MR. HARPER BETS THAT YOU DON'T CARE
Compelling messages have been arriving in M.P.'s offices, condemning Stephen Harper for again putting a padlock on the Parliament of Canada.
It happened on December 30th. This is now four times in three years -- twice in the last year alone.
Every time Mr. Harper faces tough questions in the House of Commons, he reacts like a despot. He shuts the place down so he can hide from daily scrutiny.
This time the issue is the Conservative cover-up of what they knew and when they knew it about torture in Afghanistan.
To be clear -- the culprit here is not our soldiers, nor our diplomats who work in that war zone half a world away. They have been doing their jobs very well, keeping their political masters in Ottawa fully informed.
The problem rests solely with the Harper government itself. Mounting evidence shows they were willfully blind. And that's what the Conservatives don't want investigated.
Their cover was blown in December when the new Chief of Canada's Defence Staff, General Natynczyk, honourably and properly released documentary evidence of multiple cases of Afghan torture. It corroborated what diplomats like Richard Colvin had been warning since 2006.
First the Conservatives tried to slander Mr. Colvin, but he was staunchly defended by more than a hundred of his former colleagues.
Then, the Conservatives decided to cut and run. They adjourned Parliament early and boycotted meetings of a Parliamentary Committee that has been struggling to get the truth.
Finally, while the country was preoccupied during Christmas week, Mr. Harper suspended both Parliament and all its Committees altogether, until March.
The magnitude of that assault on the democratic rule of law only reinforces the unmistakable belief that these Conservatives indeed have something to hide.
But they'll only get away with it if Canadians stop caring about integrity!
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