Meinung: Die Abgeordneten haben Recht, wenn sie Stellung beziehen: Die Regierung muss dem Parlament die von ihm geforderten Dokumente zur Verfügung stellen

>*Two different forums of accountability, two very different outcomes.*

>*Over at the Foreign Interference Commission, chaired by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, a parade of witnesses and government documents have cast new light on the Trudeau government’s failure to respond to intelligence reports of attempts by China, in particular, to interfere in Canadian elections and intimidate Canadian citizens.*

>*We’ve heard of intelligence memos being kept from the Prime Minister by his advisers, of an application for a surveillance warrant being held up for weeks, allegedly because it involved a prominent Liberal organizer, of high-level officials shrugging off intimidation campaigns as somebody else’s problem.*

>*We have heard all this for one reason only: because of the commission’s broad powers under the Inquiries Act, and under* [*its own rules*](https://archive.vn/o/LBerm/https://foreigninterferencecommission.ca/fileadmin/foreign_interference_commission/Documents/Procedural_Documents/Rules_Procedures_and_Forms/Rules_of_Practice_and_Procedure.pdf)*, to compel the production of these witnesses and documents – powers enforceable in a court of law. One suspects this is why the Prime Minister was so reluctant to call it.*

>*…*

>*And yet the Trudeau government, which came to power promising to reverse the Harper government’s abuses (among them: “Stephen Harper has used prorogation to avoid difficult political circumstances.* [*We will not*](https://archive.vn/o/LBerm/https://liberal.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/292/2020/09/New-plan-for-a-strong-middle-class.pdf)*.”) soon followed in its anti-democratic footsteps. There was the WE Charity affair, where it not only*[ *refused for months*](https://archive.vn/o/LBerm/https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/ethics-commissioner-says-hes-received-thousands-of-pages-of-unredacted-we-charity-documents-while-mps-push-for-access) *to release the unredacted documents a parliamentary committee had demanded, but cut short its inquiries altogether by, you guessed it, proroguing.*

>*And of course there was the later matter of the two Chinese spies working in the Winnipeg infectious disease laboratory. Once again a Speaker ruled that a government’s failure to hand over the documents was in breach of Parliamentary privilege. Once again a government was found in contempt of Parliament. And the government’s response? First it sued the Speaker. Then it dissolved the House.*

Expect that a similar ploy is **imminent.**

This is the central point- the Executive Government – serves at the privilege and oversight of the Legislative branch of government.

Sometimes the Executive seems to forget this and the Legislative has to put it in check.

While holding the House of Commons paused might be inconvenient to the Executive; the House has every right to hold it up until it gets its way.

The calculus for the Conservatives is fairly straightforward- they can actually run the entire clock out until next October if they want to.

However what I think is more likely is that the few bills that are important to the NDP will pass the senate and we will see them give up and consent to a non-confidence motion.

Either way, this Government is effectively over until the next election. That could be 90 days from now or it could be 12 months from now but it’s over.

If your democracy isn’t transparent and subject to scrutiny , then you don’t have a democracy at all.

Everyone of them should be thoroughly investigated and brought to trial.