Not content with proroguing parliament so that it can avoid more questions about what it knew about torture of Afghan prisoners the government is now refusing to pay legal fees of Richard Colvin after the testimony he gave was damning to the government. I hope that Ignatieff summons enough courage to defeat this government along with opposition help but that is probably wishful thinking.
Colvin being punished by government: lawyer
Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service
REUTERS/Chris Wattie
OTTAWA -- Richard Colvin, the man who alleged that the government turned a blind eye to his allegations of torture in Afghan jails, is being punished for his revelations, says his lawyer.
In a letter Monday, Toronto attorney Owen Rees asserted there is a "reasonable belief" that the government is retaliating against Mr. Colvin by refusing to pay his legal bills for an independent lawyer.
Mr. Rees, in his letter to the Military Police Complaints Commission, said that the government stopped paying Mr. Colvin's legal fees in November - after his damning testimony at a House of Commons committee - and has ignored requests for the funding to continue.
"This a matter of grave concern for Mr. Colvin," Mr. Rees wrote. "The government of Canada's continued inaction in this regard is impeding our client's ability to participate as a witness before the commission with the assistance of independent legal counsel," wrote Mr. Rees.
Mr. Colvin has been called to testify at the commission, which is conducting an inquiry about what Canadian troops knew or should have known about the fate of suspected Afghan insurgents whom soldiers handed over to local authorities.
The government, citing national security concerns, has been trying to block his testimony.
"Coupled with the government's public attacks on Mr. Colvin . . . our client is left with the reasonable belief that the denial of further legal indemnification is a reprisal for his participation before the committee and the commission," Rees wrote.
Mr. Colvin has said that he repeatedly warned the government of the risks of torture in Afghan jails while he served as a top diplomat in Afghanistan in 2006-2007.
He is now deputy head of intelligence at the Canadian Embassy in Washington.
© 2010 The National Post Company. All rights reserved. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited.
Showing posts with label parliament prorogued.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parliament prorogued.. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Harris Decima poll: Federal Tory Lead slipping
This decline is not surprising and it comes despite the fact that Ignatieff waited a couple of weeks after the announcement to come back to Canada. Now of course the negative ad machine is trying to play catchup. Harper has again shown himself to be a master at manipulation that just makes people mad. He also seemed to suggest that democracy was bad for markets. Maybe Ignatieff is doing things right, leave a policy vacuum and let Harper self-destruct. However, the Tories are still ahead and no doubt when the parliament reconvenes Ignatieff will carry on the strategy of the Dion days. Sustain the Conservative government until the polls are better. Or the mantra will go that Canadians do not want an election! This is from CTV.
Prorogation takes hit on Tory lead: poll
The Canadian Press
Updated: Thu. Jan. 14 2010 4:05 PM ET
OTTAWA — A new poll suggests Prime Minister Stephen Harper is paying a price for underestimating opposition to his decision to suspend Parliament.
The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey shows Harper's personal popularity has taken a big hit and his party's lead over the Liberals has been cut almost in half.
The number of Canadians with a favourable impression of the prime minister has dropped seven points since last November to 44 per cent; the ranks of those with an unfavourable impression have jumped seven points to 48 per cent.
Overall Conservative support is unchanged at 34 per cent, the Liberals are up three points to 30 per cent, while the NDP stand at 16 per cent and the Greens at nine per cent.
The telephone poll of just over 1,000 Canadians was conducted Jan. 7-10 and is considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
© 2009 All Rights Reserved.
Prorogation takes hit on Tory lead: poll
The Canadian Press
Updated: Thu. Jan. 14 2010 4:05 PM ET
OTTAWA — A new poll suggests Prime Minister Stephen Harper is paying a price for underestimating opposition to his decision to suspend Parliament.
The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey shows Harper's personal popularity has taken a big hit and his party's lead over the Liberals has been cut almost in half.
The number of Canadians with a favourable impression of the prime minister has dropped seven points since last November to 44 per cent; the ranks of those with an unfavourable impression have jumped seven points to 48 per cent.
Overall Conservative support is unchanged at 34 per cent, the Liberals are up three points to 30 per cent, while the NDP stand at 16 per cent and the Greens at nine per cent.
The telephone poll of just over 1,000 Canadians was conducted Jan. 7-10 and is considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
© 2009 All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Harper takes a holiday to pack Senate.
Harper is the most imaginative piece of crookedness we have seen in some time. In spite of his humdrum appearance he is great at using all the tricks available to advance his agenda. He saved himself from defeat last Xmas and now for no good reason except his political agenda Harper shuts down parliament. He will take the time to pack the Senate with Conservatives--this the great campaigner for a reformed Senate! I suppose he must regard the packing of the Senate with appointed Conservatives is a great leap forward. Meanwhile Ignatieff can be left to fume and fuss and try to hire some new help to put his Humpty Dumpty image back together again. This is from the Star. This is Harper's New Year's message. I am the same old Harper as last year. Happy New Year everyone.
Back to Commons shut down, opposition furious
Les Whittington
OTTAWA–Furious opposition MPs accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of muzzling the House of Commons after he moved for the second time in a little more than a year to suspend Parliament.
Mired in controversy over an alleged cover-up on the torture of Afghan prisoners and eager to increase the Conservatives' power in the Senate, the government is closing down Parliament until March 3, the Prime Minister's Office said Wednesday.
The decision is "about one thing and one thing only – avoiding the scrutiny of Parliament at a time when this government is facing tough questions about their conduct in covering up the detainee scandal," Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said in a statement.
"Mr. Harper is showing his disregard for the democratic institutions of our country."
Harper spoke Wednesday by telephone with Governor-General Michaëlle Jean, who agreed to the suspension, a PMO spokesperson told the media in a hastily arranged telephone news conference. The Prime Minister did not comment publicly.
The prorogation of Parliament until after the Winter Olympics in Vancouver will likely scuttle dozens of pieces of legislation, and give the Tories a chance to increase their representation on Senate committees.
Instead of coming back to Ottawa on Jan. 25, MPs will return on March 3 to hear a throne speech setting out the government's new political agenda, followed the next day by the 2010 budget statement.
The government has been on the defensive for weeks over allegations it failed to act on information that prisoners being passed to Afghan authorities by Canadian soldiers were at risk of being tortured. But the Commons committee holding hearings on the detainee issue is being disbanded as a result of Parliament's suspension.
"Harper is showing that his first impulse when he is in trouble is to shut down Parliament," Ignatieff said.
Harper spokesman Dimitri Soudas flatly denied the government is suspending Parliament to slow investigations into the Afghan prisoner controversy. "The answer is no," he told reporters. "The (Commons) committee ... has found absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing by Canadian soldiers, diplomats and the Armed Forces."
It was just over a year ago – on Dec. 4, 2008 – that Harper went to Jean to have Parliament suspended, or prorogued, to avoid the defeat of his minority government by the opposition parties, which claimed Harper's lacklustre response to the economic crisis had destroyed their confidence in his ability to govern.
While it is within the power of the Prime Minister – with permission of the Governor-General – to wrap up a session of Parliament, the opposition said Harper is manipulating the rules to favour his own political needs at the expense of the rights of elected MPs.
"This kind of thing can't happen in the U.S. or most other parliaments – it's the kind of thing you hear of in dictatorships," NDP Leader Jack Layton said in an interview.
"It's a slap in the face and it's a denial of the democratic process. He has absolutely no good reason to prorogue the House."
Layton said urgent action is needed on the pension crisis, the Afghan detainee issue, the high jobless rate and Canada's follow-up to the Copenhagen climate-change summit.
The government is halfway through a two-year plan to combat the economic recession and needs to look ahead, Soudas said.
Sources said Harper would like to make suspending Parliament before the annual budget a regular practice so the government can bring in a throne speech to give the economic message a wider context.
Soudas told the media Harper will use the break to undo what his party sees as a Liberal logjam in the Senate. By filling five vacancies with Conservatives, Harper's party will hold more seats than the Liberals in the 105-seat Upper Chamber and can strengthen its position on Senate committees.
Back to Commons shut down, opposition furious
Les Whittington
OTTAWA–Furious opposition MPs accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of muzzling the House of Commons after he moved for the second time in a little more than a year to suspend Parliament.
Mired in controversy over an alleged cover-up on the torture of Afghan prisoners and eager to increase the Conservatives' power in the Senate, the government is closing down Parliament until March 3, the Prime Minister's Office said Wednesday.
The decision is "about one thing and one thing only – avoiding the scrutiny of Parliament at a time when this government is facing tough questions about their conduct in covering up the detainee scandal," Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said in a statement.
"Mr. Harper is showing his disregard for the democratic institutions of our country."
Harper spoke Wednesday by telephone with Governor-General Michaëlle Jean, who agreed to the suspension, a PMO spokesperson told the media in a hastily arranged telephone news conference. The Prime Minister did not comment publicly.
The prorogation of Parliament until after the Winter Olympics in Vancouver will likely scuttle dozens of pieces of legislation, and give the Tories a chance to increase their representation on Senate committees.
Instead of coming back to Ottawa on Jan. 25, MPs will return on March 3 to hear a throne speech setting out the government's new political agenda, followed the next day by the 2010 budget statement.
The government has been on the defensive for weeks over allegations it failed to act on information that prisoners being passed to Afghan authorities by Canadian soldiers were at risk of being tortured. But the Commons committee holding hearings on the detainee issue is being disbanded as a result of Parliament's suspension.
"Harper is showing that his first impulse when he is in trouble is to shut down Parliament," Ignatieff said.
Harper spokesman Dimitri Soudas flatly denied the government is suspending Parliament to slow investigations into the Afghan prisoner controversy. "The answer is no," he told reporters. "The (Commons) committee ... has found absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing by Canadian soldiers, diplomats and the Armed Forces."
It was just over a year ago – on Dec. 4, 2008 – that Harper went to Jean to have Parliament suspended, or prorogued, to avoid the defeat of his minority government by the opposition parties, which claimed Harper's lacklustre response to the economic crisis had destroyed their confidence in his ability to govern.
While it is within the power of the Prime Minister – with permission of the Governor-General – to wrap up a session of Parliament, the opposition said Harper is manipulating the rules to favour his own political needs at the expense of the rights of elected MPs.
"This kind of thing can't happen in the U.S. or most other parliaments – it's the kind of thing you hear of in dictatorships," NDP Leader Jack Layton said in an interview.
"It's a slap in the face and it's a denial of the democratic process. He has absolutely no good reason to prorogue the House."
Layton said urgent action is needed on the pension crisis, the Afghan detainee issue, the high jobless rate and Canada's follow-up to the Copenhagen climate-change summit.
The government is halfway through a two-year plan to combat the economic recession and needs to look ahead, Soudas said.
Sources said Harper would like to make suspending Parliament before the annual budget a regular practice so the government can bring in a throne speech to give the economic message a wider context.
Soudas told the media Harper will use the break to undo what his party sees as a Liberal logjam in the Senate. By filling five vacancies with Conservatives, Harper's party will hold more seats than the Liberals in the 105-seat Upper Chamber and can strengthen its position on Senate committees.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Harper bailed out by Governor General
Harper thought that he could get the Liberals to eat anything. His economic update was little more than an ideological wish list: bankrupting the Liberals, attacking wage parity, attacking unions through wage caps and abolition of the right to strike for public sector unions, selling of crown assets at firesale prices and in a buyer's market, and cutting back on equalisation payments. Surprisingly the Liberals refused to roll over and play dead or snarl and sit on their hands. The opposition parties managed to strike a deal to form a coalition. Harper finally was forced to wake up and realize that he had a minority not a majority government.
First Harper backtracked on a few items in his smorgasbord of right wing planks in his economic statement. When this didn't work he asked that parliament be prorogued. It took two hours but the Governal General agreed. So in the middle of an economic crisis Harper has closed down parliament as his only remaining means of keeping himself in power. Harper has so poisoned the political atmosphere by this move that it is unlikely that the opposition will pass his budget unless they are consulted and has a lot of the opposition planks in it and perhaps not even then. Perhaps he will be able to buy off the Bloc. This would be ironic given Harper's scathing criticism of the opposition for making deals with the Bloc. But this could very well be Harper's next move.
It is always possible that the Liberals could split on the coalition with Ignatieff and others recoiling at the thought of Dion being prime minister. It is true that there is only one thing worse than Dion being prime minister and that is Harper remaining as prime minister!
First Harper backtracked on a few items in his smorgasbord of right wing planks in his economic statement. When this didn't work he asked that parliament be prorogued. It took two hours but the Governal General agreed. So in the middle of an economic crisis Harper has closed down parliament as his only remaining means of keeping himself in power. Harper has so poisoned the political atmosphere by this move that it is unlikely that the opposition will pass his budget unless they are consulted and has a lot of the opposition planks in it and perhaps not even then. Perhaps he will be able to buy off the Bloc. This would be ironic given Harper's scathing criticism of the opposition for making deals with the Bloc. But this could very well be Harper's next move.
It is always possible that the Liberals could split on the coalition with Ignatieff and others recoiling at the thought of Dion being prime minister. It is true that there is only one thing worse than Dion being prime minister and that is Harper remaining as prime minister!
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