Prime Minister Shrug

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 3:45 PM - 51 Comments

The Prime Minister reacts to yesterday’s rulings.

“We have debates in Parliament all the time. The Speaker rules, you win some, you lose some,” Mr. Harper said Thursday following a health-care announcement in Toronto. “If you lose, you comply and that’s what we’ll do.”

Three rulings in 12 months

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 9:01 AM - 26 Comments

Ned Franks considers yesterday’s two rulings together with last year’s ruling on detainee documents.

Parliamentary procedure expert Ned Franks said no government in Canadian history has been cited so many times for ignoring the rights of Parliament. He offered two possible explanations.”(The rulings) suggest, to put it kindly, that the government is, at a minimum, ignorant of the rules and principles governing parliamentary democracy and, to put it unkindly, that they don’t give a damn and they’ll try to get away with what they can.”

The Globe sees contempt. Steven Chase adds yesterday’s rulings to Peter Milliken’s legacy.

The Commons: The House rules

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 7:44 PM - 100 Comments

The Scene. Shortly after 3:30 pm, the Speaker rose and over the next 17 minutes neatly explained how he had come to find that the government had breached the privileges of the House of Commons for the second and third times in 12 months. Charges of contempt may now follow.

So there. And so what now?

Just an hour before Mr. Milliken’s latest decisions, there was a great burst of laughter, seemingly from a member of the government side, when a Liberal dared report one of last night’s votes as an expression of the “Canadian people’s House.” Perhaps his seatmate had, at that precise moment, told him a very funny, but entirely unrelated, joke. Hopefully that’s all it was. But if we’ve come to the point where the very words seem humorous, the very notion ridiculous—and to no less than a member of this place—then we perhaps have a larger problem. One that no ruling of the Speaker will be able to remedy.

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The rulings

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 4:30 PM - 165 Comments

Here is the prepared text for the Speaker’s ruling on the government’s refusal to produce documents:

Here is the prepared text for the Speaker’s ruling on Bev Oda’s statements to Parliament:

In both cases, the Speaker found a prima facie question of privilege. In response to the former, Liberal Scott Brison moved that the matter be referred to the procedure and House affairs committee and that the committee report back to the House by March 21. In response to the latter, Liberal John McKay moved that the matter be referred to the procedure and House affairs committee and that the committee report back to the House by March 25.

The case for and against Bev Oda

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 12:53 PM - 21 Comments

The Speaker heard final arguments yesterday on the matter of Bev Oda and the inartfully edited paperwork. He has promised to return to the House with a decision in due course.

The original question of privilege was raised by John McKay in December. The Speaker ruled on that question in early February.

A few days later, Ms. Oda rose in the House to “clear up any misunderstandings that exist”—misunderstandings that might have resulted from what had previously been said and written.

In response to Ms. Oda’s statement, the foreign affairs committee—with a notable Conservative dissent—filed a report with the House. A new question of privilege was then raised with the Speaker. The next day, the government delivered its official response. Which brings us to yesterday’s interventions. Which brings us to the moment at which Peter Milliken must rule.

In addition to all that one can glean from the links above, there is the original Embassy story on the document in question.

'We call on you to uphold the highest standards of discourse'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 3:43 PM - 23 Comments

Shortly after Question Period, Liberal John McKay rose to raise a question of privilege related to International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda. He concluded as follows.

Privilege as you well know exists for good reason. In this instance as all others it is to compel truthfulness – even when embarrassing – even when it doesn‟t suit the government‟s agenda. Privilege exists so that M.P.s can make decisions based on fact, not on fiction. Privilege exists as a core value of democracy because M.P.s and their constituents, the People of Canada, have every right to expect that public discourse in this Chamber is without artifice. You Mr. Speaker, are the guardian of that core value – the value of truthfulness between and among Members, Ministers, and the Prime Minister. Any ruling other than a prima facie case of breach of privilege in this case will inevitably lead to another even more egregious abuse. Mr. Speaker, I and my colleagues are calling upon you to put a stop to tampered documents, to blaming others, to casual regard for facts before a Committee of the House. We call on you to uphold the highest standards of discourse by Ministers in their communication to the House. Mr. Speaker, with the additional material before you, the case for contempt is even more compelling than it was before. I am prepared to move the motion of contempt upon your direction.

His full statement is here. He was followed by the NDP’s Paul Dewar and the Bloc’s Pierre Paquette.

'Profoundly disturbing questions that evidently remain unanswered'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, February 11, 2011 at 1:35 PM - 72 Comments

Last December, Liberal John McKay rose on a point of privilege to assert that International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda had misled the House on the matter of KAIROS. Yesterday, the Speaker told the House he could not formally rule on the matter under the present circumstance. That did not though restrain him from commenting.

As noted earlier, the Chair reviewed all the documents available. In doing so, to fully grasp the allegations being made, particular attention was paid to the committee testimony of the minister and senior CIDA officials and to the internal CIDA document obtained through an access to information request made available to me by the hon. member for Scarborough—Guildwood. The full body of material gives rise to very troubling questions. Any reasonable person confronted with what appears to have transpired would necessarily be extremely concerned, if not shocked, and might well begin to doubt the integrity of certain decision-making processes. In particular, the senior CIDA officials concerned must be deeply disturbed by the doctored document they have been made to appear to have signed.

New year, new fight

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 9:15 AM - 9 Comments

Ten months after the Speaker’s ruling on documents related to the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan, the House is presented with a new confrontation.

The Commons finance committee in November was denied the right to see government projections of corporate profits before taxes, and was refused a look at studies on the cost of Conservative changes to the criminal justice system. Both are being withheld on the grounds they are cabinet confidences.

“Mr. Speaker, withholding the requested information from the committee does not serve the public interest,” Liberal finance critic Scott Brison said Monday in the Commons on a motion of privilege. ”In fact, withholding this information impedes Parliament’s ability to fulfil its duty to scrutinize the estimates and hold the government to account.”

How Stockwell Day got crutches and lost his shirt

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, February 4, 2011 at 2:00 PM - 3 Comments

Was it Gerard Kennedy’s cologne?
Illness and injuries seemed to be the theme of the day as the House of Commons resumed last Monday. Treasury Board President Stockwell Day was on crutches. “There was a puppy on a railroad… ” Day quipped. The truth, he confessed, was that a giant Labrador retriever came out of nowhere and knocked him down while he was on a run. Day now has a severe ankle injury. The dog didn’t just run him down: as he was running, Day was holding his shirt in his hand; after the fall, the dog grabbed the shirt and ran off with it.

Ontario NDP MP Glenn Thibeault slipped on some ice over the break, fracturing his arm and suffering severe hand injuries. Which meant, he says, that he could no longer do his hair. At one point it was looking like a comb-over, so he decided to just shave his head. He returned to Ottawa with a short buzz.

Quebec Liberal MP Alexandra Mendes showed up to question period wearing a medical mask. She was on day six of pneumonia. (It looks like the post-H1N1 trend of not coming to work on the Hill if you are sick is now officially over.) Her seatmate Gerard Kennedy asked whether she was trying to save him or was allergic to him. Later, Ted Menzies, the minister of state for finance, quipped to Mendes: “We thought Gerard just had strong cologne.” Other Conservatives joked about how the Liberals are literally muzzling their MPs.

Why’s Peter Kent so far away?
The House’s first day back for 2011 saw Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff ask the first five questions in question period, as opposed to just the first three. He has done this before, but Liberal MPs say watch for more QPs with Ignatieff piling on the first questions. Since this Prime Minister’s press conferences are few and far between, at least Stephen Harper now has to answer more questions in a public forum. Also on the first day back, Green party Leader Elizabeth May says she was not impressed with the remote seating position assigned the new environment minister. Peter Kent is now on the front bench, but is the second-last Conservative seat from the Speaker, down where the NDP sit. “We’ve never had an environment minister way down there,” says May.

Much ado over size
The first day of Parliament saw Speaker Peter Milliken throw his annual Robbie Burns dinner. This year, Ontario Conservative MP Ed Holder had the honour of addressing the haggis. When he pulled out a small knife to cut the Scottish delicacy, there were many chuckles. One MP shouted out, “Bill Blaikie‘s was bigger.” (The former NDP MP addressed the haggis with a sword.) Holder then pulled out a larger knife, to the delight of the crowd. This was Milliken’s 10th Robbie Burns dinner and likely his last as Speaker, since he does not plan to run in the next election. In honour of Milliken, a set of bagpipes was donated to the Rob Roy Pipe Band in Kingston, Ont., the city Milliken represents, for young people who want to learn to play the expensive instrument.

The tartan bazaar
The Cape Breton Highlanders were recently reinstated. (Formed in 1871, in 1954 they were combined with two other Nova Scotia battalions and renamed the Nova Scotia Highlanders.) Cape Breton Liberal MP Mark Eyking helped the brigade get reinstated, and for that he was made an honorary member. He says he now needs to get a kilt, but quips, “Can a Dutchman be a Highlander?” He says his wife, Pamela Eyking, is half-Scottish, so he is going to use her family tartan (the Gordon). Coincidentally, Defence Minister Peter MacKay, through his mother’s side of the family, already has a Gordon family tartan kilt, which he wore to Peter Milliken’s Robbie Burns dinner. MacKay said he would give Eyking his Gordon tartan kilt if Eyking would have a MacKay tartan kilt made up for the defence minister.

The year in parliamentary democracy

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 31, 2010 at 9:24 AM - 80 Comments

You have to remember how this started, how 2009 ended and how 2010 began. How the Prime Minister rang up the Governor General and asked her to prorogue Parliament until March. How this was hailed as “devilishly clever.” How someone started a Facebook group to protest the gratuitous use of an arcane Parliamentary procedure. How 200,000 people made the tremendously small effort of registering the requisite click to join that group. And how 20,000 people stood in the cold on a Sunday afternoon in their various towns in January to demand that the House of Commons return to work—work that we otherwise mostly ignore, but work we apparently want to know is going on all the same.

Before the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill, 3,500 people stood on the front lawn, singing and chanting and shouting. It was insistent and demanding and disgruntled. It was quaintly committed to the institutions and principles of parliamentary democracy. It was an incredible noise. However fleeting that moment now seems. Continue…

Zoomer Znaimer

By Mitchel Raphael - Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 8:51 PM - 0 Comments

Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) executive director Moses Znaimer was on the Hill as part of a reception to relaunch his organization. Znaimer with Conservative Senator Carolyn Stewart-Olsen.

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Speaker Peter Milliken.

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Special Olympics Canada on the Hill

By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Special Olympics Canada held a reception on the Hill. (Left to right) Olympian Mark Tewksbury, Government House Leader John Baird and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.

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Steven Fletcher, Minister of State for Democratic Reform.

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In the event of a tie

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 13, 2010 at 4:56 PM - 0 Comments

As we may be headed toward just such a scenario in the case of C-391, it is perhaps worth reviewing the precedent and procedure for tie votes in the House. So here goes.

Should a vote in the House result in a tie, it is the Speaker who holds what is known as the casting vote. The conventions covering this are well explained in House of Commons Procedure and Practice. Continue…

The inexperienced lifer

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:05 AM - 0 Comments

Over the weekend, Jeffrey Simpson lamented for the lifers he sees as presently dominating federal politics. He defined a lifer as one who has been involved for a long period of time at any level of politics, not just as a candidate or elected representative. In this way, for instance, Mr. Harper is a lifer because he has been involved in politics since the mid-80s.

The academic research in this regard—though Simpson’s definition complicates a direct comparison and his focus on party leaders is relevant—has generally raised the alarm about the exact opposite concern: that our MPs have too little experience and are too prone to turnover. To wit. Continue…

Mitchel Raphael on what Belinda Stronach learned about latrines

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 72 Comments

Why toilets matter more than teachers
Former Liberal cabinet minister Belinda Stronach held a special G(irls)20 summit in Toronto as a warm-up to the G20 hitting the city. Twenty-one women from the G20 countries and the African Union gathered to participate in workshops fostering ideas to tackle global challenges. Stronach said what struck her was the order of priorities in many developing countries when it comes to educating girls. The number one need is for dormitories, especially for girls who live far from a school and don’t have proper security for the trek. Next come latrines: some schools only have boys’ washrooms—or none at all. Then come teachers, and last on the list are books. “It’s a reminder of how unsafe some of these places are for young women,” says Stronach. When asked if the G(irls)20 summit also featured a “fake lake,” Stronach noted, “This is a very serious endeavour. We have a lot of sponsors and we manage their money very carefully.”

MPs say it with hair
Many MPs rushed over worriedly when Bloc MP Nicole Demers, a breast cancer survivor, turned up recently with a shaved head. She calmed their fears, telling them she’d shaved—for the fourth time—to support Leucan, a Quebec organization for children with leukemia and other cancers. “This is for kids to realize they are not alone,” Demers says. Also using her tresses to promote a cause is Vancouver Liberal MP Joyce Murray, who has been sporting bright red hair as part of the cystic fibrosis awareness campaign Reddy for a Cure. The campaign honours Eva Markvoort, a fiery redhead who blogged about her ordeal with CF and died at the age of 25. How long will Murray keep the bright red locks? She quipped, “Well, Canada Day is coming.” Nothing says Canada Day like red.

The fake lake lives on
The “fake lake” at Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff ’s annual garden party for the media was so popular that the Grits decided to keep it for the subsequent MP and staff parties. But the kids’ swimming pool, complete with fake ducks to create a Muskoka-like “fake lake” ambience, had to be dismantled and set up again for each party, lest it destroy the lawn. Noted one Liberal staffer, “We’d get in trouble with the NCC [National Capital Commission].” Jokes about the Conservatives’ “fake lake” were a constant on the Hill as Parliament wound down for the summer. Justin Trudeau’s aide Louis-Alexandre Lanthier cracked, “They build a fake lake right beside Lake Ontario—can you imagine if the G20 had been held in Niagara Falls?”

Why he won’t run for mayor
There has been buzz on the Hill about whether Nova Scotia NDP Peter Stoffer will run for mayor of Halifax in the next election. He says it all started when he was asked if he would consider entering the race and simply replied, “I never say never”—thereby sparking a frenzy of speculation. For the record, then: Stoffer says he is the candidate for his riding in the next federal election and if re-elected—almost certain for the popular MP—will serve out his mandate. He says he does not like it when politicians job-hop, sticking taxpayers with a costly by-election.

What the Speaker can’t speak about
Protesters on the lawn of Parliament Hill made a ruckus over the closure of prison farms, created in the late 1800s. Save Our Prison Farms notes on its website that the government fails to appreciate “the value of a restorative approach to justice and a sustainable, local approach to the future of farming and food.” The government says the program was losing money and questions the marketability of agricultural skills post-prison. One riding hit hard by the closures is Speaker Peter Milliken’s. The Speaker has to remain neutral on such issues, but his riding office has been getting an earful over the closures.

Meanwhile, in Kingston

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 25, 2010 at 3:53 PM - 10 Comments

The Speaker will apparently announce tomorrow that he won’t run for reelection. So far as his seat is concerned, Pundits Guide has a handy primer. So far as his presiding over Parliament, one imagines he will go down as one of the more important Speakers in Parliamentary history, having served longer in the role than any other, overseen two minority Parliaments and delivered one of the more consequential rulings in the institution’s history.

When Milliken was last reelected as Speaker, the runners-up included Mauril Belanger, Joe Comartin, Barry Devolin, Royal Galipeau, Andrew Scheer and Merv Tweed.

'I will consider the matter closed'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 18, 2010 at 12:14 PM - 27 Comments

With a slight allowance for the potential of future trouble, the Speaker officially declined yesterday to entertain a point of privilege from Jack Harris on Afghan detainee documents—more or less clearing the Conservatives, Liberals and Bloc to proceed with their memorandum of understanding.

In considering this matter, the Chair has taken great care to assess whether the existence of this consensus satisfies the broad conditions that were imposed on the parties in the ruling of April 27.

I must stress that it is not for the Chair to examine the details of the agreement or to compare it to the agreement in principle tabled on May 14. I am responding to the interventions that have been made on behalf of an overwhelming majority of members who have stated that they are satisfied with the consensus agreement that has been tabled.

The Chair can only conclude, therefore, that the requirements of the ruling of April 27, 2010, have indeed been met and, accordingly, I will not call on the honourable member for St. John’s East to move a motion at this time. Instead, the Chair will allow time for the processes and mechanisms described in the agreement to be implemented. Should circumstances change, members will no doubt ensure that the Chair will again be seized of the matter, but for now I will consider the matter closed.

Back to the brink

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 11, 2010 at 3:23 PM - 22 Comments

Meetings this week failed to produce an agreement on the release and review of documents related to the treatment of Afghan detainees. The next meeting is apparently scheduled for Monday.

With the House due to rise on Thursday, the NDP now says that their deadline for an agreement is Monday. If no agreement is reached then, they say they will seek to return to the House to pursue a resolution there.

It’s not clear exactly what form that resolution could conceivably take. When the Speaker ruled in April he advised that “if … the matter is still not resolved, the Chair will return to make a statement on the motion that will be allowed in the circumstances.”

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The government’s response, via the Justice Minister’s office: “Meetings with the Opposition have shown positive signs and will continue in a spirit of cooperation.”

And from the Liberal side, via a spokesman for Ralph Goodale: “Speculating on strategy is not productive. What we’re focusing on is getting an agreement signed before the end of the session. Lines of communication remain open and progress is being made, though admittedly all sides are feeling more pressure as the end of session nears.”

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The Canadian Press counts the Bloc with the NDP and explores the myriad hypotheticals now back in play.

Capital Diary: Mitchel Raphael on the story behind Chrétien’s official portrait

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 8:20 AM - 0 Comments

‘I recognize that expression’
Speaker Peter Milliken hosted the hanging of Jean Chrétien’s official prime ministerial portrait. In his speech, Milliken referred to a 1967 CBC interview with  Chrétien, who was then still a young MP. “His sense of humour,” Milliken noted, “was already evident. Speaking to a crowd of supporters one day, he said, ‘My initials are J.C., like Jesus Christ . . . my mother’s name is Mary. I live on Boulevard Pius XII. At 30 I was at the beginning of my public life. I hope I will not be crucified at 33.’ ” Milliken went on to note that Chrétien was the 18th of 19 children and “being the baby of the family, or close to it, it’s not easy to make your mark. I think we can agree he found his niche.” The portrait, painted by New Brunswick artist Christan Nicholson, took a year and a half to complete. There were five versions of it before the one with the “Chinese yellow” background was finally selected. The yellow version was championed by the former PM’s daughter, France Chrétien Desmarais. The Chrétien family was inspired by the painting Nicholson did of Robertson Davies holding his glasses, so Chrétien is shown with specs in hand. When former deputy PM John Manley looked at the portrait, he said, “I recognize that expression. That’s the look you got when you came into cabinet five minutes late.” VIPs attending the event included Ed Broadbent and current NDP Leader Jack Layton, who agreed it would be a good idea to have a bust of Broadbent made, like the one he has of NDP icon Tommy Douglas in his office. Chrétien’s portrait was installed at the beginning of the hall of prime ministerial portraits in Centre Block. With some rearranging, there is room for about 11 more portraits, though some may need to be a little smaller. When Chrétien entered the room, there were shouts of “four more years.” Stephen Harper’s spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, joked the chants were for his boss, who entered the room with Chrétien.

Dan Aykroyd and the troops
The Canadian Vintners Association was on the Hill to allow MPs to sample wine from across the country, including Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia. Bloc MP Christiane Gagnon said her favourite wine was the Pinot Gris from Nova Scotia. But was it better than the Quebec wines? “Oui!” Working one of the tables was Liam Doody, who sells the Dan Aykroyd series of wines. He says their best seller is the Cabernet Merlot. Aykroyd has to sample all the wines before they are shipped, which Doody says can delay products for up to five weeks—the busy star has to make it to the vineyards in southern Ontario. Aykroyd, a big supporter of Canadian troops, recently had 56 cases of his wine shipped to Afghanistan for the men and women serving there.

MP’s suitcase just got lighter
Minister of State for Sports Gary Lunn has been limping around with a cast after having surgery on his foot. The downside is that it’s been hard to escape the media in the foyer, like when CTV’s Bob Fife cornered him to ask about MPs’ expenses and the auditor general. “You can’t run,” quipped Fife. The plus side, Lunn says, is a lighter suitcase: “I only need three shoes.” Lunn now travels with one running shoe, one dress shoe and one casual shoe.

He’ll never be a Starbucks MP
Before the mood changed on MPs opening their books to auditor general Sheila Fraser, Toronto Liberal MP Rob Oliphant said in a press release that he was voluntarily going to let the AG see what she needed. Toronto Star columnist Chantal Hébert noted that the fear on the Hill was that the AG’s report would highlight who were the Starbucks MPs versus the Tim Hortons MPs. Oliphant declares himself strictly a Tim Hortons MP: he can’t actually drink Starbucks coffee, he says, because of “acid reflux.”

You can't say that in Parliament

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 12:10 PM - 13 Comments

For those of you keeping track, you can no longer refer to another MP as a “token Quebecer”—or a “token” anything for that matter.

In the current circumstances, the use of the term in question has clearly led to some disorder and considerable offence, and I would therefore urge hon. members to refrain from using it and any others that tend to lead to disorder.

As I suggested when this matter was first raised, members may bring questions about the use of this term, and perhaps even more broadly, questions related to unparliamentary language, to the attention of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

I would also like to take the opportunity to remind the House in the strongest terms possible that all members are legitimate and duly elected members of the House who have rightfully taken their seats. As rightfully noted by the member for Crowfoot, none of them are token in any sense of the word and to suggest otherwise would diminish the importance of our parliamentary system, our electoral system and the decisions of the very electors who sent them, indeed all of us, here.

UFC champs brings out the MPs

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 11:59 AM - 4 Comments

MPs from all parties joined the long lineup on the Hill to pay homage to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champ and Quebec native Georges St-Pierre. He was invited to the Hill by Heritage Minister James Moore. Below, left to right, Moore, St-Pierre and NDP MP Glenn Thibeault.

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Treasury Board President Stockwell Day with St-Pierre.

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Liberal MPs Navdeep Bains (left) and Justin Trudeau duke it out.

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Mitchel Raphael on why the speaker of the house didn't recognize a 'great Canadian'

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 11:20 AM - 3 Comments

Ultimate Fighting champion hits the Hill
MPs from all parties joined a long lineup on the Hill to pay homage to Ultimate Fighting Championship champ and Quebec native Georges St-Pierre. Among those in line were Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe, who got an autograph for his grandson, and Liberal MP Justin Trudeau, who said he used to train in the same boxing gym as St-Pierre. MP Glenn Thibeault is a big UFC fan and also the NDP’s sports critic. Ironically, he has requested a royal commission to examine violence in sports. But the MP stresses that the difference between the UFC and, say, hockey, is that the premise of the UFC is “structured” fighting as opposed to what he calls “gratuitous” violence. St-Pierre was invited to the Hill by Heritage Minister James Moore, who calls the UFC champ “a great Canadian.” (Moore owns the UFC video game and plans to get the new edition when it hits stores.) The minister hopes that Ontario will follow the lead of British Columbia, Quebec, Alberta and other provinces where the fights are allowed. Moore had hoped to have St-Pierre recognized by Speaker Peter Milliken after question period, but then found out that also sitting in the Speaker’s gallery that day was Bogdan Borusewicz, Poland’s speaker of the Senate, and Vice-Admiral Dean McFadden, head of the Canadian navy, who was there to commemorate the centennial of the Canadian navy. Moore decided not to ask the Speaker to recognize St-Pierre so as not to upstage the other dignitaries present. That message apparently didn’t get through to some Tories who were visibly disappointed when St-Pierre wasn’t recognized. Treasury Board president and UFC fan Stockwell Day, for one, looked upset and let out a loud “aw.’” Transport Minister John Baird shouted out to St-Pierre: “I would have recognized you.”

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The deal is done

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 14, 2010 at 11:23 AM - 52 Comments

It would seem a deal is essentially done. Here is how the NDP is describing the agreement in a release hailing a “victory for Parliamentary democracy.”

Under the terms of the agreement agreed to by all parties, a committee of MPs will review all documents in un-redacted form to determine their relevance to the study of the transfer of Afghan detainees by the House Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan. The panel’s decision on the relevance of those documents will be final and unreviewable.

Any documents that are found to be relevant will be referred to a Panel of Expert Arbiters, who will determine how the information in those documents will be made available to all MPs, and to the public, without compromising national security.

Update I. The MP panel will have four members, one from each party (with an alternate according to CP). The expert panel will have three members. No names yet for either panel.

Update II. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has risen in the House just now to confirm the agreement. MPs on the ad hoc committee will be sworn to secrecy and go through the necessary security clearance. They will have access to government officials to consult on context and disclosure. The membership of the expert panel must be agreed to by government and opposition. Any decision of the expert panel will be final and unreviewable. All details will be laid out in a memorandum of understanding to be in place by May 31, 2010.

Update III. Below is the full text of today’s agreement.

Update IV. Here is the official Liberal reaction.

Update V. From Mr. Nicholson’s remarks in the House. “You will remember, Mr. Speaker, in your ruling of April 27, which was your decision on a question of privilege, that you were confident that members of Parliament of all parties could come to an agreement. I just want you to know, Mr. Speaker, that that confidence was not misplaced because I am very pleased to tell the House today that agreement has been reached with all the political parties. It is an agreement that complies with Canadian law, it does not compromise national security and it does not jeopardize the lives of the men and women who serve in uniform which of course was the concern of the government in recognizing your ruling … Mr. Speaker, this is a good day for parliamentarians. It is a good day for all those who have respect for the rule of law in this country and again, I commend all members and thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the ruling and the opportunity that you have given us to bring together this agreement. Again, your confidence was not misplaced.”

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Day 17 of 14

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 14, 2010 at 9:58 AM - 2 Comments

With just about three and a half hours to go, here is Steve Chase’s assessment of where things stood as this morning dawned.