The Star's Tonda McCharles reports that the Conservatives are changing tack in the torture scandal. "It is our understanding that other current and former DFAIT employees will be testifying before the Parliamentary Committee. Their testimony will provide important context and information about this issue." ...
Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin told the Commons Committee on Afghan Detainees today that virtually all the prisoners Canada turned over to Afghan security forces in 2006 and 2007 were tortured. Colvin says senior Canadian military and civilian ignored his warnings about the abuse, and Red Cross officials who tried to intervene could not get their phone calls returned for three months. Here is: The Canadian Press account of Colvin's testimony. A transcript of his opening statement. Video of Bob Rae questioning Peter MacKay on the allegations in Question Period. Stories from CBC, the Toronto Sun, the Toronto Star, and the Globe and Mail. If anyone...
Hats off to Murray Brewster of Canadian Press for his chilling story on the Harper Government's determined campaign to prevent a Military Police Complaints Commission inquiry from getting to the bottom of allegations that Canadian troops in Afghanistan abetted torture. The commission is investigating complaints by Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association that Canadian troops knowingly handed over prisoners to torture in Afghan prisons. But federal lawyers invoked a little known national security clause in the Canada Evidence Act to bar a key government witness from testifying. Their fig leaf? They claimed Richard Colvin, who was political director at...
Is Peter MacKay channelling John Buchanan? Is Stephen Harper keen to cultivate a second Danny Williams in Atlantic Canada? Those are two possible explanations of the Harper Government's mean-spirited, post-election reversal of its commitment to help fund the $40-million, four-rink arena planned for Bedford. The Conservative about-face presents an early test for Darrell Dexter's Government. Last month, the feds assured HRM officials that the project was on track to receive $15 million in infrastructure funding from Ottawa's stimulus program. The NDP Government likewise committed $15 million, and HRM was to finance the remainder. Last Friday, Ottawa abruptly informed city hall it no longer...
The indefatigable Wallace J. McLean (note correct spelling; mea culpa) has risen to contrarian's challenge, and defended his view that the MacDonald government's paving proposals were as politically skewed as the Harper government's selective approvals thereof. This time he buttresses his case with a map, using traditional party colors in two shades: darker for ridings in which the government proposed paving; lighter for those where it did not. Turning this map back into numbers, the Rodney government proposed work in two out of six rural Liberal districts (33%); three out of eight rural NDP districts (38%), and 13 out of 21 rural...
Of the 37 projects put forward by the late Macdonald government in NS, five were located in Liberal districts, and five in NDP districts, based on the 2006 election results.... Twenty-six were located in districts which the Tories held, or had won in 2006.
Contrarian reader Wallace J. McLean wonders: How does the map of road work requested by Premier Fiddler compare to the provincial electoral map as it stood prior to dissolution? It's an obvious question, but from a look at the map, I doubt the answer would turn up anything nefarious. Provincial paving, by its nature, takes place mainly in rural ridings. That's where provincial roads are. Before June 9, Tories held most of the province's rural constituencies, so most of the proposed projects were undoubtedly in Tory ridings. To show bias, one would have to demonstrate that province's proposed infrastructure projects disproportionately favored Tory...
When the Harper Government announced an Infrastructure Stimulus Plan focused on construction-ready projects, Nova Scotia saw a golden opportunity to make headway on a huge problem: its crumbling highway system. The province sought federal approval for 39 paving projects. But Ottawa approved only 20 of the paving jobs. Since the 19 rejected projects were all but identical to the 20 that received a federal go-ahead, it's hard to figure out what criteria Ottawa used for its decisions. Until you look at a federal electoral map. Projects in ridings held by Conservative MPs were almost four times as likely to receive federal approval...