Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Plan for the opposition parties when parliament resumes

Opposition Plan "B" < read me in full.

Regarding restructuring the Afghan issue committee so the Conservatives can't stop it from moving forward.
Under normal circumstances, it would be inappropriate for the opposition parties to do this. The House of Commons has always rested on principles of comity and traditions of respect in order to avoid having one political party run roughshod over another. However, I believe that these are exceptional circumstances. At common law, there is a famous maxim which states that "one who seeks equity must do equity." In light of the fact that the Prime Minsiter has suspended our democratically-elected legislature in mid-session two years in a row; in light of the government's outright defiance of a binding order of the House of Commons to release certain documents pertaining to the Afghan detainee torture scandal; in light of the Conservatives' boycott of a Parliamentary committee; and in light of Mr. Harper's contempt for the House of Commons and, by extension, the Canadian citizens it represents; in light of all of this, Mr. Harper and his government deserve no respect from the opposition and are certainly disentitled to benefits of Parliamentary comity.

...


0 comments: