Briefly, on torture redactions and on Chinese rebukes

I'm in the busy period of the holiday season so time for blogging has been limited of late. I would though like to make two brief comments on recent events.

First, the Heavily Redacted Torture Documents that the Conservative government has been releasing in an attempt to make it seem like they're not hiding anything while still hiding plenty. Their excuse, national security, seems rather dubious to many observers.

Let's take a big leap of faith for a moment here, and suspend rational thought, and posit that both sides are acting in good faith without political motive: that the opposition want to get to the bottom of serious accusations, that the government has legitimate national security concerns around full disclosure, and that neither is motivated solely by political aims (embarrass the government, or hide the government's culpability.)

There is a way around this. During the Paul Martin government he had each of the opposition party leaders sworn in as members of the privy council. This gave them high security clearance so that, in theory, they could be briefed on confidential and secret matters of national security.

So, IF the government isn't just hiding to hide misdeeds, and if the opposition isn't just out to score points, WHY doesn't the government call in the opposition leaders and brief them. Show them the full, uncensored documents. If the documents show no cause for concern, then we move on. If the documents do raise serious issues, then they continue to call for a full public inquiry.

Of course, such a solution would require all sides to put politics aside and behave like adults. So let's not hold our breath.

Second, China's Premier Says Bad Things About Stephen Harper. Frankly, I largely agree with Wen Jiabao on the substance of his criticism of Harper's China policy. Nevertheless, the episode leaves me feeling sympathetic towards Harper, not China.

As the saying goes, "no one can hit my brother but me." So when the leader of a country like China takes a shot at our PM I'm going to be pissed, even if that PM is Harper. It's an instinctive defensive, nationalistic reaction.

Besides, to offer the criticism behind closed doors is one thing. To do it in public was a total dick move by China.

As for the opposition, including my Liberals (hi Bob!), you'd be wise to constrain your comments to legitimate criticisms of Harper's China policy. Saddling up beside a Chinese government with a history of human rights abuses, of oppressing its people, censoring the press and the Web, and so on, just to buttress your political attacks ... that's just another dick move, frankly.

To coin a phrase, We can do better...

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