I was very disappointed with Ryan Tumilty’s article “MP defends prorogation,” in the Wednesday, Jan. 6 edition of the Gazette.
First of all, suspending parliament for three months due to the two weeks of the Olympics doesn’t make sense. In 1988, the Olympics were in Calgary and there was no prorogue. Why now?
Second, member of Parliament Brent Rathgeber goes on to say that “most Canadians are not particularly concerned about this issue [the Afghan detainee issue], however Parliament is absolutely consumed with it.” Where did he get this fact from? Saying ‘most Canadians’ implies a majority consensus on the issue. Was a poll done? I am aware of a study that stated 48.8 per cent of people were aware of it and of those 37.8 per cent believed the Conservative government passed detainees to Afghan security forces knowing they might be tortured. One in four (25.9 per cent) were unsure.
Are we to believe that of those nearly 40 per cent who believe it’s true and the one in four who hope it isn’t true simply don’t care about whether human rights are being violated or not? I would find it extremely hard to believe that “most Canadians” didn’t care about whether we are handing individuals over to be tortured. These generalizations that have no facts supporting them are very misleading. A poll by the Globe and Mail on Thursday Jan. 7 showed that over 58 per cent of those aware of the prorogue and nearly two-thirds of university-educated students opposed the prorogue. The excuse of “Canada’s image suffering” is a poor one. What about Canada pushing the torture issue under the rug? Remember the Olympics in China? China didn’t simply prorogue parliament because they had pollution problems.
The Olympics are a special time for the world to unite for a short time. How dare the Conservatives use this as leverage to weasel out of being accountable on an important human rights issue! Shame on you, Rathgeber.
Jeff Morris, St. Albert
