The Harper government has taken a series of decisions that undermine the strength of our public institutions.

The most obvious is Parliament prorogation. For the second time, the minority government has decided to use this unusual procedure to allow Canadians to ‘focus on the Olympics’. The distraction of a political debate is apparently too much to handle for Canadian’s attention spam. The Prime Minister must ask the Queen’s representative, Lieutenant Governor General Michaëlle Jean, permission to postpone Parliamentary session. Considerations include whether the government still has the confidence of the Parliament. While the procedure is legal, the convention is muddy as past Governors have refused to grant it. Prorogation ends all current committees, including the special committee where Richard Colvin testified about Canada’s less than optimal transfer of Afghan prisoners to local prisons. Torture and mistreatment allegations in the form of electrocutions, beating and sleep deprivations are on the table.

Conservative MP’s boycotted the commission last minute, leaving it short of the required quorum to go forward. It nevertheless decided to pursue its work informally. It will be interesting to see how the committee continues to exert pressure on the government despite its marginalization.

The government has made it a point to discredit Richard Colvin, the n.2 intel man in the USA and former senior diplomat in Afghanistan. Defense Minister Peter MacKay commented on Mr. Colvin testimony: "What I heard yesterday doesn’t stand the test of cross examination, doesn’t stand the test of credibility,". Read his point by point rebuttal here. Some believe Mr. Colvin’s career is irreversibly compromised. If that’s the case, other high ranking officials will be reluctant to come forward. By ignoring the deference usually accorded to diplomatic corps, the Harper government has managed to preempt, if not stifle, informed criticism by those best placed to alarm Canadians.

Another relevant fact is the termination of the head of the Military Police Complaints Commission (MPCC) Mr. Peter Tinsley after his first mandate. It is customary to reconduct the head when an inquiry is ongoing, as is the case with the Afghan detainee complaint. This ‘horsetrading” strategy has been decried as an attempt to destabilize watchdog organisations. This particular commission is looking into the Afghan detainee transfer issue, and some seeking information have noticed a drastic change in the level of cooperation following the removal of Mr. Tinsley.

The unusual prorogation procedure effectively put a full stop to the ongoing inquiry about the Afghan detainee issue for a few months. Government officials also disregarded the traditional deference granted to diplomats when they sought to discredit the credible allegations of a dedicated public servant. They boycotted the ongoing investigation process and replaced the head of the MPCC. From these four facts we can infer a resolute will to stifle any inquiry into the government’s conduct in Afghanistan regarding allegations of mistreatment of captured ‘unlawful combatants’.

But there’s more.

Canada has abandoned its policy of rescuing its citizens - at least, the inconvenient ones.

Canadian citizen Abousoufian Abdelrazik was caught in a nightmarish administrative limbo in Sudan for 6 years. During detention and alleged mistreatment in a local jail, CSIS officials told him “Sudan would be his Guantanamo”. Abdlerazik was then released because local authorities cleared him. He took refuge in the Canadian embassy. This country refused Sudan’s offer to fly him home. First they invoked his listing on a no-fly list, then the expiry of his passport while in detention. The government subsequently proceeded to play a cat and mouse game the Canadian court described as ‘Kafkaesque’: he was promised an emergency passport if he could secure the money for a flight. He did, but Canada changed the conditions and refused to issue travel documents. If this were an isolated case, one could cast it as mere institutional incompetence, oversight, or glitch...

Maher Arar’s ordeal occurred during the Liberal government, and so did Omar Khadr’s. However Khadr remains imprisoned in Guantanamo. Canada is the only Western country who refuses to repatriate its citizen from the military base. Khadr was captured at 16. A recent Supreme Court ruling declined to force his repatriation.

There’s nothing new about executive privilege and horsetrading: all administrations jealously guard discretionary foreign policy decisions from public and judicial scrutiny. But the conservatives are showing blatant contempt for public institutions and are bending the rules of the game in an unprecedented fashion. This minority government was elected in the political vacuum left opened by the liberal post-scandal chaos. The prospect of a opposition coalition has withered away, suggesting the conservative can go unchecked for the moment. The danger is the permanent changes they will incur to Canada’s political culture: a greater concentration of executive power, a resolute change of perception of our country in the international arena (I’ll leave Copenhagen for another day), and lesser protection for our citizens stranded abroad.

This juncture made me come out of my blogging torpor. Canadians come out their political lethargy.