As a citizen of Canada, I thank you for your ruling today.
And as a citizen of Canada I thank you for recognizing the roles and responsibilities of MP’s in giving them two weeks to come up with a solution to their impasse.
Applause to Mr. Milliken.
Kady O’Malley blogged it out, I admit I was glued to the TV.
Here is the text of the ruling.
“It is the view of the chair that accepting an unconditional authority of the executive to censor the information provided to Parliament would, in fact, jeopardize the very separation of powers that is purported to lie at the heart of our parliamentary system and the independence of its constituent parts.”
“…Furthermore, it risks diminishing the inherent privileges of the House and its members, which have been earned and must be safeguarded.”
It proves that Parliament is still the servant of the people
and the prime minister is the servant-in-chief. Harper
has been so self-deceiving and led astray from the roots
of parliamentary privilege and custom that he stands to
permanently damage his reputation in the minds of fair-
minded Canadians.
Senator Forsey would have loved this whole matter and
would have spoken eloquently on the matter.
In the next fortnight, we will probably see Harper get
a public chastening in the press if it hasn’t started already.
An election before summer would mean that the G8 and
G20 summits would have a new appearance and the
nation could start again on the path of restoration.
Restoration was the term used in British history to describe
the nation after the terrible rule of Cromwell. It might
as well be used in our situation, too.
Things are looking very American in the sense that you have a division between the administration and the House of Commons that you don’t normally see in Canadian politics. The US is used to it when Congress is controlled by one party and the President is of another; Congress will have to often have to go to court to get the White House to cough up documents it needs for proper oversight in such a situation.
What the US doesn’t have in such a situation is a vote of no confidence that will force an election; we’re stuck with a given Congress for two years and a given President for four.
A little more background would have helped. I had to bop over to the Globe and Mail to get the full story on the Afghan torture issue that had the Commons and the Harper team at loggerheads. It would seem that intelligence committees need to be able to look at secret documents at some level, despite it being potentially leaky or politically problematic, but administrations of most all ideological bents will want to keep some sensitive stuff under wraps if possible.
I could have given more background.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Afghan_detainee_issue
Potentially leaky or politically problematic doesn’t cut it.
As Milliken pointed out, been there done that, you have been tasked to accommodate.
To be sadly honest I was surprised, I figured the honourable speaker would cave.
The government doesn’t have to be stuck or at an impasse, if it is there are things which can be done. While I could see an election and another minority government, we are so used to see the Speaker during QP going ‘order,’ I realized about 10 minutes in that dry citations aside, the foundation was holding.
Having watched the speaker of the house in the Ukraine hold ground while being pelted with eggs and smoke bombs going off in parliament, I think yesterday in Canada’s house was remarkable.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8645847.stm