Soldiers Do Not Agree With Harper. They Want a Full Public Inquiry.

The opposition parties are holding an informal inquiry into the Afghan Detainee issue on Parliament Hill today.

They invited the Conservatives to attend, but naturally they messaged back they would prefer to cut and run. But what might be more compelling is the testimony of Colonel (ret'd) Michel Drapeau (below).

After learning that Harper would be using our money to distribute ten percenters accusing Michael Ignatieff of attacking our soldiers, this gentleman states that the troops themselves want a full public inquiry, because it's their honour that's in question. What have I been saying?

Kady O'Malley has been live blogging the event and reports on statements made by expert Errol Mendes.

Mendes quotes from a past judicial ruling that highlights the importance of parliamentary privilege, which - in that court's view - was equal to a similar order from a court; it also outlined "in crystal clear wording" what that privilege covers, which includes being able to hold the government to account - which, he tells the committee, is "exactly what you should be doing." Given these decisions, he believes that there is nothing that can deprive parliamentarians of those documents -- they have the constitution on their side, and no national securities law or Canada Evidence Act trumps that power.

Paul Dewar twitted his approval, so this is good news.

Strong case put forward by law experts at Afghan committee. I'm sending a letter to Minister of Justice requesting access to documents o ...

Back to Kady:

Mendes... who has concluded that the government's refusal to deliver the documents constitutes a violation of the Constitution of Canada, and is no different from ignoring a judicial subpoena -- and if the government persists in rejecting the order, it will be in contempt of parliament. Well, that'll start the new session off with a bang, won't it?

It should be a very interesting session this time around.