Chalk one up for Democracy.

Today Mr. Milliken, Speaker of the House of Commons, ruled that the Conservative Government does in fact have to abide by the will and demands of Canada's democratically elected parliament. The government must now hand over the un-redacted documents outlining the way Afghan detainees were handled and transferred by the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.

This must serve as a major blow to Mr. Harper and his party, whom expended ludicrous amounts of political capital to keep the full versions of these documents out of the hands of the opposition parties. In fact, the unprecedented steps taken by Harper, in first ignoring a parliamentary order to produce them, proroguing the parliament of Canada and then attempting to further stonewall by trying to have a former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci rule on whether the documents should be released leave little doubt that incriminating evidence will be found. A ruling in Mr Harper's favour today would have weakened the very essence of what our soldiers are trying to prop up in Afghanistan- Democracy.

All partisanship aside, this is a victory for Canada's democracy. The ruling clarifies that the Prime Ministers Office cannot ignore the will of the majority of parliament. This or any future governments cannot use national security or confidentiality as a crutch to save itself from political embarrassment or even criminal investigation. The officials that we elect in order to represent us, do in face have the power to do so. This ruling sets the power of the democratically elected majority into stone.

Regardless of which side of the house you're on, that has got to be a victory.


-Son