The Speaker’s ruling Tuesday asserting Parliament’s supremacy over that of the government in power is a much-needed reality check for Stephen Harper, one of the most controlling and autocratic prime minsters in Canada’s history.
Speaker Peter Milliken released a historic decision Tuesday afternoon in the House of Commons, stating that the will of Parliament as a whole exceeded the authority of the executive branch — the cabinet. The ruling came after members of Parliament had asked the government to tender all documents relevant to the Afghan detainee investigation and that those documents be delivered uncensored. When the Conservatives at first refused, then dumped piles of redacted documents onto the tables in the House, the MPs moved to hold the government in contempt. It was Milliken’s job to hear arguments from both sides, research centuries of common law and Parliamentary decision and decide who was the ultimate authority — Parliament or the Conservative cabinet. In a decision that should inspire voters across the country, Milliken upheld the joint houses of the Commons and Senate as superior, a nod to the very root of the Parliamentary system — that it is the people, not the institution, that has the power.
For Harper it is a massive blow to a government he controls from top to bottom. While all four parties now have two weeks to figure out a compromise or vote on holding the government in contempt, which would mean an election, the prime minister is the big loser in this debate. This is no minor slap on the fingers. This is an assertion that no matter how much he tries to control the message and the agenda, Parliament as a whole will always be more powerful than his office.
This is the prime minister, after all, that restricted press access to himself and his ministers, handpicking those reporters he felt best conveyed his spin on any issue for private briefings, one of which took place in a hotel room near midnight that uninvited media found out about. This is the prime minister who has prorogued Parliament twice, once to avoid a hearing into the Afghan detainee scandal that is the subject of Milliken’s ruling. This is also the prime minister who passed a law requiring fixed election dates then broke it by calling for an election before the first scheduled one.
Parliament’s model exists to keep people exactly like Harper in check by calling witnesses, ordering documents and holding the government to account. A ruling on the side of the Conservatives would have been approval of secrecy, control and power from an already too-powerful Prime Minister’s Office. Instead the role of both the House of Commons and the Senate has been reaffirmed and even celebrated. More to the point, it is validation that the voice of every voter counts and is fundamentally more powerful than the leader of the party who wins the most seats. It is an inspirational decision at a time when voter turnout has been in strong decline because of a sense of indifference and cynicism.
But most importantly, Tuesday’s decision reaffirms Canada’s central authority. Checks on power are important in a democracy and there is no stronger mechanism than what we have in our Parliament.
