Sunday, December 02, 2007

If you only read one editorial this weekend...

...then make it Angelo Persichilli - A Sad Canadian Circus.


...Schreiber had no right to be in the committee room on Parliament Hill because the alleged case of corruption, as it happens in any democratic country, should be handled by police and courts.

Politicians are the legislators, while the judicial system has to administer the law and police should enforce it.

Unfortunately, this area of competence in Canada has been obliterated by incompetence, political interests and accusations of corruption.

We have courts telling Parliament how to write laws. And, this week, Parliament has taken over the judicial system telling judges when and if someone can be extradited...

8 comments:

Skinny Dipper said...

Even before I read Angelo Persichilli's column, I didn't think that parliament was the best forum to deal with any situation that possibly involved Schreiber and Mulroney (and possibly Harper). A judicial court would be a better place to deal with this matter.

I was not a fan of Mulroney and I'm not a fond of Harper's autocratic style even if it might work for him. I don't think this week's committee hearing is meant to get to the bottom of Scheiber's possible dealings with the former prime minister. Its purpose is to embarass the current government through association with the Conservative former prime minister, Brian Mulroney.

I would have had Schreiber on Lufthansa to Germany with the possibility of requesting Germany to bring him back to Canada for any judicial proceding. If he should refuse to talk, that will be his problem--not Canada's.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

SK - I agree with you 100%. This committee is all about politics and nothing else. As such it is self-serving, and worse than that, it is making a mockery of our institutions as Persichilli so eloquently explains.

Tony said...

SK, you made some excellent points. Last week the parliamentary ethics committee looked like a bunch of clowns on puppet strings being operated by Schreiber. Our judicial process is clearly a joke and our country is now the laughing stock among the other industrialized nations.

I would like to see him sent back to Germany, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon. He will apparently be before the parliamentary ethics committee again on Tuesday, so it will be interesting what more he will have to say. My bet is that it will not be anything that we have not heard before.

Anonymous said...

"I would have had Schreiber on Lufthansa to Germany with the possibility of requesting Germany to bring him back to Canada for any judicial proceding."

Logically, that is what should have happened. However, there have already been accusations made that the government, especially Justice Minister Nicholson, who once served as a parliamentary secretary during Mulroney's term, wants Schreiber gone because the government is trying to cover up something or other.
The usual damned if you do, damned if you don't.

This entire farce is not about justice or condemning corruption, this is about embarrassing the current government at any cost so that the Liberals can get back into power.

And all those people out there who are pointing fingers at Mulroney for accepting a cash payment for undetermined services and who also wonder whether Mulroney paid the GST on the amount - I wonder how many of THEM have hired someone "under the table" to do a little bit of work around their house. How many of those critics have accepted to pay cash for work done if the price was lowered?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the article Joanne, it wasn't in the Winnipeg Sun. I busted a gut when Dion said this whole affair wasn't a gift from the political gods. He now has Eddie Greenspan dissing Harper and Co. on prime time and he is apparently taking the high road... whatever..

Anonymous said...

What kills me is Dion's new stance on the inquiry. Wasn't he blathering on and on and on, insisting that an inquiry was necessary?

Now it seems that both he and the Liberals are backing off.

What is it THEY don't want us to see?

Joanne (True Blue) said...

What is it THEY don't want us to see?

Exactly. It definitely has the makings of an out-of-control Pandora's box.

Anonymous said...

You guys are too much!

Hahahaha!