Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Vellacott Resigns as Aboriginal Committee Chair

From CTV:

Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott resigned on Wednesday as chairman of the Commons aboriginal affairs committee, after sparking controversy over remarks he made about judges and natives.
...

The Saskatchewan MP drew criticism for suggestions he made over the weekend that Supreme Court judges play god with the law.

Good shooting by the opposition! But they're still not happy:

On Tuesday, the Liberals called for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ask Vellacott to step down.

It probably won't happen, but they should keep pushing. Nor is the Canadian Bar Association happy with Vellacott. They too want him to step down:

The Canadian Bar Association issued a statement Tuesday calling on Harper to force Vellacott's immediate resignation, saying his ill-informed remarks about the chief justice of Canada undermine public confidence in the justice system.

And finally, something I wasn't personally aware of with respect to the MP from Sakatchewan:

Vellacott's... had [once] defended two Saskatoon policemen convicted of driving a native man out of town and leaving him to find his way home in frigid temperatures.

I have no idea what Harper was thinking when he made this primitive redneck chairman of the Commons aboriginal affairs committee. And they wonder why Canadian's look at the Tories and think: "Crazy, scary!"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who's next?

Now that the parties with the majority of seats in Parliament have jointly decided to uphold standards required of MPs, and so brought about the resignation of Villacott for his negative comments on the Supreme Court, who is next?

How about the three parties calling on Environment Minister Rona Ambrose to step down as chairwoman of international talks looking into ways to strengthen the Kyoto protocol on climate change? Given the Tory party's decision not to abide by Kyoto, her retention of that position is a mockery and a disservice to Canadians in the eyes of the world.

The only honest course is for her to resign and let a representative of another country which supports Kyoto take her place.

It is not fitting for Canada to support this mockery of world values any longer.

Perhaps the Liberals could table a resolution in Parliament directing her to step down?

bigcitylib said...

Actually, I would support that.

She was on the air today saying that to meet Canada's Kyoto obligations we would have to park our cars and ground all of our airplanes, which is well into the realm of fantasy. More turning Environment Canada into a worldwide laughing stock in less than six monthes, I would give her the boot.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, she seems to be particularly allergic to information...which is why she got the portfolio in the first place, I guess. Harpies actually believe women are blinded by science.

Anonymous said...

"The Canadian Bar Association issued a statement Tuesday calling on Harper to force Vellacott's immediate resignation, saying his ill-informed remarks about the chief justice of Canada undermine public confidence in the justice system."

Who in hell has any confidence in our "justice system" anymore?