuts about this government is its reflexive "Fuck you, that's why!" response to any question directed at it. I said yesterday that I think this whole Bernier "issue" was small cheese and I still mean it. The problem is, this government is completely incapable of even pretending to act like a government. The following exchange between Bob Rae (who it shames me to admit, actually comes off looking good) and Peter Van Loan demonstrates the Conservatives approach to crisis management.

Hon. Bob Rae (Toronto Centre, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the government House leader.

After the exchanges yesterday, a number of security experts, including Professor Wark, the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, have indicated that there are some legitimate questions that need to be answered with respect to the situation facing the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

If the government House leader would simply respond in the affirmative that the government has every intention of ensuring that there is no security problem or security issue with respect to the situation facing the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I am sure that would go a long way to satisfying members of the House that the appropriate steps have been taken.

Hon. Peter Van Loan (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform, CPC): Mr. Speaker, this government takes very seriously national security issues. We do not see that asking questions about the private lives of ministers in the fashion that the opposition has fits that bill.

We are surprised that the hon. member for Toronto Centre, after we thought he was too classy to ask these questions, would.

However, we would point out that if that party were at all concerned about national security in a serious way, its members would not have stood in this House on Wednesday asking us to fly back, at taxpayer expense, someone suspected of terrorist links, against the United Nations rules, who happens to be on a no-fly list. That is hardly a party that is concerned about national security.

Van Loan could have stood up and said "Yes Mr. Speaker the government does take security seriously and I want to assure the House that we have taken steps to bring this matter to a close". Such an answer would have probably brought the matter to a close. Instead Van Loan essentially tells Rae to go to Hell. Why? It is a complete mystery to me why, when given an opportunity to end a minor problem, the government chose to toss a verbal grenade instead. Such a response from Mr. Van Loan will add a couple of days to an otherwise one day problem and makes it look like there might be some good reason to suspect them of hiding something.

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Why Are We Talking About Biker Chicks?

The answer is quite simple. We can't talk about the budget, Afghanistan, climate change, immigration, the faltering Ontario economy, or any issue that might lead to an election, because the Liberal Party hasn't got the guts to bring down the Harper government. So, all we are left with is the burning issue of who Maxime Bernier is squiring around Ottawa. Yes, Bernier is an idiot. I get it. But, in the bigger scheme of things, it is small cheese. However, when you have mice running the official opposition, small cheese looks like a big deal.

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Harperites Threaten Librarians

Who's next, guide dog trainers? Imagine a party so insecure and paranoid that they begin a whisper campaign against a new library, merely on the rumor that a partisan from another party will be attending a fundraising event for the building. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Canada's modern Conservative Party. There was a time when conservatives believed in libraries as institutions for the preservation of human knowledge. Those were the days when conservatives believed in, you know, conserving things. Now, conservatives are just warmed over libertarian Republicans, who hate conserving anything except tax cuts for their wealthy friends.

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Hillary Reaps The Whirlwind

In the end, after it is all done, Hillary stands alone shouting, "I'm still here. I matter!" Sad, sad, sad.

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Another Enemy For Steve's List

Meanwhile, the Office of the Information Commissioner has come out against Psycho Steve's latest assault on democracy. You can now expect the Tories to denounce the office as a nest of Liberal spies and traitors. It's what they do.

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Who CAIRS?

The latest cow flap the Tories have stepped in, is the result of what happens when you are known to be less than truthful. If you have a reputation for saying things that don't represent any kind of reality, people tend to check everything you say for its veracity. So it is in the case of Professor Alasdair Roberts and the murder of CAIRS, by the government. This is an exchange between Iggy and Vic Toews in the House, yesterday:

Mr. Michael Ignatieff (Etobicoke—Lakeshore, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has not explained why Canadians cannot see a registry that contains requests for information by citizens of government. There is no answer at all on that side, and its record on information is terrible.

Information complaints are at an all time high, numbers not seen since the last Conservative government. Departments are receiving failing grades from the information commissioner. Now the government wants to do away with a key database that provides information to Canadians.

Why is a government that ran on accountability running away from it?

Hon. Vic Toews (President of the Treasury Board, CPC): Mr. Speaker, we know all about the opposite party, when it was in government, wanting to control the access to information.

Here is what a leading expert on access to information law said about CAIRS in 2003. Alasdair Roberts said:

No other country maintains a government-wide database like CAIRS. CAIRS is the product of a political system in which centralized control is an obsession.

That is what the opposite party wished to do.

Zing. Vic sure put it to Izzy. It makes you almost forget that the Tories make the Liberals look positively chatty, when it comes to government information. Too bad this is just another example of this government's "up is down" philosophy. Too bad for them no one believes them anymore.

The consequence of no one believing them is pretty obvious. The press ran to talk to professor Roberts. It turns out that professor Roberts was in fact a critic of CAIRS. However, Professor Roberts wanted CAIRS improved, not killed and he sure doesn't seem to be pleased to be the poster boy for this government's campaign to hide information (since he has spent his whole career advocating for more transparent government information handling.

Now that this government has dug itself into a hole and Pierre Poilievre already has a file to spin, I wonder which lucky backbencher will be granted the honor of downplaying this latest untruth from the government, for the greater glory of our gracious lord, Stephen.

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