Coming Soon to a Parliamentary Committee Near You: Bev Oda, the Sequel!

Christiane Ouimet will make Bev Oda look like Honest Abe.

In the National Post, George Jonas offers an original excuse for Bev Oda’s recent behaviour, writing, “I think Ms. Oda made such a dog’s breakfast of a decision that was both fully justified and entirely hers to make because of her unique Canadian fear of appearing politically incorrect.” The left-leaning politically correct attack dogs can “turn a public person into a skeleton in a single news cycle,” he claims, so it’s no wonder Oda prevaricated when denying funding to a pro-Palestinian group. Wow. The Bogeyman of Political Correctness Jonas likes to invoke really gets around. He’s already stopped us from saying “Merry Christmas” and now he’s ruined Parliament. We all remember of course when political correctness forced Stephen Harper out of office because of his pro-Israel stance, and when political correctness stopped commentators at Canada’s dominant newspapers from saying anything remotely right wing. Oh wait, those are the things that didn’t happen.

The Globe and Mail’s Lawrence Martin says the Conservatives should brace themselves for Bev Oda Part Deux, otherwise known as Christiane Ouimet, the AWOL ex-integrity minister who will finally appear before committee March 10 to explain why she investigated only seven of the 228 complaints she received about public sector wrongdoing. Citing opposition sources, Martin says some of the complaints she ignored were serious allegations of financial impropriety in the government, and predicts that Ouimet’s testimony could “amount to the most serious scandal this government has faced … Given the large number of uninvestigated cases that came before her, the possibility of smoking guns suddenly appearing on the government’s doorstep can hardly be discarded,” especially if opposition MPs can prove she was acting under orders from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Of course the country could be in the midst of an election campaign by late March so the Conservatives could simply stall Ouimet’s testimony with bureaucratic delays until after the votes are cast and then live to fight another day, just like they did with the Afghan detainees issue. Ahhh, the system works.