Speaker Rules Tories May Have Breached Parliamentary Privilege

Peter Milliken has ruled that Bev Oda may have lied to Parliament and the government has improperly refused to reveal the cost of its anti-crime legislation.

In a ruling that could deal a substantial blow to the Conservative government, Milliken appears to have vindicated opposition MPs who claimed the government was withholding key information about the costs of its crime legislation, and that International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda misled a Commons committee about the decision to deny funding to the KAIROS aid organization. There is a chance that the Liberals could table a confidence vote over the two issues and bring down the government, but the Speaker’s office has said he would be unlikely to allow a confidence vote to go forward. At minimum however, the ruling appears to give ammunition to the opposition’s claims that the Conservatives are lacking in transparency, a key theme in the Liberals’ pre-election campaigning.