Editor:
Well, you've got to give the man full points for his communications skills. Instead of last year's hoopla of a full, limousine progress for what is a short walk down to Rideau Hall to request an extraordinary "time out" on what was then a newly elected Parliament, this time Stephen Harper placed a well-timed phone call and had his press secretary make the announcement.
Harper could be pretty certain that the news of prorogation would be hidden somewhere under the headlines of five Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, the news of the Canadian hockey team selection, and under the substantial twilight cover of upcoming New Year's Eve celebrations. The trick, you see, is to make this kind of extraordinary, even unprecedented action seem like the most ordinary thing in the world. Bury it.
Thankfully, Canadians have decided to dig the issue back out and give it some pretty close inspection.
Firstly, let's be clear about one thing: this is not a partisan issue. This is not about Liberal versus Conservative. This is about democracy -- and one man's extraordinary grasp for power.
Canadians woke up to a new year to learn that the prime minister had -- for the fourth time in just three years -- simply shut down Parliament in order to get himself and his government out of a tight spot. The purpose of prorogation is to take a parliamentary break after concluding a program of business -- usually when the goals of the session's throne speech have been accomplished. Last year, Mr. Harper prorogued a newly elected, duly elected Parliament immediately after the throne speech, and before passing a single bill. It was a naked, desperate act to save his own skin.
This time, after insisting that a November-December election was unwise, since this was "no time for a break", Mr. Harper prorogues in December, calmly announcing that it is "a good time for a break". The reality is that proroguing parliament means that 35 bills will die on the table.
Let's face it. Canadians have cut Mr. Harper a lot of slack while he learned on-the-job. What we're seeing -- after four years of minority government -- are some serious flaws.
Mr. Harper-- and his right-hand man Peter MacKay -- were in a very tight spot. This wasn't parliamentary hysteria; you couldn't make this up for a Hollywood whodunit. It seems crystal clear that key members of our government turned a blind eye to torture, colluded to cover it up, lied about their knowledge of it when confronted, and tried to shred the character of a decent man who tried to bring the issue to light.
When Parliament demanded to see the heavily redacted documents relating to the case, the prime minister dared Parliament to take him to court. Probably knowing how that would end, in the dying hours of the decade, he had a better idea: he simply pulled the plug on Parliament, shuttered the government and closed down the committee.
What's important here isn't prorogation. It isn't the Afghan detainee scandal, it isn't the black eye that Canada has suffered over broken treaties and shoddy diplomacy. What's important is that we are witnessing an unprecedented grasp for power. We have a prime minister who is willing to abuse the traditions of the parliamentary system in order to avoid accountability. We have a government that is shrouded in secrecy: the least transparent, least accountable government in memory.
I had a long conversation with a very hard-working and widely admired senator last summer. She shook her head, and told me that Canadians have "no idea" what's happened to committee work in Ottawa since the Conservatives took power. Party members were given what was dubbed a "dirty tricks" handbook to teach them how to disrupt committee work -- to constrain any opposition, or discussion that did not fully support Mr. Harper's position. If a committee member raised an uncomfortable issue, for example, the Conservative chair would simply get up and leave the table -- effectively breaking quorum. This fall, Conservative members simply stopped showing up to the parliamentary committee looking into the Afghan detainee crisis. "Committee work in both Houses," my senator friend told me, "has basically ground to a halt."
In defending his decision to prorogue, Mr. Harper noted, effectively, that Parliament was getting in the way of his government's agenda. The proper role of government, of course, is to enact the will of Parliament . . . not the other way around.
A recent issue ofThe Economist takes square aim at Harper and his annual prorogation game:
"The danger in allowing the prime minister to end discussion any time he chooses is that it makes Parliament accountable to him rather than the other way around."
But here's one of the best quotes to emerge:
"When a government starts trying to cancel dissent, or avoid dissent, is frankly when it's rapidly losing its moral authority to govern."
That quote is from April 18, 2005. The speaker was Stephen Harper.
Kimberley Love
Kimberley Love is the Federal Liberal Candidate for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound.
