Stephen Harper's Conservative government doesn't tolerate any criticism, constructive or otherwise, of our military's role in Afghanistan. Lalo Espejo takes a closer look.
Afghan detainees
Harper's hitlist: The Afghan torture affair
rabble.ca columnist Murray Dobbin details the harm Prime Minister Stephen Harper is doing to the political and social fabric of Canada in a new essay commissioned by The Council of Canadians. This article is an excerpt taken from the essay, the third in a 10-part series on Harper's assault on democracy.
In contempt of Parliament: refusing to hand over documents on Afghan torture
A hero stands up to cowboys
In an inaugural address to 2,000 soldiers in the Ottawa Congress Centre in February 2005, Gen. Rick Hillier declared: "When Canadian troops go overseas, they expect sex." Within a split second, he corrected himself: "success."
It was clearly a slip of the tongue. But, according to someone who was there, it also fit the mood of the room. After years of feeling like an emasculated army of peacekeepers, Canadian soldiers finally had a real fighting man at their helm. No more girlie-man peacekeeping, boys! We're gonna make war!
The transformation of the Canadian military into a war-oriented force -- a partner in George W. Bush's freewheeling War on Terror -- was the product of the influential Hillier, with the backing of the Harper government.
More must be known about the Afghan detainee tortures
On June 22, there was a audible buzzing coming from Parliament Hill.
The press bounced off the walls, waiting for the deluge of information ordered by House of Commons speaker Peter Milliken. Last year, the Kingston MP had assembled an ad hoc committee to release thousands of pages of documents pertaining the issue of detainee abuse in Afghanistan.
The ensuing Tintamarre, to use the Acadian phrase for creating a lot of noise, was frenzied by midday, but by dinnertime coverage was all about the upcoming royal visit.
Before the story went to the great newsroom archives in the sky, some mused that these documents were boring and speculated that the other 21,000 pages that were held back are the real scandal goldmine.
2.jpg "David Climenhaga, author of the Alberta Diary blog, is a journalist, author, journalism teacher, poet and trade union communicator who has worked in senior writing and editing positions with the Toronto Globe and Mail and the Calgary Herald. His 1995 book, A Poke in the Public Eye, explores the relationships among Canadian journalists, public relations people and politicians. He left journalism after the strike at the Calgary Herald in 1999 and 2000 to work as Communications Director of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which with more than 73,000 members is Alberta’s largest union and Canada’s 10th largest. Alberta Diary focuses on Alberta politics and social issues. Contact: albertadiary @ gmail.com")
Whiff of hypocrisy from 'detainee deal' undermines Parliament's position on expense accounts
| May 18, 2010
Parliamentary supremacy and the Speaker's corner
This is the week the Speaker of the House of Commons rules on whether or not the Conservative government must release to Parliament the full text of documents in their possession concerning Canadian complicity in torture of detained Afghans.
The issue at stake is the power of Parliament to require the prime minister and cabinet to make documents public. Can the Conservatives claim national security and dealings with foreign powers protect them from following a parliamentary directive?
