Derek Lee

Let us remember last winter’s pause to “recalibrate”

I wasn’t in the House this afternoon on account of other commitments, but I’m told that shortly after Question Period, Speaker Peter Milliken rose to rule on a point of order previously raised by Liberal Derek Lee. Mr. Lee complained last month that a statement by Conservative MP Phil McColeman should have been ruled out of order as a personal attack on Liberal Mark Holland. That the time allotted for statements by members—15 minutes each day normally reserved for noting charitable causes, the accomplishments of constituents and such—was being used to launch partisan attacks was identified as a problem last March by Speaker Milliken, a problem he attempted to addresses with limited success.

McDonald’s hosted MPs at a reception at the Fairmont Château Laurier. (Left to right) Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, John Betts,?president of McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Limited, Liberal MP Bonnie Crombie and Dave Henderson, chief financial officer.

Do MPs generally have too little experience or too much?

Our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses.

Amid talk yesterday of Rahim Jaffer, Helena Guergis, Devinder Shory, lobbyists, religion, ideology, firearms, abortion policy, poverty, torture, nuclear weapons, the prosecution of Omar Khadr and salmon farming, John Baird astutely identified the foremost issue facing Ottawa as the legal career of Liberal MP Derek Lee. Seems the biography of Mr. Lee posted on a law firm’s website describes him as participating in activities that include “lobbying government.”

Our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses.

In terms of what a compromise might look like, we refer again to some of the options already explored for establishing a forum that might safely review sensitive documents. The interim committee on national security that studied these sorts of issues in 2004 was chaired by Derek Lee, but also, perhaps notably, included the following members: Joe Comartin, Wayne Easter, Marlene Jennings, Serge Menard, Kevin Sorenson and Peter MacKay.

Below, the full English text of Speaker Peter Milliken’s ruling, delivered in the House over the last hour.

Further coverage from the Canadian Press, Globe, Canwest, CBC and CTV.

The Justice Minister has just now breathlessly read a statement that includes the phrase, “We welcome the possibility of a compromise.” Official Liberal reaction is here. Derek Lee’s reaction is here. Official NDP reaction is here.

***

The Jer’s Vision/Day of Pink 5th Anniversary Gala in Ottawa celebrated those who have helped battle bullying and homophobia. Liberal MP Hedy Fry won one of the Youth Role Model of the Year awards.

Canwest previews the impending, or at least inevitable, ruling of the Speaker on Parliament’s right to access Afghan detainee documents. Nelson Wiseman talks to CBC radio’s The House (scroll down) about what might happen. Kady O’Malley predicts something is coming this week, perhaps even tomorrow. (I’m reasonably assured nothing’s happening today.)

Richard Colvin is in Ottawa today to testify at hearings of the Military Police Complaints Commission. The morning was mostly a repeat, with some added detail and commentary, of his testimony at the special committee last year. Early reviews are in from the Globe, Canadian Press, CBC, Canwest, Star and Sun.