Part 3 or Enough is Enough

Perhaps I should of called this blog Stephen Harper's Lies and Deceit...

Another short story here illustrating the lunacy we are descending into. From today's Globe and Mail:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is choosing which Conservative MPs will
become chairs of Commons committees, reversing a parliamentary reform that he
championed while leader of the Official Opposition.

Opposition members are concerned that the role of MPs will be significantly
weakened as a result, because the chairpersons' loyalties will be to the Prime
Minister rather than the MPs on the committees, who may at times wish to publish
reports critical of government policy.

Well, this seems to fit with what we've seen so far concernign Mr. Harper's view on anything that might criticize his policy. Silence the media. Silence the military. And now begin the appointment of loyal Commons committee members that won't possibly have anything bad to say about the direction of government, more and more subject to the oversight of the PM's tightly-controlled "hub and spoke style management."

To add insult to injury, the new practice of appointment is to be tested next week when Saskatoon-Wanuskewin Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott is expected to be appointed chair of the Commons aboriginal affairs committte. I had not previously heard of Mr. Vellacott, but this article, also from today's Globe and Mail gave me a little insight:

Maurice Vellacott drew fire in 2004 for defending two Saskatoon police
officers convicted of leaving a drunken aboriginal man on the outskirts of town
on a -25 winter evening.
Now, the outspoken Conservative MP says he is
Stephen Harper's choice to lead the Commons aboriginal affairs
committee.
Stories of young native men turning up dead in the snow outside of
town led to the firing of the Saskatoon police chief in 2001 as local aboriginal
people accused the police of driving natives out of town and leaving them to
make their way home.
No police officers were charged in relation to the
deaths, but officers Ken Munson and Dan Hatchen were convicted of unlawful
confinement when Darrell Night alleged he had survived such treatment.
In the
summer of 2004, Mr. Vellacott held a press conference announcing the creation of
a legal defence fund to help the two men clear their names.
Letters to the editor and a local columnist criticized Mr. Vellacott's
actions, which, combined with other statements, led one Saskatoon writer to
describe the local MP as someone who is "on the far right" and "no longer part
of the mainstream."
Mr. Vellacott, an evangelical pastor, is perhaps best
known as a vocal critic of legalized abortion, a subject he has frequently
raised in press releases and in the House of Commons. He is one of a handful of
MPs who has proposed private member's bills to criminalize abortion.

Sure sounds like the right guy for the job. I'm glad that the era of Liberal patronage appointments is over. What a joke.