On questionable motives

Following up on my earlier post, it's now official: with a "pass" that deserves to live in infamy, the Libs have effectively eliminated any chance of holding the Cons to account for declaring their desire for secrecy to override Parliamentary supremacy. But I have to wonder whether the commentary so far is accurate in its assessment of the Libs' motives.

Granted, the move is consistent with the Libs' track record of rolling over every time they're pressed by the Cons. And that probably explains why words like "spineless jellyfish" and "meaningless empty puppets" are being tossed around.

But this time, they never actually faced any particular pressure from outside forces. They're in a better relative position in the polls than they've been for some time, meaning that they have less reason to fear an election than usual. And the Cons didn't even bother saying much of anything about either Bill Siksay's motion or the Libs' delay tactic.

Yet despite the fact that nobody was actually testing for any trace of a backbone, the Libs nonetheless chose on their own to make it harder for Parliament to hold a secretive executive to account.

Now, that might simply be a matter of force of habit. But might it instead be a matter of the Libs counting their own electoral chickens before they're hatched, and figuring that the ability to shield political staffers from democratic accountability might might prove useful in some future stay in government?

Not this again

The fact that the NDP is pushing to have the Cons held accountable for declaring their political staffers above the law is a definite plus. But the Globe and Mail has apparently been drawn into the Cons' spin on the matter once again, with the result being a threat against any vote to keep the Harper government in check:

If Mr. Milliken were to find that privilege had been breached, and the House of Commons then declared the government to be in contempt of Parliament, an election would likely result.

As in the case of Afghan detainee documents, there's precisely zero indication that the NDP is looking to make any privilege or contempt motion a matter of confidence. Which means that the only one way an election could result from a contempt motion would be if the Cons continue to make the wholly unfounded claim that the only check or balance in Canada's democratic system is a trip to the polls, and decide to call an election themselves in response to a vote not intended to provoke one.

In other words, there's absolutely no reason to see a process intended to do nothing more than secure accountability from the current government as necessitating an election. And if the Cons do want to engage in their usual threats in the absence of any reason to do so, then once again they should be the ones to bear responsibility for that choice.

Meanwhile, there's another common thread with the detainee issue, as the Libs are apparently eager to give the Cons both the delay and the substantive result they're after:

Earlier in the day, the Commons Procedures and House Affairs committee will debate a motion by Liberal MP Yasmin Ratansi to “begin a study to develop guidelines for the appearance of exempt staff and staff of parliamentary secretaries as witnesses before Parliamentary committees.”

If that motion passes, the Liberals may argue there is no need to support Mr. Siksay’s proposal.

Now, it's worth remembering that the status quo involves the Cons putting in place an edict that they can trump Parliamentary supremacy at will. So any agreement to delay and study will serve only to give the Cons everything they want in the meantime - while the Cons can be counted on both to drag out the committee study as long as possible, and to do everything in their power to stand in the way of any reasonable outcome.

But there's no reason why an open-ended study on possible guidelines which could be applied by committees in the future would do anything to affect the validity of their past votes and orders. So at most, Ratansi's proposal should be seen as complementing the opposition's previous stands on the ability to call witnesses - not as overriding or negating them.

Unfortunately, though, it looks like the fix may be in among both the Libs and the press to once again give Harper everything he's after. And while it's worth the NDP's time and effort to at least force them to defend that position, it's hard to be optimistic about the outcome.