Opposition House Leader Ralph Goodale says the standoff in Parliament over Afghan detainee documents hinges on'critical' principles.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
The Conservative government and federal opposition parties have little more than a week to resolve their impasse over documents related to the treatment of detainees, some of which the government says contain information that could jeopardize national security. If the politicians cannot find a way to safely release the documents to parliamentarians, the ruling by Speaker Peter Milliken would allow the opposition to declare that the government is in contempt of Parliament. That would likely trigger an election. Representatives from all parties met Thursday to start negotiations to end the standoff. Those talks will continue this week. One of the individuals at the table is Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale.
On a scale of one to 10, how confident are you that this situation will be resolved during negotiations between the parties?
Based on the start - and it's only a very preliminary start, but, so far so good - I would put the number at about 7.5.
Has it weighed on members of Parliament that this could have implications for parliamentary democracy not only here in Canada but around the world?
Absolutely. This is fundamental. The ruling of the Speaker quoted every democratic and parliamentary authority on this subject going back to the 1600s. Speaker Milliken was excruciatingly thorough in his analysis of what's going on here and it is the proper functioning of a parliamentary democracy that is at stake. So it is critical that this parliament get it right and it transcends the short-term political needs of any party.
The Speaker laid out a couple of options. Did you go into the discussions saying we would prefer to have the impasse resolved in any particular way?
No, we have an open mind on the appropriate mechanisms that can work and there probably are several. The discussions of mechanisms have not begun yet so it is premature to speculate about where this will lead. But, at the bottom line, consistent with what we have always believed and what the Speaker has ruled, the eyes that look at those documents must be parliamentary eyes. And the judgment that is brought to bear on what is releasable or not must be a parliamentary judgment.
Are you prepared to devote multiple MPs to go over these documents for potentially many months?
We will devote the resources to this that is absolutely required because it is so important. This is such a fundamental question. And I would suspect that the other parties would be prepared to do the same. It is crucial that Parliament get this right.
If the job of determining what documents can be released is ultimately left to one man - Former Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci reporting to Parliament for instance - some suggest it could take years. Would you be satisfied to wait that long?
I don't want to immediately jump to that conclusion. One of the things that we need to do at the very beginning is scope out the task in terms of the sheer volume of it and the physical requirements for how you deal with it. Where would you do it? What kind of facilities would you require? What kind of support services would you require? I think we have to sort our way all through that to understand the magnitude of the task. But there was a reasonable degree of, I wouldn't say confidence, but hopefulness in our preliminary discussions that this is a manageable task within a manageable period of time.
If it turned out that no compromise on the documents can be reached between the parties within the two-week timeframe dictate by the Speaker, are the principles involved in this dispute worth going to an election over?
The principles are critical. You could hardly imagine a more profound set of circumstances. If the government falls back from where it seemed to be going on Thursday in our preliminary meeting, if it falls back to a position of non-transparency and stonewalling and lack of respect for what the Speaker said, there could not be a more fundamental problem for our democracy and it would be critically important for political parties to not just look the other way but to stand up for the fundamental principles by which we govern ourselves.