VICTORY! DEMOCRACY WINS!
A Great Victory for Ignatieff, Goodale, Dosanjh & Cotler, all Liberals, all Opposition, all Parliamentarians, Parliament, Democracy, Truth, All Fundamental Canadian Institutions, and most of all, Canadians. Of course, Totters demonstrate their usual lack of grace, sliming Liberals, ignoring Bloc's brokering, and trying to claim all the credit for themselves. Remember how NDP derided CAPP for longest time and then, typically Laytonian, jumped on bandwagon, and then tried to hijack CAPP, to Shilo Davis' disgust, and attack all other parties fighting for democracy? Like scorpions, just being true to their self-drowning nature, now Blaikie and the good guys are long gone, except for Dewar, Comartin & Harris. But real credit has to be given to Ignatieff, Goodale et.al., for steering through these difficult waters, with their compasses set to defending parliamentary democracy as their north star, whatever obstacles had to be overcome, and even ready to fight an election over it, if needed. A rare example of strength and judgment.
Of course Eaves is completely right, it should never have had to come to this. 154 Days! It's ridiculous, and an indictment of a bizarrely bad government, in so many ways. But at least, in the crunch, the good guys won. Well done.
Of course Eaves is completely right, it should never have had to come to this. 154 Days! It's ridiculous, and an indictment of a bizarrely bad government, in so many ways. But at least, in the crunch, the good guys won. Well done.
posted by Eugene Forsey Liberal @ 12:17 PM
8 Comments:
At 12:56 PM,
Greg said…
I have a hard time seeing what it is they won exactly. I may be reading this wrong, but it looks to me as if the government member of the committee can send every document to the "panel of experts" if he or she chooses. If that is in fact the case, the government gets its veto (at least a suspensive veto) and Parliament's fate is up to a group of unelected "experts". Am I reading it wrong?
Key point: Where the Committee determines that such information is both relevant and necessary, or upon the request of any member of the Committee, it will refer the document to a Panel of Arbiters who will determine how that relevant and necessary information will be made available to Members of Parliament and the public without compromising national security - either by redaction or the writing of summaries or such techniques as the Panel find appropriate, hearing in mind the basic objectives of maximizing disclosure and transparency. (italic mine)
At 1:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Like so many Canadians, I was on edge waiting to find out whether the MPs had reached agreement, and was incredibly relieved to find out they had.
Then I thought, "how pitiful is this--I'm holding my breath to see whether or not this government will obey an order of Parliament!!"
Jane C.
At 1:21 PM,
Anonymous said…
No Victory until we see the documents in a timely manner, like before the next election, which I highly doubt will happen.
Oh Eugene, "and even ready to fight an election over it, if needed" is just so much b.s. and a common example of liberal polarization, so unnecessary.
At 1:38 PM,
Anonymous said…
@EFL: Before you declare victory, you might want to read Far and Wide, a Lib blogger. In this particular instance, I think he is likely correct.
It is quite certain that the govt will be asking for Iocabucci as one of the three panel members. Do you genuinely believe that if Harper had thought that Iocabucci would not have been sympathetic that he would have appointed him?
I have no problems restricting release of contentious materials to the public but did Milliken not rule that it was up to the House, not unelected officials, to determine what constituted national security? On this last issue, I am not so sure we have won.
At 2:11 PM,
Greg Fingas said…
"Remember how NDP derided CAPP for longest time"
This is a truly impressive work of dishonesty, with three outright falsehoods in a span of eight words. So to correct the record...
"derided" /= "chose not to participate in a single event organized by".
"CAPP" /= "the Liberal Party".
"for the longest time" /= "once".
And needless to say, the rest of the anti-NDP spin is no better.
At 9:33 AM,
Anonymous said…
In my area we had to move heaven an earth to even find a sinking liberal who'd respond to our requests for CAPP support, they largely ignored us.
Funny however the Greens came to us no strings and never took any credit and then went out and rounded up the NDP, and even a PC candidate. The Libs however did SFA then showed up on the day of "NON" partisan event with buttons, stickers, signs and a crappy attitude.
Mind you Jack taking credit on TV did piss us off.
CAPP was not the Liberal creation and Iggy should get no credit for this piss poor compromise on the documents. We've suffered Harper for far too long because iffy could not tolerate a coaltion with the NDP because in reality his policies are more like king stevies.
At 12:26 PM,
Eugene Forsey Liberal said…
Reality, ie. quoting NDP's own anti-protest position from news reports and their own presences in the media, is unsettling to Totter zombie liars, I know. But y'all chose Layton over Blaikie. And now you've got to live with the resulting void of principles and ethics. I'd advise you to join the Greens, if you're looking to support a truly principled progressive growing alternative, which will soon replace TOT in any event. C'est la vie, the circle of birth and death. The CCF-NDP had a good run - and then they chose irrelevance and slow death with Layton. Oh well, these things happen. Pity.
At 1:09 PM,
Eugene Forsey Liberal said…
I offer this help, out of pity:
https://secure.greenparty.ca/membership.php?origin=Main_Join_Button
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