Most of us who are up and around and breathing have been following the famous "not" document. In December 2010 CIDA’s senior officials signed a memorandum recommending new funding for KAIROS before someone overruled the recommendation by inserting the word "not"into the memorandum. Perhaps it was Bev Oda - she says not - or perhaps by someone else. Hard to tell actually. Speculation was/is that She thought long and hard, signed the document then Harper and his right wing buddies decided to trash KAIROS and something had to be done to over ride her approval. Who know what really happened.
House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken concluded today that when reaponding to the matter, She mislead parliament. It is that pesky "whole truth" thing that catches them up. Bev Oda breached Parliamentary rules. For all intents and purposes, he said Oda has been found in contempt of Parliament, a serious charge for any MP but particularly for a cabinet minister. It is too bad actually, I always thought Bev Oda was amound the best of a bad bunch. In differant circumstances one might say"She was a good person but unfortunately she fell in with a bad crowd."
The "Harper Government" trundled out my MP Tom Lukiwski today,of all people, to try and explain the whole matter. Bad move Stephen Tom has no credibility, even down home on the farm. He did manage to get all the parliamentary reporters scratching their heads and twittering about it though.
Lukiwski said the document with the "not" inserted was meant only to communicate the minister’s decision. That it wasn’t intended to be made public - Well guaranteed he was telling the truth about that, They never wanted it public.
Milliken also ruled that the government failed to respond appropriately to requests made in the House of Commons for the full cost of the government's justice legislation - we can't forget tough on crime now - a failure that puts the government as a whole in breach of Parliamentary rules and in contempt of the House of Commons.
I think Little Stevie's "Harper Government" is trolling for an election. Trying to goad Iggy, Jack and Gilles to force one. Steve thinks Canadians don't care how dishonest his bunch are. He may be right.
