Brenda Martin

John Baglow makes serious allegations about this government’s approach to citizenship.

The Prime Minister gets some mail.

This story, about Canadians who are jailed in Haiti and ignored by Canadian politicians, is in the current print issue of Maclean’s.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP

Must-reads: Doug Saunders on “Americanizing” the Afghanistan mission; Christie Blatchford on rescuing child abuse victims; James Travers on the food crisis; John Ivison on the doctor shortage; Don Martin on Brenda Martin.

Contrary to what you might believe from staring into Maxime Bernier’s sturdy visage, the business of running this country is not all so glamorous. No, much of it involves selfless acts of partisanship, the denial of one’s individual respect in the interests of more senior ministers. And for this stuff, the government keeps a couple dozen backbenchers at the ready—each eager to read from whatever piece of paper they’re handed whenever the Minister of Defence needs a friendly question or a former prime minister needs his reputation guarded at committee.We’re thinking here of the grumpy David Tilson or the wild-eyed Jeff Watson, the latter a man who is forever smiling like those fans you see in the background of hockey fights. Poor Rick Dykstra, the honourable member for St. Catharines, would be relatively anonymous if not for his standing up ever second QP and lobbing a safely scripted query at whatever minister needs to tout an accomplishment. 

On Feb. 26, Dan McTeague asked the government to account for its handling of Brenda Martin, the Canadian citizen still languishing in a Mexican prison. For whatever reason, the Conservatives sent up Helena Guergis, secretary of state for foreign affairs, to handle the query. A couple excerpts from her responses:”… with respect to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and in accordance with international practice, Canada cannot intervene in the justice system of another country.””Mr. Speaker, Canadians are really growing tired of that member’s ambulance-chasing tactics…” 

The Conservatives have no credible answers and the Liberals are now mocking them in verse