Take Harper's "hard ball" and run with it

The Conservatives have their preferred witness that they wish to present to the Afghanistan Special Commons Committee flying back to Canada. David Mulroney is supposed to be ready to testify on Thursday regarding the handing over of Afghan detainees by the Canadian military. Unfortunately, the committee is unprepared due to the lack of documents from the Conservatives. Right now, the committee is refusing to hear testimony from David Mulroney precisely because they are unprepared.

Unfortunately, it plays right into hands of the Conservatives, who wish to make it seem like the opposition is only looking to discredit the Conservatives by cherry-picking witnesses. Already, certain media headlines (though not necessarily the content of the articles themselves) are already sensationalizing this crooked sleight of hand.

One way out is to take the ball and run with it, as suggested by Mike-D's comments to the "Harper's last stand" post at Dawg's Blawg. Then, follow up David Mulroney's testimony with testimony from expert witnesses from Amnesty International or the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (for example).

Regardless, the opposition must push hard for a public inquiry.

Drawing on simple analogies commonly used in Star Trek, consider a situation where a police officer is approached by a person who says that there was a murder and that he knows where the body is. The officer asks another nearby person, who says that he was not aware of any such murder and that the first person was making stuff up. One would hope that the officer would at least check out the claim to see if there is anyone reported missing, or perhaps see if there is a body where the first person claimed.

It's the same here. If the government cared about the issue and was interested in getting to the bottom of these "serious allegations" (as Peter MacKay would put it), the Conservatives would be more cooperative. The Conservatives say they will do as the committee asks, but they are making it as hard as possible for the committee.

Perhaps it's just my cynicism showing, but I don't believe for a second that a public inquiry will be called until just before an election call. I also don't believe that things can't improve in Afghanistan in any meaningful way anymore (whether there has been any meaningful improvement at all in most parts of the country since the war began is still up to debate) with Canada's continued presence while politicians rage on against one another.

Not much real hope right now... but hope for a better future is all that is left.

Peace and long life.