Playing Politics with Canadian Lives

The anti-terror laws die Thursday. Yesterday in the Commons, Stephen Harper offered a compromise, but Dion has stubbornly refused to consider it.

Unfortunately, this very important issue has spiraled out of control and become some sort of political showdown.

I hope to have an more extensive commentary later, but let's start with Don Martin's column, "Not all Liberals will enjoy the kill":

...Opposition parties argued yesterday that these emergency powers are too radical for rights sensitive Canadians, yet in the next breath insisted they merely duplicate measures available elsewhere in the Criminal Code...

(. . . )

And the Conservatives have signalled an unusual willingness to bend on the extension, offering to settle for a six-month extension with a promise to study changes to the law until the fall sitting.

Liberal MP Ralph Goodale, whose righteous indignation knows no blustery bounds, is having none of it. The way he argues it, the political atmosphere in Ottawa has been so poisoned that the Conservatives cannot be trusted to keep their word.

Gosh. If it wasn't so wretchedly costly and doomed to recreate another minority Parliament, an election could almost be justified to euthanize a House of Commons slowly spiralling into bickering paralysis.

He also suggests that MP Navdeep Bains should abstain from the vote, which is what I have been saying for the last few days, and which I suspect was what was partially behind Kim Bolan's weekend revelation:

"Liberal MP Navdeep Bains should be a tad squeamish as well. Mr. Bains was the MP Prime Minister Stephen Harper inferred had influenced the Liberal's position because his father-in-law might appear at an investigative hearing on the Air India bombing. As such, Mr. Bains is clearly in a conflict of interest and should abstain from voting."

I fault both sides for this impasse. More to follow.


Also please check out:

Paul Jackson - Grit Record Terror-ible.

Dr. Roy - Dion unwilling to compromise.

Jonathan Kay - National security vs. Liberal ethno-politics. Very interesting!

Excellent post by Sandy (Crux of the matter) - Alice & Liberal Friends in Wonderland.

Kim Bolan - Air India Probe Crippled if MPs Kill Key Part of Anti-Terror Law.

* * * *

Update - Personal Comment: I suppose the only thing I would like to add to this post is that I agree with the Blonde Conservative - It may indeed be time to pull the plug on this acrimonious session of Parliament and put us all out of our misery.

Things are not just at an impasse; they are moving in the direction of threatening the safety and economy of the country, by means of an unofficial coalition of opposition parties promoting an extreme left-wing agenda.

This Parliament is not getting things done for Canadians. All parties appear to be just out for themselves. The Conservatives seem most interested in preserving the integrity of the country, but I am getting fed up with the whole lot of them in Ottawa.

But what would we replace it with? More of the same?