Remember when then-GG Michaelle Jean kept Prime Minister Stephen Harper cooling his heels for a couple of days when he asked her to prorogue Parliament? Apparently, she was being briefed by leading experts on the Monarchy and constitution about whether she could/should refuse. (You'd think it wouldn't have taken several experts two days to bring her up-to-speed because she should have known, but I digress.)
Theoretically, she could have refused, but that would have set a second very dangerous precedent, like the mess of the 1926 King/Byng affair, which pitted the power of the Canada's GG against that of Parliament. The PM won that one and eventually, so did Harper.
But when her term as GG came to an end, Mr. Harper cynically named her to oversee Haiti, her native land, about which she had always waxed lyrical. I think he was also punishing her for her many unnecessary and self-aggrandizing traipses around Northern Hemisphere countries, with which her role as GG had absolutely nothing to do.
Now, with murderous gangs running amok there, Haiti is in a real mess -- so much so that I doubt Ms. Jean is going there these days, preferring her comfy quarters in Toronto. Canada is now re-calling "non-essential" staff because of the danger. But my question is, why were non-essential staff there in the first place? I mean, if they're non-essential they're non-essential! This is a good question for all our embassies and high commissions around the world. Get all the hangers-on out and save the country a bunch of money.
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Doug Saunders, a 'Globe and Mail' columnist I always enjoy, wrote today about another mess -- Belarus -- and said someone had been, "brutally hanged to death." "To death"?? Why do you need those words? If someone is hanged, he/she is hanged. They are dead. However, at least he didn't say, "hung", which always drives me insane.
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