Skip to content

Committee report finds Tories in contempt

OTTAWA — In a historic move, opposition MPs on a Commons committee are poised to recommend that the Harper government be found in contempt of Parliament.

OTTAWA — In a historic move, opposition MPs on a Commons committee are poised to recommend that the Harper government be found in contempt of Parliament.

Should the recommendation be accepted by the opposition-dominated House of Commons, it would mark the first time a government in Canada or any other Commonwealth country was cited for contempt.

However, the minority Conservatives are fighting back and could filibuster proceedings long enough to avoid a contempt citation before an election, which could be triggered by Tuesday’s budget or a Liberal confidence motion on March 25.

The battle lines were drawn Thursday after the second day of hearings into whether the government should be found in contempt for refusing to disclose the full cost of its tough-on-crime agenda, corporate tax cuts and plans to purchase stealth fighter jets.

Moments after hearing from the last witness, Liberals produced a draft report. It concluded the government has still not coughed up the requisite cost information and is, thus, in contempt of Parliament. The NDP and Bloc Quebecois quickly concurred.

Their conclusion was backed up by a last-minute report from the independent parliamentary budget officer. After reviewing additional information provided by the government Wednesday on the cost of 18 crime bills, Kevin Page said “there remain significant gaps between the information requested by parliamentarians and the documentation that was provided.”

Nevertheless, Tory members erupted in fury, accusing the “opposition coalition” of ignoring the added information and the testimony of Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who made a second appearance Thursday before the committee.

“We’ve all witnessed that the fix is in,” fumed Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski.

“This is no greater example of major abuse of the democratic process and the parliamentary process. I’ve never seen anything quite this blatant, quite frankly.”

Lukiwski talked out the clock at Thursday’s meeting. The committee is to resume discussion Monday morning on its recommendation, which is supposed to be reported to the Commons later that day.

Lukiwksi refused to say if he’ll continue filibustering on Monday should the three opposition parties, as expected, persist in their determination to find the government in contempt. But Liberal finance critic Scott Brison predicted the Tories will pull out all the stops to prevent a contempt citation.

“The Harper regime will do anything in its power to prevent Parliament from doing its work in finding the government in contempt of Parliament,” Brison said.

Should the Tories filibuster long enough, opposition parties could be forced to decide whether to topple the government over the budget before they can formally issue a contempt citation. That would rob them of a potent cudgel with which to beat Prime Minister Stephen Harper during a campaign.

The Liberals’ draft report does not recommend imposing any sanctions on the government or tying the contempt finding to a motion of non-confidence. However, Liberals said such measures may yet be added if the NDP and Bloc agree.

Bloc MP Richard Nadeau called sanctions “a very important aspect” of the committee’s report that will be discussed Monday.

In the meantime, the committee will conduct hearings Friday on another matter of possible contempt. They’ll be going after International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda for misleading the House about a government document that was altered to deny funding to a relief organization.

The hearings into both issues were prompted by last week’s unprecedented double rebuke of the government by Commons Speaker Peter Milliken.

Milliken ruled that the government had breached parliamentary privilege by refusing to fully disclose the cost of its agenda. And he said Oda similarly breached privilege by misleading Parliament about her handling of a decision to end funding for Kairos, a church-based foreign aid group.