It appears that only an election and either a successive minority or total defeat will deter the Conservative cabinet from accepting the fact that Parliament, not the cabinet, is the most powerful organ of government and that Stephen Harper and his crew are beholden to it.
How else does one explain the repeated examples of the Tories’ refusal to comply with requests from Parliament and its subsequent committees? While the latest crisis might well have been averted by a Liberal party too squeamish and unfocused to risk a trip to the polls, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Harper government will stop at nothing to try and run — or run from — Parliament, and subsequently the voters.
In the most recent example, Harper and his cabinet informed the Commons Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee earlier this year that political staffers will no longer be allowed to testify before it and that only the ministers responsible for them will do so. This showdown is all linked to former staffer Sebastien Togneri and his attempts to interfere with information requested through Access to Information Act. Though Togneri appeared before the committee once, the session went so disastrously that the government decided no more staffers will appear.
It was Togneri who set off the ongoing problem in the first place when he admittedly ordered a bureaucrat to “unsend” a package of information headed to The Canadian Press. While he testified that was the only time he interfered in an Access to Information request, The Canadian Press later learned of four total instances in which he has done so. Two other political staffers have also been implicated. Such political employees are not permitted to interfere with such requests.
It appeared for a time as if the cabinet was heading for another showdown with Parliament through House Speaker Peter Milliken over the supremacy of both the House of Commons and Senate over the executive branch. Committees are by law allowed to conduct “unhampered investigations.” Referring the matter to the Speaker could have again led to a ruling reasserting Parliament’s powers, which could have also meant finding the government in contempt and subsequently launched an election.
Canadians faced that same prospect earlier this year when Milliken was asked to rule on Parliament’s ability to request uncensored documents relating to the Afghan detainee scandal from the government. The Speaker found the will of Parliament carried more weight than the wishes of the cabinet. An ad hoc committee was put together to permit other parties to examine the documents.
Given the Liberals have once again shown they are not, in any sense of the word, a government-in-waiting by referring the Togneri matter to another committee to develop rules about political staff testimony, it is unlikely the Speaker will be forced again to rule on a delicate situation. But what becomes increasingly clear is that Harper and his ministers will resort to whatever tactic they can muster to avoid having to have anyone connected with their government answer to Parliament for alleged and real transgressions through its committees. These are, after all, political staff members, not senior bureaucrats. They serve their ministers first and foremost, not the country as a whole.
Parliament is only as powerful as the people within it. It’s a shame our government appears to be the weakest part.
