Liberals cave "like spineless jellyfish"

"The Liberals are going to pretend that they're not caving like spineless jellyfish"

was Kady's description of the two Libs on the Ethics Committee, Wayne Easter and Carolyn Bennett, who declined yesterday to vote for an NDP/Bloc motion upholding the supremacy of parliament over the whims and contempt for parliament favoured by the Cons. Instead the Libs opted for a "study" by the Procedures Committee to be tabled some time before March 31, 2011.

Particularly galling is the fact that Easter has led the charge in this committee since May for the right of committees, as the extension of Parliament, to call what witnesses they require for their investigations. But when it came to the actual vote on it, Easter totally caved :

"Do we push this motion through to Parliament and have the Speaker rule, as has happened on the Afghanistan affair?"

No, he explained, because he didn't want to "provoke further animosity" or "inflame this issue."

"I think we here on our side, the Liberals, are willing to try one more time to see if there is good will on the part of the government to make the system work and allow committees to function as they are supposed to be able to."

and then he opted to give them till March of next year to come up with that goodwill.

"What," asked NDP Bill Siksay who tabled the motion, "will happen to all the other committees now?"
Indeed.

The Ethics Committee membership is a Con chair plus 5 Cons, 3 Libs, 2 Bloc, and 1 NDP.
The Proc. Committee has exactly the same balance of membership so it's quite possible come March that we will see a further demonstration of Con/Lib coalition solidarity for contempt of Parliament.
.
The G&M waxes ludicrous on the notion that a motion in the House in support of the supremacy of parliament would immediately lead to an election.

Far better : Eugene Forsey Liberal, Dr. Dawg, Pogge, Jurist, Boris.
.

Iggy and ... not Steve?

.

Well who the hell knows? Happy Groundhog Day.

The Star :

"The Liberals will no longer help prop up Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, paving the way for a fall election if the other opposition parties also vote no confidence in the Conservatives.
"Mr. Harper, your time is up," Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said in a speech to troops today. "The Liberal party cannot support this government any further."

Meanwhile Steve actually muttered darkly about "bad things happening to this country if there's an election", while NDP MP Thomas Mulcair hinted the NDP might support the Cons "if Stephen Harper comes into Parliament with a willingness to work in the public interest, then we're going to take it on a case-by-case basis. Our caucus will decide."

Wankers.

.

Reasons to have an election :

The war on Afghanistan, the Cadman tapes, the in and out scheme, attacks on Canadian wheat board, Naftagate, dirty tricks manual, dissing Kyoto accord, gutting public service, cancelling Court Challenges Act, Omar Khadr, Toronto 18/Paintball 11, nuclear watchdog fired, listeriosis mismanagement, C-484, AIDs conference snub, arts and culture funding cuts, Status of Women gutted, war resistors deported, war branding for Olympics, softwood lumber deal, attack on Insite, cuts to mad cow testing, NorthComm pact, deregulating Canada Post, two-tier healthcare push, Abdelrazik, tar sands, ethanol grants to agribiz, extraordinary rendition, Afghan prisoners tortured, refusal to protect lakes, Lougheed Martin census, obstructing HoC committees, conditions on FN reserves, mail-outs from defeated Con candidates, rewriting/deleting research on government websites, Colombia free trade deal, Canada First - not, copycat crime bill, militarization of arctic, Bill C-537, Bill C-10, NACC, Server in the Sky, Canada-Israel homeland security pact, government scientists muzzled/fired, support for Guantanamo, RCMP whitewash, TILMA, Chalk River, no-fly list, biometric passports, CIA access to banking records, Benamar Benatta, North American Forum, red fridays, Bali conference, Commonwealth climate change talks, undermining nuclear disarmament, Question Period a shambles, Independent Panel on Canada's Mission in Afghanistan, war on drugs, lowering pesticide standards, Montebello, deep integration meeting in Banff, "staying the course" in Haiti, DND funding in universities, 600 Canadian companies gone to foreign ownership, support for Wolfowitz at World Bank, Smart Borders, dissing Louise Arbor, P-3 security forces in Afghanistan, attacks on Dion for having a French mother, faking up law and order hysteria, nukes in the tarsands, Accountability Act, UN vote against Palestinian women, Suaad Mohamud, stacking the Senate, dead wrong on economy, Adult Learning and Literacy Program - eliminated, Health Canada- $28M reduction, Medical Marijuana Research Program- eliminated, Law Commission of Canada - eliminated, Museum Assistance Program - funding cut, One Tonne Challenge - 40% budget cut, Stats Can- budget reduced, Status of Women policy research and lobbying - banned, CMHC - funding reduction, Canadian Heritage Centre - eliminated, Canadian Volunteerism Initiative - eliminated, Canadian Labour Business Centre - eliminated, Canadian Policy Research Network - eliminated, Community Access Program - eliminated, privatization of airline safety, sale of federal buildings, isotope "crisis", GHG "intensity targets", Clean Air Act, reversals on aid to Africa, blocking access to public documents, revolving door between Con polis and industry front groups, tacit support for coup in Honduras, prominence of Mike Harris MPs in Harper cabinet, muzzling Con MPs and candidates, gutting the CBC, rewriting foreign policy by banning certain words, and enthusiastic and unstinting support for deep integration with the US.

.

Iggy and Steve : E - I - E - I - No

Liberals say they're in no rush to force fall election

"We're not having an election on EI," said Senator David Smith. ``I don't hear Canadians clamouring for an election on this issue."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff agreed to strike the panel [on Employment Insurance] last June as part of an eleventh-hour deal to avert a summer election.

Oh hell, let's just go with the Jurist's shorter :

"So it turns out that our last set of confidence threats involved an issue that we don't think matters enough to be worth an election. But that's just as well, since we've been doing a lousy job of laying the groundwork for one anyway."

Yo! Iggy! 101 Reasons to Have an Election

.

Iggy and Steve - Standing up for Canadians

.
On her way back to Canada over two months ago, 31 year old Toronto single mother Suaad Hagi Mohamud got stopped at the Nairobi airport because they said her four year old Canadian passport picture didn't look enough like her : her lips were thinner. Charged with identity fraud, she went to jail for eight days and has been stranded in a motel awaiting trial ever since.

The High Commission of Canada in Nairobi sent a letter to Kenyan officials on May 28 that stated, "Please be advised that we have carried out conclusive investigations, including an interview, and have confirmed that the person brought to the Canadian High Commission on suspicion of being an impostor is not the rightful holder of the aforementioned Canadian passport."

After she showed a dozen Canadian ID cards, spent weeks persuading Canadian consular officials to take her fingerprints and won a federal court action to have them take her DNA, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said she wasn't doing enough. "The individual has to be straightforward, has to let us know whether or not she is a Canadian citizen," Cannon told media after the federal court decision.

Nice one, Larry. She has to take the Canadian government to court to be permitted to prove her identity but you say she's not doing enough?

I've got a test you can try, Mr. Cannon. It just requires a webcam.

"Hey, 12 year old kid in Toronto, is this your mom?"

"Hey, ATS, is this the woman who currently works at your company as a supervisor ?"

.

Travelling abroad while brown - no longer recommended for Canadians.

And my apologies if I'm wrong, but I don't believe we've heard word one from human rights expert Michael Ignatieff about this.

h/t Dr. Dawg

.

Update : Suaad Hagi Mohamud - Vindicated by DNA test.

Will Lawrence Cannon, the Canadian consular services in Kenya, and Foreign Affairs Consular Services and Emergency Management Branch be held to account?

On two occasions, federal officials in Canada appeared to suggest Mohamud had switched identities with a sister. She has four half-sisters by the same father.

Yeah, the closest one to her age being 15 years older and living in Europe.

As with Arar and Abdelrazik, "rumours" are floated by "officials" in Canada to discredit the person abandoned by their government. It's appalling the government has to be taken to court to do its duty by Canadians. Utterly appalling.

.

Aug 15 Update : Iggy speaks!

.