Taxpayers Should be Happy About Change in Direction in Afghanistan?

I posted a piece in December, on how the Harper government had turned the War in Afghanistan into a mafia style playground, buying protection, and hiring firms blacklisted by everyone else.

The Star now reports that Harper has finally decided to fire the corrupt organization, run by the Karzai family.

The firing is being called "a victory for Canadian taxpayers." What the hell? A victory for us would have been not hiring this group in the first place. Instead we were complicit in their crimes.

In his new book Obama's Wars, Bob Woodward of Watergate fame, discusses Canada and confirms that the Taliban is being paid "protection money". What a mess this government has made of things.

Harper is calling the mission a success. What a farce. As Thomas Walkom reminds us, with a view shared by many, we have won nothing. The Taliban is just as strong and the Afghan forces just as weak.

And with Harper's new "spreading of democracy", will our soldiers really be coming home, or just sent someplace else?

The problem with having a madman at the helm.

Sorry Dimitri Soudas but This is Not About Embarrassing Your Boss

After wondering this morning what would happen to the Afghan Detainee issue, Dimitri Soudas has given us a hint.

NDP Jack Harris, a man I greatly admire, is calling for the immediate release of all documents.

However Soudas hints at what could happen:

“Given the changes to the composition of the House, discussions surrounding the process are best held after the House resumes sitting,” Soudas said in an email. He noted that the Conservatives still support the release of the information even though its new majority status in the House of Commons means it could effectively block opposition measures designed to embarrass, shame or implicate Harper’s government in any wrongdoing.

Knowing that Soudas has zero credibility, we can be sure that any documents that would "embarrass, shame or implicate Harper’s government in any wrongdoing" will be buried.

The NDP should indeed sit on the committee and I hope Harris pushes them hard. Canadians have a right to know what was done in their name.

David Frum, one of the engineers of the neoconservative movement, was on Bill Maher last week, and he suggested that seeing as how Bin Laden is dead, the government should drop all investigations into the use of torture. The rationale is that it works.

I expect Harper will do the same. Suggesting that it's time to put it behind us.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

What Will Become of the Afghan Detainee Issue Now?

I picked up a copy of political science professor Todd Gordon's Imperialist Canada yesterday, and it's quite an eye opener.

Canada is the only country with troops in Afghanistan, not to have an independent media, and all news is directed from the PMO, with what a former senior NATO public affairs official called a "6,000-mile screwdriver".

Gordon writes:

The Canadian military has also been implicated in the beating of prisoners. Canadian soldiers allegedly beat and abused Afghan soldiers in the spring of 2006 while military police turned a blind eye. The abuse became public when Amir Attaran, a University of Ottawa law professor, uncovered unexplained patterns of injuries among Canadian detainees in documents received under an Access to Information request. An investigation was undertaken by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service. However, by the end of 2009 the investigation is still incomplete and no charges have been laid. Military records for the detainees from the period in which the abuse allegedly took place have also mysteriously gone missing." (1)

Attaran's report here, here and here.

Meanwhile, the Canadian military was handing prisoners over to the Afghan prison system where they routinely faced torture. The former governor of Kandahar, Asadullah Khalid, was accused by at least one prisoner of beating and electrically shocking him. Former Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier initially responded to the accusations with praise for the governor, asserting that he is doing "phenomenal work." It turns out the Tories knew about Khalid's involvement in the torture of detainees but tried to keep it secret while Foreign Affairs officials quietly worked to remove him from power before the incident became public knowledge. (1)

And as we know Stephen Harper dismissed the concerns because, according to him, they were made by Taliban.

Yet one of the victims was able to correctly tell Canadian investigators where the rubber hose and electrical cable used by the torturers were kept. The military also acknowledged that it cannot account for at least fifty prisoners it turned over to Afghan authorities. No record of them exists. As public criticism of detainee transfers grew, the military quietly stopped transferring prisoners into Afghan authority in November 2007, although it is unclear where they transferred them instead, since DND has no prison in Afghanistan. However, the military subsequently resumed transferring detainees into Afghan custody in April 2008, claiming it had assurances from the Afghan government that prisoners transferred from Canada would not be tortured. Leaked memos indicate, however, that the military suspended the transfers at least one more time .

That has not stopped the Tory government from trying to clamp down on the MPCC so that the true extent of abuse of detainees, and knowledge of the abuse among political and military leaders, is not exposed. It has stalled the MPCC's inquiry by challenging its mandate in the courts; made clear to the Commissioner that his term will not be renewed when it is finished well before the inquiry is complete; refused to provide documents to the inquiry and heavily redacted others even though the MPCC's investigators have the highest level of national security clearance; and it threatened the former director of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction team ...

And we all know what happened to Richard Colvin when he stood up to the Harper regime.

Harper, Tory cabinet ministers and military leaders have all denied Colvin's claims, attacked his credibility ... despite the fact that leaked memos backed up his testimony.

Harper had managed to stall the release of detainee documents until after the election, so will he now use the new powers invested upon him by the Supreme Court, to make sure that they never see the light of day?

And how will this play out with the International Criminal Court who are suggesting that Canada could be charged with war crimes?

It's very dangerous to give an egomaniac this much power. And yet we did.

Sources:

1. Imperialist Canada, By Todd Gordon, Arbeiter Publishing, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-894037-4507, Pg. 353-354

Canada Could be Facing War Crimes for Refusing to Handle Detainee Issue

All the games that Harper played with the Afghan Detainee issue could land us in the International criminal court, facing charges of War Crimes.

When Toronto filmmaker Barry Stevens asked Moreno-Ocampo in his film, Prosecutor, if the ICC would pursue a country like Canada over its role in Afghanistan, he replied: “We’ll check if there are crimes and also we’ll check if a Canadian judge is doing a case or not . . . if they don’t, the court has to intervene. That’s the rule, that’s the system, one standard for everyone.”

This is not something we can simply sweep under the rug and hope goes away.

Is Peter MacKay on His Way Out?

Peter Mackay may be going for the Libyan dictator look here, but next week he may be looking for a new job.

According to ThreeHundredandEight:

In Nova Scotia, the New Democrats have taken two seats from the Conservatives: Central Nova and South Shore - St. Margaret's. David Parker is the new favourite in Peter MacKay's seat, while former NDP MP Gordon Earle is the favourite in South Shore - St. Margaret's.

The Liberals have also regained a seat themselves, taking Random - Burin - St. George's back from the Tories in Newfoundland & Labrador.

I don't agree with all of their seat predictions, because I think the Green will get at least one, and possibly two or three.

But the Mackay story is interesting. It shows that people are paying attention to things like the Afghan detainee story, contempt of Parliament and self-serving prorogations.

I think the pollsters have read this election all wrong. Democracy is important.

Stephen Harper Trying to Muzzle Detainee Report. What's he Afraid of?

It would appear that Stephen Harper is again refusing to be accountable to Canadians, about what he knew and when, of the abuse of Afghan Detainees:

The Conservative government quietly went to Federal Court last week hoping to impose limits on what a military watchdog can say in its final report into torture allegations involving Afghan prisoners. The Military Police Complaints Commission is currently reviewing evidence and writing its report after hearings into allegations that army cops turned a blind eye to suspected abuse in Afghan jails.

Federal lawyers successfully argued in 2009 that the commission's investigation of complaints launched by Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association should be limited to what military police knew — or should have known — about possible torture of prisoners by Afghan jailers. The Harper government went even further last week in two days of hearings and challenged the definition of what military cops could have known.

Same old, same old.

The Smoking Gun That Will Help us to Bring Down the Harper Dictatorship?

Canada's former "integrity" officer has been found in Florida. After ignoring a subpoena on the advice no doubt of Harper himself, she's been on the lam.

Ignoring subpoenas is Harper's m.o. When a committee was investigating the alleged election financing fraud, he told witnesses to ignore the subpoenas, then he shut down the committee and called an election, keeping everything tied up in the courts for years.

Taxpayers foot the bill.

When the Afghan Detainee issue was becoming too hot to handle, Harper told witnesses to ignore subpoenas and shut down the committee by proroguing Parliament and has kept that tied up in the courts for months.

Taxpayers foot the bill. (130 million for the prorogation alone.)

So should we be surprised that former, apparently "lack of integrity" commissioner, Christiane Ouimet, has ignored the subpoena and fled the country? And as Lawrence Martin says, Harper will drag this out in the courts, hoping to get an election out of the way before having to answer to over 200 serious fraud related charges?

There’s Bev Oda. Then there is someone who makes Ms. Oda’s actions, judging from a recent Auditor-General’s report, look rather angelic. The elusive former integrity commissioner, Christiane Ouimet, was finally located last week – in Florida. And now that she has been located, the Conservative government may face one of its stiffest tests of damage control. Ms. Ouimet (rhymes with Antoinette) is the public servant who, according to Sheila Fraser’s damning report, did not do her job properly – choosing to investigate just seven of 228 complaints about wrongdoing in the public sector – possibly saving the Harper government multiple embarrassments.

After failing to appear before a parliamentary committee despite being subpoenaed, she sent a rather terse message to the committee through her lawyer
saying she was willing to return March 10 to face interrogators. What a show it promises to be. Given the large number of uninvestigated cases that came before
her, the possibility of smoking guns suddenly appearing on the government’s doorstep can hardly be discarded.

Apparently many are very serious. Could we see some go to jail? I mean the Conservatives claim to be tough on crime. But then if they only stole from taxpayers it doesn't count, right?

World News: Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay Could be Charged with War Crimes

While the pundits cackle over the Afghan documents that we had to fight so hard to have made public, the International Criminal Court has a different mandate.

They are now investigating Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay for violations of the Geneva Convention. Stephen Harper has been trying to distance himself from the ICC, snubbing his nose at the convention, but there are some things that go beyond his supreme rule.

The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, is conducting a “preliminary examination” into human rights abuses committed in Afghanistan by Taliban and ISAF forces alike. And while the ICC has focused in recent years on prosecuting African despots, Mr. Ocampo said he will not back down from prosecuting Western governments that are not holding their officials accountable for their actions.

“I prosecute whoever is in my jurisdiction. I cannot allow that we are a court just for the Third World. If the First World commits crimes, they have to investigate. If they don’t, I shall investigate,” Mr. Ocampo said. “That’s the rule and we have one rule for everyone.” According to the ICC, Canadian officials (mainly Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay) may be in breach of the Geneva Convention and have launched an official war crimes investigation.

Now personally I don't care if these two do end up in prison, but it's just that they are taking Canada down with them. War Crimes? Canada?

And if that isn't enough of a black eye, we also learn that the Harper government has hired goons fighting in Afghanistan, that are deemed too brutal for even the United States.

Canada spent more than $41-million on hired guns in Afghanistan over four years, much of it going to security companies slammed by the U.S. Senate for having warlords on the payroll. Both the Defence and Foreign Affairs departments have employed 11 security contractors in Kabul and Kandahar since 2006, but have kept quiet about the details.

The records show Foreign Affairs paid nearly $8-million to ArmorGroup Securities Ltd., recently cited in a U.S. Senate investigation as relying on Afghan warlords who in 2007 were engaged in “murder, kidnapping, bribery and anti-Coalition activities.”

What has he done to us?

Will Peter MacKay be the Next Cabinet Minister to Resign?

In 2009, during the Afghan Detainee uproar, Stephen Harper was all but a no show. Instead of acting like a leader, he passed off the leadership role to Peter MacKay. The only time he allows his cabinet ministers to act for their ministry is when they're in trouble.

But Kennedy Stewart* wrote in the Sun that this could have been a political maneuver.

The explosive allegations about transferred Canadian prisoners being tortured by Afghan officials and the stink of a government cover-up might initially seem detrimental to Stephen Harper. However these events might eventually prove personally advantageous to the prime minister. Harper's uncharacteristic low-key role on this issue hints he is throwing his closest rival to the wolves to fortify his leadership position.

Slipping in the polls, again, Stephen Harper is probably feeling just as much pressure from within, so why not eliminate his competition? If the party wants a leadership review, who do they have to replace him? Jim Prentice was another competitor, but he's gone.

Stockwell Day? Jason Kenney? Both dumber than a bag of broken hammers.

Rumour has it that MacKay may be leaving politics and taking a job in the private sector. If true this could fulfil another Harper wish. He stated that his party must eradicate itself of Red Tories, former members of the Progressive Conservatives. With Prentice, MacKay and Thompson gone, I think that about does it.

Stewart* continues:

The next election is critical for Harper and he needs to win a majority or face dissent in the ranks. If Harper fails to secure a majority, party insiders will begin to look for successors, basing their decision on whether to push out Harper according to the estimated strength of any potential new leader. Before this incident, Peter MacKay was no doubt Harper's strongest potential leadership challenger.

The detainee issue was swept under the rug, but there are definitely signs that MacKay is being pushed out. He is not even in the loop over the latest decision to extend the Afghan "mission".

Of course MacKay is suggesting that the rumours aren't true, but he also assured us that he would never sell us out to the Reform-Alliance. He's going to have to do better than that to convince me.

*Harper will let MacKay suck up Afghanistan torture poison to preserve leadership, By Kennedy Stewart, Special to the Sun, November 30, 2009 (no longer available on line)

Harper Wants His Donkeys to Lead Our Lions. What Next, Uniforms?

From the day that Stephen Harper first took office, he has made Afghanistan his war. He was the general leading our troops into battle.

Nothing was said or done without his approval.

A man with no military background, other than partisan ankle biting and cheap shots across the room, thought he knew how to conduct an army in battle.

It was a disaster.

His first decision was to move Canadian troops from Kabul and reposition them in southern Kandahar province, where they were at a greater danger of being killed by roadside bombs. (1) Our death toll immediately escalated.

He then said that the media would be barred from photographing flag draped coffins (he later changed his mind after public outcry, that included the voices of the families of fallen soldiers)

"Look, don't bring the Airbus in, or if you bring the plane in, turn it away from the cameras so that people can't see the bodies coming off, or do it after dark, or do it down behind the hangars, or just bar everybody from it," Hillier quotes the PMO staffers as saying. "They clearly didn't want that picture of the flag-draped coffin on the news."It is Canadian military policy that every Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan will be honoured as a war hero. Harper's disrespect for soldiers was the last straw for Hillier and prompted his early retirement at the age of 53. (2)

When the first reports of detainee abuse began to get back to Canada, Harper personally controlled the spin:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office used a "6,000-mile screwdriver" to oversee the denial of reports of Afghan detainee abuse when the scandal first erupted in 2007, according to a former senior NATO public affairs official who was then based in Kabul. The former official, speaking on condition his name not be used, told the Toronto Star that Harper's office in Ottawa "scripted ad fed" the precise wording NATO officials in Kabul used to repudiate allegations of abuse "at a time when it was privately and generally acknowledged in our office that the chances of good treatment at the hands of Afghan security forces were almost zero." (3)

All press had to be vetted through the PMO. We were the only country without an independent media on the ground.

Now we learn from Rick Hillier, that Harper wants to have an even deeper involvement in military maneuvers. Hillier believes that this will put our men and women in uniform, at great risk. They will be led by bureaucrats instead of trained military personnel.

Canada's former top soldier is warning that "field marshal wannabes" are angling to take a bigger role in directing the day-to-day operations of military forces in the field. Retired general Rick Hillier says a policy paper is circulating around senior levels of the Harper government that suggests the Clerk of the Privy Council and the deputy minister of defence take a greater role to "guide" the military.

The former chief of defence staff writes, in a new postscript for the softcover edition of his memoirs, that there is a growing movement within the federal government to establish a system of micro-management that could extend from the highest reaches of Ottawa all the way down to individual combat units.

...The notion that the military needs greater guidance on how to conduct operations irked Hillier. "What crap!" Hillier writes in the new edition of A Soldier First, an advance copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press. (4)

Our dictatorship is almost complete. I guess we can next expect our government to start wearing military uniforms. We knew it was only a matter of time.

Sources:

1. A Soldier First: Bullets, Bureaucrats and the Politics of War, By Rick Hillier, Harper- Collins, 2009, ISBN-10: 1554684919

2. General Rick Hillier criticizes Stephen Harper, Lilith News, October 3, 2009

3. PMO issued instructions on denying abuse in '07: Former NATO official says response to reports was 'scripted' in Ottawa, By Mitch Potter, Washington Bureau, November 22, 2009

4. Hillier slams 'field marshal wannabes' in revised edition of his memoir, By: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press, October 11, 2010.

So What are Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay Hiding This Time?

The CBC has recently learned that Peter Mackay is once again stonewalling the committee investigating the abuse of Afghan Detainees.

Letters obtained by CBC news show that Defence Minister Peter MacKay was unwilling to waive the government's right to solicitor-client privilege when it comes to the testimony of the military's one-time senior legal adviser, despite a request for it to do so from the House of Commons special committee on Afghanistan.

Last November, retired brigadier-general Ken Watkin, a former judge advocate general of the Canadian Forces, was called to testify before the committee as it investigated the Canadian government's handling of Afghan detainees.

During his committee appearance, Watkin refused to answer several questions on what he knew about the government's detainee policies, sparking a series of heated debates with MPs.

If MacKay and Harper were really innocent in all this, you'd thing they would want to clear their names. But that's a big "if".

Is Stephen Harper Sticking it To Clement Out of Revenge?

When the Afghan Detainee issue first became news in 2009, where was Stephen Harper?

At a photo-op with the Olympic Lacrosse Team.

Despite the fact that all direction for the handling of detainees, came straight from the PMO's office, Harper left Peter Mackay to take the fall.

Day after day he was hammered in the House of Commons, and day after day, Harper was a no show.

This prompted Kennedy Stewart to wonder if Harper will let MacKay suck up Afghanistan torture poison to preserve leadership

The explosive allegations about transferred Canadian prisoners being tortured by Afghan officials and the stink of a government cover-up might initially seem detrimental to Stephen Harper. However these events might eventually prove personally advantageous to the prime minister. Harper's uncharacteristic low-key role on this issue hints he is throwing his closest rival to the wolves to fortify his leadership position.

More recently an article by Don Newman, suggesting that Tony Clement is being left to take the fall over the census debacle, makes me wonder if he's not doing the same to Clement, another rival for leadership.

Since everything in this government emanates from the prime minister's office, there is little doubt where this ideologically driven idea for census change came from. But as Statistics Canada reports to the minister of industry, almost all the messy fallout is landing at the feet of Tony Clement or, perhaps soon, on his head.

If you ask anyone who knows Stephen Harper to describe him, they will, besides saying that he is a narcissistic, evil freak of nature; would say that he is vengeful. During the leadership race against Clement, it got pretty heated.

Stephen Harper does not just forbid dissent from us. Clement should have known that.

Harper May Have to Pay for "Fake Lake" with Manna From Heaven

Despite promises to hand over unredacted documents, the Reformers are still stalling, once again skipping an important committee meeting.

As a result the opposition could hold up the funds needed to pay for Harper's Vegas style extravaganza. Let's hope they stick to their guns.

The opposition parties could hold up the millions in federal cash needed to pay for the G8 and G20 summits and a whack of other programs if the Conservative government does not bend on the release of classified documents about the Afghan mission. The NDP and Bloc Quebecois said Friday they are losing hope that the four federal parties will come to an agreement on releasing records related to the transfer of Afghan detainees by the Canadian Forces.

Without a deal, those two parties are prepared to forge ahead Monday or Tuesday with a process that could tie up the House of Commons and all its work until it rises for the summer. It is unclear how far the Liberals are willing to go. "All three of the opposition parties are quite frustrated with the government. For the last two weeks at least we don't see that there's been any significant change," NDP justice critic Joe Comartin said in an interview.

and:

The problem for the government is that once such a motion is in play, nothing other than question period can take place in the Commons. Debate on the motion can go on indefinitely, with no possibility of limiting the time. That could hold up an important vote on government's main estimates, money that goes toward paying important budgetary items including the G8 and G20.

I Hate to Say I Told You So ... But

The Globe and Mail has published an excellent article about how Stephen Harper finely crafted the messaging of Canada at war, with unprecedented media control.

The Globe and the Star have actually been fairly good at attempting to sound the alarm but few people really wanted to believe it, so for the most part they simply went along.

As a result, Canada was the only country with no independent media, only embedded journalists who wrote what they were told to write.

The Harper government used a pervasive message-control tool to persuade Canadians their foremost purpose in Afghanistan was building schools and fostering democracy rather than waging a war that was turning bloodier by the day.

An investigation by The Canadian Press shows the Conservatives systematically drafted “Message Event Proposals” as part of a quiet campaign to persuade Canadians their country was primarily engaged in development work to rebuild a shattered nation rather than hunting down and killing an emboldened insurgency.
The government used MEPs literally to script the words it wanted to hear from the mouths of its top diplomats, aid workers and cabinet ministers in 2007-2008 to divert public attention from the soaring double-digit death toll of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Harper's claim that he never got the memos about Detainee torture becomes even more suspect, because he controlled every aspect of this mission.

When Canadian soldiers brought in the usually hooded and tightly bound detainee, our military police on the spot would first inform the colonels and generals in the Kandahar mission control centre.But instead of alerting the Red Cross right away, like the Dutch and British, these commanders, following orders, sent the information to CEFCOM, the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command in Ottawa. This information would then be passed over to Defence Headquarters and to Foreign Affairs.

There have been alarms about this several times in the past but again ignored:

"What we're seeing here is a degree of control within the government, within the caucus ... that we haven't seen for a very long time .... That control extends to every corner of government.

And that whole yellow ribbon campaign was stolen from Desert Storm. Our defense minister at the time, Gordon O'Connor, came straight from the PR firm, Hill & Knowlton, to run our defense department:

Hill & Knowlton's yellow ribbon campaign to whip up support for "our" troops, which followed their orchestration of Nayirah's phony "incubator" testimony, was a public relations masterpiece. The claim that satellite photos revealed that Iraq had troops poised to strike Saudi Arabia was also fabricated by the PR firm. Hill & Knowlton was paid between $12 million (as reported two years later on "60 Minutes") and $20 million (as reported on "20/20") for "services rendered." The group fronting the money? Citizens for a Free Kuwait, a phony "human rights agency" set up and funded entirely by Kuwait's emirocracy to promote its interests in the U.S.

Be sure to read the entire Globe piece, though long. If we had learned of this years ago it might have saved lives.

Stephen Harper and a House Divided

When the Reform Party had their great electoral success in 1993, their leader Preston Manning was ready. He knew what he had to do.

Stephen Harper explains:

The Progressive Conservative party is very much comparable to the Whigs of the 1850s and 1860s. What is happening to them is very similar to the Whigs. A moderate conservative party, increasingly under stress because of the secession [Bloc] movement, on the one hand, and the reaction to that movement from harder line English Canadians on the other hand.

... But I don't use this comparison of the pre-Civil War lightly. Preston Manning, the leader of the Reform party has spent a lot of time reading about pre-Civil War politics. He compares the Reform Party himself to the Republican party of that period. He is very well-read on Abraham Lincoln and a keen follower and admirer of Lincoln. The Reform party is much closer to what you would call conservative Republican ... The Reform party is very much a modern manifestation of the Republican movement in Western Canada; the U.S. Republicans started in the western United States. The Reform Party is very resistant to the agenda and the demands of the secessionists, and on a very deep philosophical level. (1)

Manning had read every word ever written about Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President of the United States, and just as old Abe had to deal with the secessionists, so too did Manning. He donned his top hat, grabbed his cane, and with his trusty lieutenant Stephen Harper by his side, he marched up Parliament Hill.

Those secessionists wouldn't stand a chance and if it meant Civil War, so be it.

Preston Manning is not averse to raising the spectre of violence when he discusses the Quebec issue. He does not raise the possi­bility of violence often, but when he does, he does not elaborate on what he means — another use of deliberate ambiguity. He has, however, planted the seed, evoking the image of violence often enough to establish it in the public mind.

... "Such terms will be judged satisfactory if they are fair and advantageous to Canada [and] if the new relationship can be established and maintained without violence ... " No one in Canada was anticipating violence over Quebec at this time, and there was little evidence that the Meech Lake impasse was about to dominate the politics of the country. Preston Man­ning was already positioning himself as the man who would, in his own words, "call Quebec's bluff." (2)

Some of the Reformers were even demanding that the Bloc members sign oaths of allegiance. They weren't fooling around. But alas Manning never got to deliver his Ottawasberg address. Most Canadians thought he was nuts.

Changing of the Guard: Next up Stockwell Day

With Manning not getting the job done, there was a new commander of the troops, now calling themselves the Alliance Party, with Stockwell Day leading the charge. Conrad Black had hand picked him as a charismatic saviour of Canada who would unite the Right-Wing flank and do battle against the evil left and everyone else who got in their way.

Before long Black was traipsing him around to $1,000.00 a plate fund raisers and allowing Ezra Levant to host parties at his house.

But what Black may not have known was that Stockwell Day had a past, and when that past was brought to light, it looked like sure defeat. But Stocky really wanted to be prime minister, so he came up with a new battle plan. He would fraternize with the enemy. If he could form a coalition with the secessionists together they could take down the Liberals.

But then the New York Times got wind of this plan and ran with the story: Rightist Shocks Canadians By Flirting With Separatists. Boy was Conrad Black ever ticked!

''The Canadian Alliance leader needs to stop playing footsie with Quebec separatist leaders right now,'' thundered the The National Post, which has more commonly been a cheerleader for Mr. Day.

In an interview on Tuesday, Conrad Black, chairman of The National Post, said the strategy would not work. ''It makes it too easy for the Liberals to represent him as a separatist fellow traveler, ambiguous about the future of the country.''

Jason Kenney was Stocky's campaign manager and once he crawled out from under the bed, he had to come up with another plan. Not that the original one had a chance. The Bloc wanted no part of them.

"Day repeatedly journeyed to Quebec ... During August and September, Day stepped up these efforts, going even further to suggest the Alliance party welcome Quebec separatists and might even consider forming a national coalition government with the Bloc Quebecois .... But Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe said he wanted nothing to do with Day whose values (re: gay rights, abortion, youth justice) Duceppe described as "inspired by the United States..." (3)

When the story came to light in 2008, Stockwell Day denied it, suggesting that his DNA would not allow him to enter into a coalition with separatists. Another little white one because Stock's father was a member of the Western Canada Concept party, a group who wanted the Western provinces to separate from Canada. Maybe Stock just forgot.

He didn't stand a chance anyway. Most Canadians thought he was nuts.

Next Up Stephen Harper

So far Canada's Republican Party (aka: Reform, Alliance, Conservative Party of Canada) was not doing so well with the secessionists. Not for lack of trying. When the same-sex marriage bill was passed the new commander Harper cried foul, claiming that it wasn't legitimate because it was supported by separatists.

Where do they keep getting these guys, we asked?

But in 2004 Stephen Harper now had his chance to be Prime Minster, but he lost the darned election. Simply because most Canadians thought he was nuts.

Where Did I put those secessionists?

Poor Stephen Harper was devastated. But while at home licking his wounds he came up with a plan. So he called together Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc and Jack Layton of the NDP, and together they fired off a letter to the Governor General. They were going to form a coalition government and Harper was going to be an "unelected prime minister". He could hardly wait.

However, this time it was the left flank that deserted the battleground, as their leader Jack Layton had a change of heart (or came to his senses). And when Harper's coalition attempt came to light, he denied it and went on a rant about "separatists" and "socialists".



So to recap. Preston Manning ready to do battle with secessionists, force a civil war, and become the first Republican prime minister. Stockwell Day prepared to join forces with secessionists to take down the Liberals. Stephen Harper wanted same sex marriage bill defeated so plays secessionist card, but then pulls it back when he wants to play footsie with "separatists" and "socialists".

Whew! But at least after all of that, the Conservatives are finally ready to admit that the Bloc are a legitimate Canadian Party. Or at least I thought so.

Apparently they are now once again squawking, suggesting that the Bloc should not be allowed to see the documents relating to the alleged torture of Afghan Detainees, because they are separatists. AAAAARG!!!!

And they wonder why most Canadians think they're NUTS!!!!

Sources:

1. Full text of Stephen Harper's 1997 speech, Canadian Press, December 14, 2005

2. Preston Manning and the Reform Party. By: Murray Dobbin Goodread Biographies/Formac Publishing 1992 ISBN: 0-88780-161-7, pg. 218-219

3. "Bloc leader denounces Day's ideas", Edmonton Journal, August 14, 2000.

Bad News For Harper on Detainee Issue

More bad news on the detainee issue, and this time our troops may be involved.

This just keeps getting uglier.

Of course again, Mackay is sticking to his old lines and Harper is ordering more magic markers.

Give it up guys.

Chilling Afghan claims

Did Canadian troops use Afghanistan’s notorious security services as “subcontractors for abuse and torture?” That’s what the Commons committee on Afghanistan heard this week from Ahmadshah Malgarai, an Afghan-Canadian who worked as an interpreter in Kandahar.

It is the most damaging allegation yet in the Afghan detainee saga, and it challenges Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s repeated assurances that “the Canadian Forces ... have always acted responsibly.”

And: Ottawa accused of withholding military letters on detainees

The military watchdog probing Canada’s record on Afghan detainees says Ottawa has been withholding documents that go to the heart of its inquiry.

The Military Police Complaints Commission says the federal government’s refusal to release key letters written by Canadian Forces commanders raises troubling concerns about Ottawa’s approach to divulging information in this matter.

This is not going to go away no matter how much Harper hopes it will.

We Must See Our Way Forward and Start Challenging the Harper Legacy

There is a great new on-line publication and forum for progressive thought, that was shared on CAPP today. It's called 'Mayday Magazine' and they have published an excellent article "Canada on Trial', by Kevin MacKay.

As of this February 6th it will have been four years ago that Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party formed Canada’s government. Unable to win a majority in two elections, Harper and company have nonetheless been actively pursing a far-Right political agenda since gaining power, all the while wrapping themselves in the flag and presenting a tightly controlled, “compassionate conservative” facade.

We need more progressive forums and independent media sources. I'm so tired of spin. But as Mayday suggests:

The Harper agenda relies on our ignorance and passivity for its success. Let 2010 be the year we turn off our television, walk boldly into the world of the real, and send this malicious and anti-democratic government packing!

Touche!

How Dean Del Mastro Got it So Wrong

While he was on his two and half month vacation, Dean Del Mastro told his local paper that the break was not just so that his boss could sell us out in a bogus Buy America scheme, but also so that they no longer had to be asked embarrassing questions about the Afghan Detainee issue.

Yes, I'm kidding. That's what he should have said if he was into the truth, but he's just another hand puppet, so on the issue of possible complicity in torture Deano had this to say:

The Afghan detainees issue has nothing to do with the prorogation of Parliament, Del Mastro said. The opposition parties are twisting the facts on the Afghan detainees issue, he said. "The opposition is way off base on where Canadians are at on that," he said, adding it's about "potentially, alleged abuse which may have occurred between Afghans (officials) and Afghans (detainees) ... that may have been turned over by Canadian Forces."

Since Harper keeps a death grip on the media, only allowing his MPs to speak on the local level, I'm dragging them kicking and screaming into the national story. And since most of what Del Mastro had to say locally, is completely false; I thought I'd set the record straight.

Again it was not the opposition who brought this to our attention, but groups you may have heard of like our Military Police, Amnesty International, the International Red Cross, the U.S. State Department and NATO.

Now while on vacation Deano's party went into action, cutting funds to Richard Colvin and limiting the scope of the investigation, not by the opposition, but by the justice system whose job it is to make sure that the Geneva Convention is upheld.

OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs officials have been called to testify before a probe into Canada's transfer of Afghan detainees - despite a court ruling that limited the inquiry's ability to delve beyond military ranks.

The Military Police Complaints Commission has sent summonses to a total of 25 people from the Canadian Forces, National Defence and Foreign Affairs, said Nancy-Ann Walker, a spokeswoman for the commission.

And since Deano's boss fired the last person to head up the Military police inquiry, because he was getting too close to the truth, things will definitely slow down.

And he has also placed a corporate lawyer in charge of determining whether or not the 1867 Constitution of this country is now null and void. That would be the charter giving all of our elected officials full access to all government documents.

OTTAWA - The Conservative government gave a former Supreme Court justice guidelines Saturday for a review of whether MPs can see uncensored Afghan detainee documents, but critics were quick to call the decision a "stalling exercise" that wastes time and money ... "Iacobucci will provide our government with valuable advice for fulfilling our responsibilities to parliamentarians, Canadians and the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said in a news release.

... "I think this is an expensive waste of time, but it really seems to be designed to delay political consideration for a long time, well into the possibility of an election happening," NDP defence critic Jack Harris said in an interview Saturday. Paul Champ, a lawyer who represents Amnesty International, also said Iacobucci's review will only boil down to a second opinion, as government officials and lawyers would have already vetted the documents for national security concerns.

So next time Dean Del Mastro spins a story for the local paper I will be there. I promise.

IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA? IS DEAN DEL MASTRO REALLY THE BEST CHOICE FOR PETERBOROUGH?

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.

Iaccobucci Agrees That the Privileges of Parliament are Part of the Fundamental Law of Our Land

While everyone who knows about things like constitutional law and Parliamentary privilege, are stating that Parliament is the highest court in the land and that all Members of Parliament have the right to see all government documents, the Reformers have gone into full spin mode, believing they only have to win in the court of public opinion.

Not this time.

And while justice Iaccobucci has no legal authority to change our constitution, Neil Morrison at MacLeans suggests that he may not even try. He's been down that road before.

A question for Iacobucci

Interesting point about former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Frank Iacobucci, who as just been named by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to review the documents on the Afghan detainee controversy that Parliament ordered released last December. He was on the bench when the top court decided one of the most important cases dealing with the question of parliamentary privilege.

" In summary, it seems clear that, from an historical perspective, Canadian legislative bodies possess such inherent privileges as may be necessary to their proper functioning. These privileges are part of the fundamental law of our land, and hence are constitutional. The courts may determine if the privilege claimed is necessary to the capacity of the legislature to function, but have no power to review the rightness or wrongness of a particular decision made pursuant to the privilege."

Maybe the Reformers chose the wrong judge, though this is probably just to buy time. Perhaps they tried to appeal to a sitting judge, but were given answers they didn't want to hear.

According to constitutional law professor Amir Attaran, who saw the memos before they were run over by a magic marker:

"If these documents were released [in full], what they will show is that Canada partnered deliberately with the torturers in Afghanistan for the interrogation of detainees," he said. "There would be a question of rendition and a question of war crimes on the part of certain Canadian officials. That's what's in these documents, and that's why the government is covering up as hard as it can."

IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA?