Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Over to you

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, February 17, 2011 11:35am - 23 Comments

The Foreign Affairs committee has reported back to the House of Commons with its findings on Ms. Oda.

In a report tabled Thursday morning, the committee, with a dissenting minority report from Conservative MPs, cites contradictory statements Ms. Oda (Durham, Ont.) has given MPs about the origin of a single word in the recommendation that altered it to say the opposite of what the bureaucrats who submitted the recommendation to Ms. Oda had intended … The Commons must now deal with the report as it would any other committee report by debating it and voting on it, with opposition MPs at some point likely moving motions to propose actions, which could include a formal censure of Ms. Oda.

The NDP’s Paul Dewar is ready to raise a point of privilege.

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  • Dot

    Crash Davis makes it to the Big Show.

    -Bull Durham

  • sourstud

    Raising a point of privilege, eh? And from the NDP? I think it's clear that Iggy will not force an election over this issue. So it will blow over.

    • dave

      Get back to me when Iggy can "force an election" without the NDP and the Bloc. Unless, of course, you expect the Conservatives to help vote themselves out of power.

      That entire line of argument needs to come up with a valid way to scale that wall before it becomes valid.

    • bennji1977

      How did you jump from a point of privilege resulting in an election?

      From my understanding, a Minister of the Crown being found in contempt or parliament is not the same as the house losing confidence in the sitting government.

      I think what will be telling is how the government will respond to whatever point of privilege is asked, and if Dewer would follow through with a motion of privilage to have the speaker rule on the affair, now that it is actually HOC business.

      Either way, similar to what happen with Helena, my prediction is that the government will ride this out for the next two days on the same message track that they are on. If the tension is still there when they return after the March break, then Harper will make the move to remove Oda citing how this government always stands for accountability. You kill turn birds with one stone, "show" that you are acting the best interest of parliament, and let the narrative solidify that Oda was solely responsible for this whole fiasco.

      • TimesArrow

        "How did you jump from a point of privilege resulting in an election?"

        Because this is the new reality in conservativeland. PP or any other instrument of parliamentay dissatisfaction now = an election; there is no in between. Unless of course con numbers ever drop below opposition ones, then it'll be: Whoa boy! Hold up there! No need to go off half cocked here bud! There are other possibilities ya know!

      • Andrew (not PorC)

        Harper will undoubtedly threaten to treat it like a confidence matter, much like the Afghan torture documents.

  • psiclone

    As it stands right now the Liberals love Oda because it takes the heat off actually behaving like an opposition party and having the courage of their convictions – in otherwords they can talk BIG all they want but the bottom line is that with ALL of the latest polls having established a consistent trend line what with how the average canadain feels about the Liberal leadership – suffice it to say – Dionesque at best. The party would be insane to actually want an election as it runs the likelihood of being decimated beyond repair.

  • gar

    Lets see all these holier than thou non liars like Red Bob Rae and Paul Dewar stand up and explain one thing.The gun long gun registry was promised by a Liberal government to cost one hundred million dollars it cost 2 billion.NDP members who ran on the fact that they would vote to eliminate it reneged on the promise they made when running for office..The left wing whether it be Liberal or NDP will lie about anything to get into office.Remember the GST and what about the 40 million from ad scam we cannot find.Although we can expect the lefties to overwhelm the blogs with negative remarks about the Tories it is only because most of them are on welfare and have all day to blog.Lets see more remarks from us old ones on the right who paid our debt to our country and are now retired

    • bennji1977

      Gar, just wondering how you know what the initial costs of the long-gun registry were going to be?

      I mean, it got voted on, and approved in the HOC, but I was under the impression that accurate costing of bills put before the house were always a matter of cabinet confidence?

      I mean that makes sense right, it is really hard to hold someone to account for the dollars that they said they would spend if you don't accurately disclose the amount at the beginning.

      We are committed to staying on the budget that we initially set, but omitted to tell you, but don't worry, we are right on track with where we projected that we would be.

    • tedbetts

      Like I said, watch out for this "non-story" to quickly get ratched up to DefendConservatives (DefCon) 6:

      DefCon1 – If an issue arises, say it's a non story
      DefCon2 – If the issue won’t go away, then blame the media
      DefCon3 – If the issue still won’t go away, then blame the Liberals
      DefCon4 – If the issue still won’t go away, then blame a bureaucrat or provincial premier
      DefCon5 – If the issue still won’t go away, then blame a staffer
      DefCon6 – If the issue still won’t go away, then start talking about Adscam, coalitions, broken GST promises and the NEP

      • Jan

        Right on cue – Baird goes straight to Adscam at first opportunity.

      • Dave

        DefCon7 – Liberals Did It!

    • Bill M

      And this has what to do with the story?

  • tedbetts

    And considering that they are standing behind their convictions on this issue and not backing down.

  • DuffConacher

    The scandal involving Conservative Cabinet minister Bev Oda is yet another example showing the clear need for an honesty-in-federal-politics law that applies to everyone and allows for complaints by anyone to an independent, non-partisan watchdog agency such as the federal Ethics Commissioner.

    If the Conservatives had a majority of seats in the House of Commons, they would have stopped the current parliamentary process aimed at penalizing Minister Oda for her misleading statements. And the process is tainted by partisanship because a Liberal Speaker of the House will decide if Oda is guilty, and opposition MPs will decide whether she will be penalized.

    If Minister Oda made her false statements outside of Parliament, for example during an election campaign and including some false election promises, the current process would also not be happening because MPs can only penalize misleading statements made before committees or in the House.

    In fact, many ministers and MPs from all political parties, as well as their staff and government officials and lobbyists, have in the past escaped being penalized for false statements because of majority governments, or because of where they made their statements.

    Given that dishonesty in politics is the main thing turning off voters, and a main reason for the drop in voter turnout, we clearly
    need a strong, comprehensive, independently enforced honesty law so that people involved in federal politics will no longer get away with misleading Canadians.

    Hope this helps,
    Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch http://www.goodgovernment.ca http://www.CoffeeParty.ca

    • TimesArrow

      Sorry Mr C [ i'm onside with your views re: political subs] but i have to differ with you here. I would be happy to be proven wrong in this, but i doubt we will ever be able to legislate honesty. Additionally i'm adverse to any move towards a nanny state [ not suggesting you're advocating one] which i fear will be the eventual fallout of such a law. As i say, no one would be happier then i to be proven wrong – dishonesty, dissembling and expediency over principle are a plague in our politics, but i don't believe we can legislate the sin out of the sinner – not this way at any rate. Public censure is all we have at our disposal i'm afraid.

  • tobyornotoby

    The Conservative Party of Canada addendum to the Committee report on the question of privilege is embarrassing and can be summed up as "Oh, yeah, then what are you?"

    We can expect more of this line in the House so here's the money shot in their stunning argument:

    "No evidence has come before the Committee questioning any of the foregoing. It must and does follow that the Minister’s answer did not in any way mislead this Committee or the House of Commons. In fact it is the Opposition that has attempted to mislead this Committee and the House both by mischaracterizing the Minister’s communication of her own decision in a way that suggests a breach of privilege."

  • Jan

    I see they're relying on the bucket defence – she didn't mislead, but if she did mislead, she had every right to do it.

  • gar

    Another Liberal trying to invent a new word for their butt saving "Bucket:" she must be thinking of the buckets full of money the Libs absconded with during Ad Scam.It is so great to see Canada going right after years of the perpetrators of crime getting a wrist slap because we could not keep them in jail for the reason of shortages of prisons.weak kneed Liberal justice that the swinging door is the answer.Some with upwards of 50 convictions still on the street.I hope when the Tories build the new ones they will not be the social centers we have now.great exercise room menus for meals,conjugal visits.that is called Liberal punishment while seniors in this country would love to have those conditions for their old age

  • Dave

    You forgot "Liberals Did It!"

  • Jan

    Way to drive a point home.

  • tobyornotoby

    Let's forget that we were talking about the Minister's lies about a foreign aid project, and pick up your loose thread …

    The Police Chief of Calgary was on the radio this morning talking about how his officers spend a lot of time picking up the same people over and over for break-ins and robberies, but his perspective was that most are young men with addictions, and a good deal of those people with mental health conditions on top of the addictions, who are sent to jail, but never treated for either, and dumped back onto the streets after serving their sentences. Are you saying The Police Chief of Calgary is a weak-kneed Liberal? Is he not appropriately revenge-oriented for you?

  • tedbetts

    In Canada, we spell it "centre", not "center".

    You must hate the troops.

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