Friday, June 18, 2010

Fire. Them. All.









Or most of them, anyway.

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs has issued its report on the clowncar brigade formerly known as the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, or, more familiarly, as Rights and Democracy.


Regular readers here will find confirmed in the report what I and others have been maintaining all along: it's a dreary tale of administrative incompetence, questionable contracting procedures, and sleazy, ideologically-motivated administrative misbehaviour.

Some of the recommendations give the flavour of the findings:


Recommendation 4:
The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada strongly encourage The Board of Directors of Rights and Democracy to amend its by-laws so that all contracts above $10,000 in value are automatically subject to calls for tender.

Recommendation 5:
The Committee also recommends that the Government of Canada strongly encourage Rights and Democracy to publish all contracts greater than $2,000 on its public website.

Recommendation 9:
That the Privy Council Office remove the Board’s evaluation (and all documents related to the evaluation) of Rémy Beauregard [former Rights and Democracy President, hounded to his death] from all files.

Recommendation 10:
That the current Board of Rights and Democracy issue an apology to
Mr. Beauregard's family for any statements damaging his reputation.

Recommendation 11:
That the Government of Canada reconstitute the Board, with a new
Chair.

Recommendation 12:
That the Government of Canada authorize the new Board to review the
appointment of Mr. Latulippe.


Almost needless to say, the "Conservative Party of Canada" issued a dissenting report, ending, not with a bang, but a whimper:

While we worked diligently with opposition members to agree on the body of this report, we cannot support ALL the recommendations pushed through by the opposition majority on the Committee.

We are not told which recommendations they agree with and which they don't. That will allow Stephen Harper maximum latitude, of course, to ignore everything that the Committee has had to say. And former human rights advocate Michael Ignatieff will be unavailable for comment.

[H/t readers in the comments and b/c]

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