We Must NOT Allow Frank Iacobucci to See Documents Before OUR Elected Representatives do

If I ever had any doubts that the supremacy of Parliament must prevail, I no longer have a single doubt. Not one.

In fact what would be a step up from that? Put me on that step.

And no it's not because I don't trust Mr. Iacobucci. The optics may not be the best, since he is a corporate and tax lawyer, not a human rights lawyer; but that is irrelevant.

And it's not because he's on the board of a major Canadian newspaper. (Toronto Star)

It's because of someone else who has just entered the debate, that makes me 100% convinced that this is ABSOLUTELY WRONG ON EVERY LEVEL POSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peter Worthington.

Yes this former founder of the Toronto Sun, wrote a column in favour of this appointment. It's the usual crap I expect from Worthington:

Whatever subtleties Iacobucci may find in documents pertaining to prisoners, his overall concern will likely focus on whether Canadian soldiers abused or tortured Taliban insurgents it captured — not on what Afghanis do to one another. The opposition and human rights activists seem more concerned about what happens to Taliban prisoners, than what the Taliban were doing — or trying to do — to Canadian soldiers.

Sound familiar? I can't even critique his nonsense because it is just so damn ugly.

So instead, I will just let you know who Peter Worthington is and why, when he is brought out of hibernation to prop up the Harper government, I start to worry. And worry, and worry and worry.

Northern Foundation

I've posted many times on Stephen Harper's involvement with an extreme right-wing group, called the Northern Foundation. In fact, Harper was a founding member. And guess who else was a founding member? Yep. Peter Worthington.

This man has led quite an adventurous life. You can read his bio here at Wikipedia.

A conservative, Worthington led the brash new tabloid throughout the 1970s as it campaigned against the government of Pierre Trudeau. At one point he was jailed after being accused of violating the Official Secrets Act. ... Worthington was criticized when it was revealed that he had informed to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation about the suspected political sympathies of a number of his friends including June Callwood.

Worthington is the stepfather of conservative writer Danielle Crittenden (She has been critical of the feminist movement and is considered to be a social conservative. Crittenden is the editor of The Women’s Quarterly magazine. She is married to former George W. Bush special assistant and speechwriter David Frum
and resides in Washington DC.) and is thereby David Frum's father-in-law.

David Frum's name comes up a lot, especially when it comes to Israel/Palestine. He was actually the man credited with coining the term 'Axis of Evil.' His sister Linda was one of Harper's patronage senate appointments.

Peter Worthington and South Africa

I posted a while back on Worthington and a man by the name of Craig Williamson.

From Williamson's Wikipedia bio:

"Craig Michael Williamson (born 1949, Johannesburg), a former South African police major, was exposed as a spy in 1980, and was involved in a series of state-sponsored overseas bombings, burglaries, kidnappings, assassinations and propaganda during the apartheid era."Williamson was one of the main collaborators with Peter Worthington in the pro-apartheid video The ANC method - violence which was distributed by Citizens for foreign aid reform throughout Canada in 1988."

David Stonehouse wrote an article in the Ryerson Press in 1988, about this documentary:

South African expatriates and the ANC have labeled it propaganda; Worthington prefers to call it "a personal view." Hugh Winsor, national political editor for The Globe and Mail, who covered South Africa for the now defunct Toronto Telegram, says: "It is not straight-up journalism. I would have seen it as more valid if he indicated where he got the footage and where he got the help."

Distribution cost him even less. That was handled by Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform, a right-wing organization based in Toronto. CFAR agreed to the task after Worthington's attempts to get his taped views aired on public television got nowhere, says Paul Fromm, CFAR's research director. And while the television producers were saying no, CFAR's members were nodding yes, snatching up 4,000 copies of the tape and its 12-page companion booklet in five months. Members of Parliament were each sent a copy, and 400 more went to major media outlets across the country.

Meanwhile, Worthington was also circulating copies to his friends, and this was how it caught the attention of David Somerville, a former employee of Worthington's at The Toronto Sun. Somerville is president of the National Citizens' Coalition, another right-wing pressure group in Toronto. He offered the tape to his membership, which numbers 36,000, at $12 apiece ("at cost"). The NCC sold 600-more than double what it expected. Somerville calls the video a "journalistic effort at setting the record straight on the ANC."

Others argue differently. The ANC's Canadian representative, Yusuf Saloojee, says, "What Worthington is doing is working the South African government propaganda machinery. It's a distortion of reality, of what is really going on in the country. He totally stays away from state violence."

Worthington's latest column is clearly just more propaganda, and if we allow this farce to continue, Stephen Harper is going to get away with possible war crimes. We deserve better than this.

And for those who don't know, Stephen Harper went on to become president of the National Citizens Coalition and Paul Fromm was allowed to sell memberships to C-Far at the Reform's Assembly.

Also of note is that Conrad Black was one of the power money guys behind the formation of the Reform Party, and he used his media empire to swing Canada to the right, and advance the cause. Worthington and Black go back a long way. Worthington once had a thing for Black's wife, Barbara Ameil, another right-wing journalist.

And the association also includes David Frum, as per Frum himself.

I have repeatedly referred in this space and elsewhere to my long professional association with Conrad Black. But to obviate any possibility that any reader might be unaware of it, I gladly recapitulate it ...

Now I'm not suggesting that these guys are doing anything illegal or untoward. Only that they are from the extreme right-wing, where Harper hung his hat until he re-invented himself, so he'd stop scaring people.

And everything they say and do comes from that mindset and boils down to a very extreme view of Islam. It's why Worthington dismisses Afghans torturing each other in his column. They have no value, and while he does credit our soldiers with wanting to help them, it's pretty clear he would lose no sleep over Canada being charged with war crimes, if it comes to that.

Another founding member of the Northern Foundation was Link Byfield, who just happens to be involved with the new Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta. (which connects him to the famous Calgary School)

He is a fairly regular speaker at the anti-women REAL Women conferences. In 2002 he spoke of three scenarios for the future of Canada.

The three scenarios Mr. Byfield envisioned were that either Islam, materialism (secular humanism) or Christianity will prevail in Canada's future.

An invasion by Islam will not be by force of arms, as they do not have the technology for that. The power of Islam is in its birth rate. Islam cannot be removed or replaced, and it grows by way of its large families. In Britain, there are entire Muslim communities, with mosques going up everywhere. Although Muslims share the Christian notion of family, Islam also demands submission.

Democracy is a Christian philosophy and, therefore, does not exist or, at best, is only a peripheral force in most Muslim countries.

There is clearly no scenario where Islam, atheism and Christianity can live in harmony. There needs to be a clear victor.

And this is why we must demand that the Afghan Detainee issue is dealt with properly. All human life has value and we cannot dismiss any human being simply because Harper's extreme-right wing people, do not want to share their world with them.

It speaks to the very heart of who we are as Canadians. And the more the Harper government stonewalls, the more guilty they look.

As Greg Weston says: For a government with nothing to hide, it is certainly going to extraordinary lengths to hide it. And Darren Ridgley: They represent our country, and we all, with our international reputation, may end up paying for their inaction.

And from the Globe: There are two separate and related reasons for concern: the government's refusal to be transparent with Parliament and Canadians at large; and the possibility that the government of Canada is disregarding its legal and moral obligations to protect detainees from known risks of torture.

Worthington's column merely reminds me of why my gut has always said that Stephen Harper is the wrong fit for Canada, and as a result I am even more committed to exposing this gang of thugs.

Thank you Mr. Worthington.