The Ethics Committee Picks Up the Slack - Again

Months have gone by and Harper has done nothing about starting an inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair.

NDPer Pat Martin is now proposing that Mulroney be recalled to the Ethics committee to continue testimony. Two months ago Martin argued that the committee should not force Mulroney to reappear if he didn't want to; Martin was acting out of respect and the expectation that an inquiry would be started in a timely manner.

Now that it seems that the whole mess is being swept under the rug... AGAIN... Martin has proposed the following motion to the committee: "Due to the absence of any action by the Government to establish and begin the Public Commission of Inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber Affair I move that the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics recall Brian Mulroney to appear before the committee to answer supplementary questions and provide further details in relation to the third report of the committee Presented to the House on February 29, 2008 and the study undertaken by the committee giving rise to the report."

The motion will be debated at the committee's next meeting, which is tomorrow.

I have been extremley impressed by how diplomatically and intelligently the NDP and Liberal members of the Ethics committee have handled this sensitive affair of government corruption in the 1980s and 90s, and I hope they can continue to navigate the minefield of this scandal in an effective manner.

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