<strong>Written By:</strong> BC Mary
<strong>Date:</strong> 2006-10-31 09:02:30
<a href="/article/55730762-keeping-police-and-army-at-arms-length-is-what-separates-democracies-from-banan">Article Link</a>

Here's the problem: The Conservative party that benefited most from the peculiar RCMP action is now inexplicably protecting the commissioner's job.

By any reasonable measure, Zaccardelli should have resigned — or been fired — in September when Justice Dennis O'Connor released his devastating report into the Maher Arar affair. On Zaccardelli's watch, the fabled, sometimes infamous, horsemen fingered an innocent Canadian to U.S. officials and then concealed the blunder from their political masters.

Arar paid for the mistake with a year in a Syrian prison. Zaccardelli finally apologized but nearly two months after O'Connor's revelations is still on the job.

Two questions leap to mind. One is just what is a federal firing offence; the other is why is Stephen Harper balking at the public service accountability he promised and seems so clearly in Conservative interest?

Answer one is that responsibility in Ottawa is a theory, not a practice. Resigning on principle is no longer in the ministerial or mandarin repertoire and, by tolerating RCMP failures far beyond Arar, this Prime Minister is extending that easy-going doctrine to the federal police.

<a href="http://tinyurl.com/yyey2t">http://tinyurl.com/yyey2t</a>

   

at the rate the cons are passing the buck it's become more a matter of cheap
magic making quarters dissapear up sleeves. i'm sure it's all g.s.t. exempt.

   

Canadians living temporarily living outside Canada like me received a form letter from Mr. Jean-Pierre Kingsley (Chief Electoral Officer of Canada) dated July 28, 2006, stating:

"Elections Canada is currently reviewing the files of Canadian electors temporarily residing outside Canada. We want to make sure that you received a special ballot voting kit on time and at the correct address when the next federal election is called."

Was this normal procedure, or abnormal, seeing that "Canada's New Government" had only been elected on the 23rd of January 2006, just over 6 months prior to the letter?

I guess Canadians outside Canada know more about this than Canadians inside Canada - thanks to Mr. Kingsley.

   

With all the time these people are spending trying to cover their asses, you wonder where they find the time to do their job effectively. When a Government blurs the line between police and army and other powers, it's the Banana Republic's citizens who pay the price.