The Truth Will Out. Oh Wait, No It Won't

'No aspect of responsible government is more fundamental than having the trust of citizens. Canadians' faith in the institutions and practices of government has been eroded. This new government trusts in the Canadian people, and its goal is that Canadians will once again trust in their government. It is time for accountability.'
~Speech from the Throne, 2006

The Conservative Party of Canada, in Stephen Harper's name, has dropped its lawsuit against the Liberal Party.

The main issue of the suit was that the Liberals accused Harper of knowing of an attempt to bribe dying Member of Parliament Chuck Cadman prior to a vote of confidence that could have seen Harper's first minority tumble. They have a tape, given to writer Tom Zytaruk, that indicates Harper knew and approved of the bribe attempt.

One can see this a few different ways:

1) The parties decided the issues weren't sufficiently important to warrant a long, drawn-out legal slugfest.

Cheah, right. This is Harper we're talking about, the boy-man who, when it looked like he might lose his minority on the floor of Parliament, decided to #^$% over the whole country by shutting Parliament down. No way he'd take his teeth out of a Liberal Party leg without ripping it off and beating someone with it.

2) The Liberal party made some kind of back-room deal with Harper to prevent a tampered tape from seeing the light of day.

This is the favoured theory of most Tory supporters and Albertans (sorry, I repeated myself there).

However, it usefully neglects the fact that Harper's own expert testified that the important bits of the tape--the ones in which Harper admits to bribing a dying cancer patient--were genuine (though a later part of the tape which is not under discussion may have been added later).

So we come to theory 3)

Harper ditched the suit to hide his involvement.

And this is the theory that fits the pattern best. Canada's most secretive PM has a history of shutting down Parliaments: the first time he called an election to prevent the Parliamentary Comittees from dragging the veil of secrecy off of his doings, the second time was just a few weeks ago--when it looked as though he might lose his minority government for being the extraordinarily mean and petty person he is. The rule seems to be that if it'll make the Refor--sorry, the Allia--sorry, the Conservative Party look bad, shut it down! He fired Canada's nuclear watchdog for those reasons. He got rid of the Science Advisor for that reason (and replaced him with a panel of industry wonks) ... the list goes on.

Harper is a noteably mean and petty man. And I'd worry about him suing me for writing that, except that there's one thing he dislikes more than Canada. That's the truth.

It is no coinkydink that Mr H. dumped the suit when a hearing was coming up which probably would have forced His Harpiness to disclose his notes for and from the meeting, and probably included Chuck Cadman's own journals as well.

Apparently Harper feels that this would not have been in his best interests. And now we'll never know.

That's our Refor--sorry I mean Allia--sorry, Conservative Party of Canada, Open, honest, and accountable*.



*Subject to availability of openness, honesty, accountability. Offer not valid when any of those three principles might make the Conservative Party of Canada look like a bunch of unprincipled right-wing $#17s.