RON MACLEAN
Welcome to House of Commons Night in Canada. We're back after the Parliamentary Lockout. I'm Ron Maclean here with Don Cherry. Grapes, we've had a lukewarm Throne Speech coming on the end of the Olympics and after the furor of prorogation without reasons. How do you see things now?
DON CHERRY
Yeah, I'm surprised I'm still alive and can see anything. It was death by a thousand heart attacks. I'm not sure whether Crosby or Luongo was more life threatening.
RON MACLEAN
The Prime Minister survived the game though, taking it in with Wayne Gretzky.
DON CHERRY
I didn't notice, I was trying to find new places to put a nitroglycerine patch.
RON MACLEAN
And now the House is back in session, and the government has announced it's appointing retired Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci to advise it on the release of information on prisoners to the Special Parliamentary Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan.
DON CHERRY
After the Olympics, this is like watching paint dry in the slow motion replay.
RON MACLEAN
That's why we have to pay attention. So the Commons has resumed, we've had the Throne Speech and the Budget, but the problem with the government coughing up documents about the Afghan prisoner transfers seems to have gone off the road...
DON CHERRY
Yeah, Harper drove it into the ditch.
RON MACLEAN
So, just so we're all on the same page here, Derek Lee, Member of Parliament for Scarborough-Rouge Valley and a lawyer, expert on parliamentary procedure...
DON CHERRY
...yeah, who literally wrote the book on parliamentary privilege and the production of documents...
RON MACLEAN
He was gonna get in a quick motion on a point of order, but it doesn't seem like it happened. I know you're a fan of Derek Lee...
DON CHERRY
...a huge fan...
RON MACLEAN
So fill us in, where are we at with that?
DON CHERRY
The trouble was, Derek didn't want to force Harper into a corner where he's gonna call a snap election. Nobody wanted that, so he's making a point of not getting in the way of House business like the Budget. But he's still steaming in the background.
RON MACLEAN
So I read that Norman Spector thinks Derek Lee is being "arcane" getting bent of shape about Parliament's right to order the government to produce documents.
DON CHERRY
What's "arcane" mean?
RON MACLEAN
Nobody knows about it.
DON CHERRY
Yeah, what that means is Spector doesn't know about it. I'm not so sure Spector's heard of habeus corpus never mind the Magna Carta.
RON MACLEAN
So you think he's wrong?
DON CHERRY
Wrong? He's out to lunch. But that's normal for him. All I'm saying is if you think the Crown can defy Parliament you're a few centuries behind.
RON MACLEAN
Which brings us to the present where the government has appointed retired Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci to help it review documents before release to the Commons for "national security". Have you got anything to say about that?
DON CHERRY
I got a lot to say about that. First thing is, who is Iacobucci these days? He's not a Justice of the Supreme Court, he's a hired gun for Torys, the la-de-dah law firm. That's not to say the government couldn't appoint him as a Commissioner under the Inquiries Act, like they did for the Iacobucci Inquiry...
RON MACLEAN
Is that the same Iacobucci?
DON CHERRY
How many Iacobuccis do you know in the law business? Yeah, of course it's the same Frank Iacobucci, a boy from BC, who did the inquiry "into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmed Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin".
RON MACLEAN
...but the supplemental report, just released, criticized CSIS...
DON CHERRY
Yeah, and that's my second beef with Iacobucci, he was appointed a Commissioner under Part 1 of the Inquiries Act, called "Public Inquiries" and then meekly followed the government's instruction to hold the public inquiry in private. You can't have it both ways.
RON MACLEAN
But the report was made public.
DON CHERRY
So what? Nobody knows what went on behind closed doors. Justice O'Connor had the Maher Arar inquiry almost all in public, and fought to make almost everything public that the government tried to suppress. Now they're hiring this guy who can't tell the difference between public and private to "advise" it in some unknown capacity on "national security".
RON MACLEAN
What's wrong with that?
DON CHERRY
It's another weasel move, that's what's wrong with it! When the going gets tough, Harper gets weasels.
RON MACLEAN
You're not saying the government doesn't have the right to get expert advice?
DON CHERRY
The government's already got expert advice coming out its ears! There's a zillion people already advising the government about this stuff, and the government already concluded that it couldn't release any information to the Military Police Complaints Commission, which is filled with guys whose national security clearances are as good or better than Iacobucci's.
RON MACLEAN
So you're saying the government is stalling?
DON CHERRY
Absolutely!
RON MACLEAN
But let me play the devil's advocate...
DON CHERRY
When were you anything else?
RON MACLEAN
..and ask what's in it for the government? Why would they take this approach unless they're genuinely worried about national security?
DON CHERRY
You're asking me for my opinion?
RON MACLEAN
Hard to believe, isn't it?
DON CHERRY
So, I'm gonna tell you.
RON MACLEAN
I'm thrilled.
DON CHERRY
There's three things. First is, Harper has this Howard Hughes complex - he thinks he's the head of a private corporation and it's none of anybody's business how he runs it.
RON MACLEAN
He'll have to grow his hair a little wilder.
DON CHERRY
You're just jealous. Second is, the government is really trying to hide something. Something went very, very wrong at National Defence in 2006 and 2007, but I don't think this government really had anything to do with it, other than not being honest about it.
RON MACLEAN
Then why try to hide it?
DON CHERRY
Good question. My guess is that a judicial inquiry - and this is Canada, folks, there will be a judicial inquiry - will make everybody look bad, especially the previous Liberal government. And let's not forget, this isn't new. The Somalia Inquiry, conducted in public by a retired Federal Court Judge, came to the conclusion that something was wrong at the highest levels of National Defence, and that it hadn't been fixed. I brought it here so I can read it right.
RON MACLEAN
That doesn't sound like you at all.
DON CHERRY
"We can only hope that Somalia represents the nadir of the fortunes of the Canadian Forces. There seems to be little room to slide lower. One thing is certain, however: left uncorrected, the problems that surfaced in the desert in Somalia and in the boardrooms at National Defence Headquarters will continue to spawn military ignominy. The victim will be Canada and its international reputation."
RON MACLEAN
And the third thing?
DON CHERRY
Third thing is, when the truth comes out, the mud will stick to everybody who had anything to do with government in the last 10 years. Harper will never get a majority. He's hoping to put off the truth until he does get a majority, and then he can bury it.
RON MACLEAN
What are his chances?
DON CHERRY
Zero.
RON MACLEAN
Yeah, well I thought you said Canada was going to win the gold medal game 5-3.
DON CHERRY
Me and my big mouth. I still think Luongo was just trying to kill me with a heart attack.
RON MACLEAN
Is that why your suit has pictures of Roberto Luongo and Canadian flags all over it?
DON CHERRY
You know how Crosby's stick went missing?
RON MACLEAN
You're saying you know something about it?
DON CHERRY
Check out those guys in blue jackets after the game, picking up the equipment. One of them is wearing sunglasses and a tie.
RON MACLEAN
A tie with the Charter printed on it?
DON CHERRY
I'm only saying, a guy with my persona, I have to travel incognito.
RON MACLEAN
Don, it's not possible for you to be incognito, like you won't be next time we're here on House of Commons Night in Canada.
