parliamentary privilege

Philippe Lagassé: If they believe the constitution was undermined, parliamentary privilege offers them the freedom of speech to say so without fear of being prosecuted

The auditor general’s office, in order to fulfill an access to information requests, wants to release emails between the AG’s office and several House of Commons committee clerks, but lawyers for the House of Commons are claiming parliamentary privilege and are seeking a court injunction to prevent the release, but the Conservatives say parliamentary privilege doesn’t apply and would support a motion to waive that privilege, but the Liberals say it’s all the government’s fault.

Scheer: calls to Cotler’s riding ‘reprehensible,’ but did not impede his work

Jack Layton calls out Michael Ignatieff and Gilles Duceppe.

At my request, a few thoughts from Lorne Sossin on the Conservative-Liberal-Bloc memorandum of understanding.

With a slight allowance for the potential of future trouble, the Speaker officially declined yesterday to entertain a point of privilege from Jack Harris on Afghan detainee documents—more or less clearing the Conservatives, Liberals and Bloc to proceed with their memorandum of understanding.

After conferring with both sides (or at least two of the three sides) of the detainee document agreement, it would seem that this much is agreed upon.

From Question Period this afternoon, the definitive moment of this particular moment in our collective history.

The official memorandum of understanding on the release and review of documents related to the treatment of Afghan detainees is now out and available here.

The final agreement on Afghan detainee documents will apparently not be released, for whatever reason, until it is ready to be tabled in the House. In the meantime, the NDP and Liberals are engaging in an exchange of news releases: the NDP pronouncing shame, the Liberals declaring victory (and pronouncing shame).

“Mr. Speaker,” Mr. Rae replied, “let me return the favour to the Prime Minister and say those comments are also totally false”

The Afghan detainee document negotiations apparently have come to a conclusion—a deal announced in the House just now—but the NDP is out, citing exemptions in the new deal. They will now put their own proposal to the House, the text of which is here.