Steve Harper and Public Disgrace

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled 9-0 that the secretive security certificate program to detain terrorist suspects is unconstitutional. Stephen Harper’s demand that such measures continue, legally unbalanced by human rights protection, has been trounced by our Supreme Court. And, this week Stephen Harper’s own behaviour shows us why he is so wrong.

This week, Mr. Harper attempted to use parliamentary privilege to smear a member of parliament and his family in a disgraceful attempt to link an innocent man to terrorism. Concurrently, the Harper Tories have been airing attack ads against Ralph Goodale, alleging connections to crime even though the RCMP has completely cleared him of any wrong doing. And lest we forget, it was Harper who made outrageous allegations that Paul Martin supports child pornography. And further, it was Harper Tories who used parliamentary privilege to also smear and disgrace the innocent Mahr Arar - while the man was being tortured in a foreign country.

In public, Harper Tories have attacked the innocent. But its for the sake of the innocent, we require our laws to be balanced; to protect us against abuses like what we have publicly seen from Harper Tories. Further, secretive security measures are dangerous - especially in the hands of those who will so freely attack the innocent in public. And without constitutional protections, we are vulnerable to the private abuses of the capricious.

Rightly, the Supreme Court resoundingly ruled against security certificates. And, we should all take note of the public behaviour of those who have been, up to this date, unwilling to apply balance to such dangerous legal perspectives. Those who will say anything in public should be feared for what they may do in private.

(c) 2006 Victoria BC