A Summary
No other nation with a system of government like ours has ever had its parliament prorogued in modern times, so that its ruling party could avoid an investigation, or a vote of confidence.Only three times has this happened, all in Canada — first in 1873, when Sir John A. Macdonald asked the governor general to prorogue Parliament, in order to halt a House of Commons probe into the Pacific Scandal. Lord Dufferin gave in to the demand, but when Parliament reconvened Macdonald was forced to resign. And of course, Harper.
Robert Hazell, the director of the Constitution Unit at the University College of London: “The Canadian Parliament is more dysfunctional than any of the other Westminster parliaments. No other parliament has been prorogued in recent times to rescue the government from a political difficulty.”
Ned Franks, a parliamentary historian at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., said:”Stephen Harper is entering into uncharted territory…the question people have to ask is, ‘Is Harper going to resort to this behaviour every time he doesn’t want to face up to Parliament? Have we got someone here who just runs away every time he gets into trouble?’ Professor Franks also said this: “By shutting down Parliament all by himself, Harper is acting like the British King Charles the 1st…we should call him King Stephen the First of Canada, for that, in effect, is the way he is behaving.”
No U.K. prime minister would dare prorogue the House of Commons for political reasons. British parliamentary sessions last a full year, and are routinely prorogued each November. A new yearlong session then begins within a week.”
Paul Thomas is a specialist in Australian parliamentary politics. He said:”Prorogation is a big deal in Australia, and the prime minister would certainly pay a price in asking for it for political reasons.”
And finally a little note about King Charles the 1st. He learned his lesson the hard way more than 300 years ago, by trying to govern without the English Parliament’s consent. When he finally dismissed it, political opponents responded by cutting off his head.
Just a word to the wise: Get Back To Work.
The Harper government seems to drop the ball every time they get three downs and one yard to go. This is another case of self destructive behaviour.
The torture issue is a red haring. According to Jeffery Simpson, the chain of communication in Afghanistan is similar to a pinball zinging all over the place, before finally finding it’s way to the gutter. But the Harperites, like the British, took a simple situation and made it so complicated that the machine blew up in their faces.
The debate will rage on re the importance of Afghanistan. Some will wrongly argue that it’s about oil-read Ghost Wars for some good information on this question. Anti-American’s and via extension, anti-Israelis will argue that it’s all about imperial nations intruding into the cultural mores of a time honored nation, in spite of it’s failed state status. And others such as the author’s of Fixing Failed states will argue that poverty, destitute and helplessness, breeds tribalism, terrorism and other scourges to humanity, and therefore must be remedies by fixing the state.
As all of this is happening, Canadians are being killed while their families hear from politically correct journalists that the effort is wrong and meaningless.
Here is a shocking story in which the conclusion of this man’s life was shared with his parents. We expect the barbarians to be insensitive, but not our very own cultured Canadian journalists:
On January 21, 2006 Ilan Halimi, a 23-year old Paris store clerk, was seduced into going out on a date by a young woman who walked into the cellphone shop where he worked.
The woman had been sent as bait in order to lure Halimi to a spot from where he could be kidnapped. She had been sent by a gang named “The Barbarians,” from Bagneux, a suburb south of Paris. The 15-strong gang, which includes Muslim radicals (one was the son of an Egyptian newspaper correspondent), overpowered Halimi and took him to an apartment in Bagneux.
Over the next three weeks they contacted Halimi’s family and demanded a ransom of up to 500,000 Euros ($600,000). On February 13, Halimi was found tied naked to a tree, handcuffed, gagged, hooded and starved, with severe burns and torture marks and cuts all over his body.
The gang phoned the family several times and made them listen to verses from the Koran while Ilan screamed as he was tortured in the background. Even when it became clear that the family, who are not rich, couldn’t pay, the gang continued committing violence against Ilan for its own sake because, the police say, he was Jewish. One of the young torturers now under arrest told police his accomplices took turns to stub out cigarettes on Ilan’s forehead while voicing hatred for Jews.
I have to say I have been underwhelmed by the lack of public and (effective) Opposition outcry over the proroguing of Parliament. It is an outrage, yet Harper is getting away with it easily.
WHY THIS PRETENCE OF PARLIAMENTARY DISCLOSURE?
WE DON’T HAVE A PARLIAMENT.
WHY DIDN’T HE JUST GO AHEAD AND APPOINT HIS BUMBUDDIES WHO HAVE NEVER BEEN ELECTED TO ANYTHING?
THEN IF THERE WAS A POLITICAL STORM, HE COULD JUST PROROGUE PARLIAMENT AGAIN.
AND AGAIN.
AND AGAIN.
WE’D SOON ADJUST, WE’RE CANADIAN.
We’ll see…as that great baseball player once said, “It ain’t over till it’s over”.
There is no more repugnant human social disease than the expression of racial hatred, by whatever means.