For the second time in slightly more than a year, Conservative Party Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is taking the extraordinary step of "proroguing" Parliament - effectively suspending all legislative activities and short-ciruiting a potentially embarrassing investigation into the torture of former Canadian prisoners in Afghanistan. One leading opposition figure called the move a Harper attempt "...to padlock Parliament and shut down democracy."
link to CBC story proroguing Parliament
The Prime Minister's office announced that Harper had spoken to the Governor-General Michaëlle Jean earlier today and asked her to shut down Parliament for more than two months. The formal request will require a face-to-face meeting between Harper and Jean before it can be acted upon, anticipated to take place sometime in the next few days. (Under the Canadian system, the largely ceremonial position of Governor-General is technically head of state and has the power to approve or refuse the Prime Minister's request. It is generally assumed that a Governor-General will grant a request like this from a Prime Minister, but there is no certainty that she will.)
Parliament had been scheduled to return from a holiday break on January 25th. Harper is instead seeking to have Parliament return on March 3rd. Proroguing Parliament would result in all on-going Parliamentary and committee work being "reset" - effectively requiring Parliament to completely start over on all current legislation and suspending current committee actions.
While Harper is arguing that the reason for the suspension of Parliament is to delay opening until after the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, most observers believe that there are more crassly political reasons for his actions.
The most blatantly political motivation would be allow Harper to appoint 5 additional Conservative Party members to vacant seats in the Senate. This would flip control of the Senate from the Liberals, where the current Senate members have been slowing down some Conservative government proposals. (The Senate in Canada is an appointed body - similar to the House of Lords in the UK - whose powers are less than those of the House of Commons, but can slow down or block some legislation.)
Even more pressing has been the Parliamentary inquiry into allegations that Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in 2006 transferred Afghan detainees into Afghan government custody, only to be tortured and abused. Serious questions have been raised about when and what Harper government officials knew about or approved of these transfers despite the likelihood of torture. By preventing Parliament and Parliamentary committees from meeting, the Harper government avoids public testimony about possible government cover-up of these actions.
Michael Ignatieff, the leader of the Liberal Party (largest of the 3 opposition parties) issued a statement condemning the action:
"Mr. Harper is showing his disregard for the democratic institutions of our country. "The decision to prorogue is about one thing and one thing only - avoiding the scrutiny of Parliament at a time when this government is facing tough questions about their conduct in covering up the detainee scandal."
Paul Dewar, the New Democratic Party's foreign affairs critic attacked Harper's request by noting it will delay action on other important legislation.
"We have pension reform, we have EI reform. What about those who are unemployed right now? All of those things fall off the table because the government doesn't want to come back to work."
(Promised improvements and broader coverage in the system of EI - Employment Insurance - were the reason that the NDP chose to allow the government's budget to pass in the fall, avoiding a new election.)
Harper's Conservatives are a minority government, elected with 38% of the vote over a divided opposition. They hold 145 seats in the 308 member House of Commons, followed by 77 Liberal Party members, 48 Quebec sovereignist Bloc Quebecois members, 37 members of the leftish New Democratic Party, and 1 independent who general supports the Conservatives.
In early December of 2008, Harper also suspended Parliament in order to avoid losing a no-confidence vote. The 3 opposition parties had agreed to bring down the Conservative government (either forming a new coalition government or forcing a new election). Harper prevented Parliament from voting by proroguing that Parliament - and in the ensuing months internal political turmoil in the Liberal Party resulted in the threat of a new election disappearing, allowing Harper to remain in office.
While the 2008 move was subject to great debate about using prorogation to prevent the democratic process from removing his government, it was generally accepted as completely legal and constitutional manoeuvre. However, it is unprecedented for a government to do it twice in such a short period of time, and some argue that it constitutes a misuse of the Prime Minister's powers to use it for blatantly political purposes twice in the same Parliament.
It remains to be seen how this action will be viewed by the Canadian electorate - whether it is criticized as a back-handed way to short-circuit democracy or accepted as a strong action by a strong leader. But there is little doubt that it is annoying the 3 opposition parties and increasing the chances for another Canadian election in 2010.