Harper ducking: Hyer

Bruce Hyer says Prime Minister Stephen Harper should stop ducking the senate scandal and face the music.

The independent MP (Thunder Bay-Superior North), says Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament until October, a month-long delay in reconvening the House of Commons, is a clear indication the prime minister wants to avoid answering senate-related questions.

Several senators, including Conservatives Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy and Liberal Mac Harb have faced questions about their expenses.
Duffy, who hails from Prince Edward Island, had $90,000 in wrongful expense claims repaid by a Conservative insider. It led to the resignation of Nigel Wright, Harper’s chief of staff who cut the cheque, ostensibly to keep the scandal from growing.

Wallin, a former CTV broadcaster, is facing about $140,000 in repayments and penalties for disallowed while not on official senate duty. Wallin, whose expenses earlier in the year got the stamp of approval from Harper, has said she plans to appeal any judgment, saying the regulations surrounding senate expenses are muddled at best.

Harb is alleged to have mistakenly claimed $231,000 in expenses.

“Harper and his Conservative government are scrambling to hide from this latest abuse of taxpayer dollars by the unelected Senate. The government is trying to buy time in an attempt to spin their way out of this Senate scandal. The Governor General should refuse their shameful attempt to avoid taking responsibility for their failings,” Hyer said in a release issued Tuesday.

Enough is enough with the political tricks, said Hyer, a former NDP MP who left the party after refusing to vote in favour of keeping the long-gun registry and was punished by then leader Nycole Turmel.

“This is the third time Harper has used prorogation as a blunt instrument to avoid taking responsibility for a Conservative scandal in the House of Commons. Canadians are looking for action from this government and instead they find the Conservatives delaying Parliamentary work in an attempt to escape accountability,” Hyer said.

In 2008 Harper prorogued Parliament to avoid a no-confidence vote that was threatening to take down his minority government, the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois considering the possibility of asking the governor general to be allowed to form a coalition government of their own.

A year later he prorogued again, in the face of hearings into the treatment of Afghani detainees.

“This is obviously an undemocratic use of prorogation by the government. The Conservatives have had the whole summer to reset their priorities. He could request prorogation and still have the House return in September as intended, but he chooses instead to obstruct and delay,” Hyer said.

“One look at Harper’s record makes it clear that the government has no intent of setting out a new agenda. It’s just a feeble attempt to change the channel on this Senate scandal, and the Governor General should refuse it outright,” he said.

Harper said his decision to prorogue is valid.

"There will be a new throne speech in the fall," Harper told the Canadian Press Monday during a news conference in Whitehorse.
"Obviously, the House will be prorogued in anticipation of that. We will come back — October is our tentative timing — and we will obviously have some unfulfilled commitments that we will continue to work on."