House Law Clerk to DOJ: Right backatcha!
And here's the beginning of a beautiful legal correspondence! The House Law Clerk responds to the response of the Department of Justice on the question of whether the Canada Evidence Act applies to parliamentary proceedings:
"In my view, your legal opinion fails to recognize the constitutional function of the House of Commons to hold the Government to account and does not adequately address parliamentary privilege as part of the constitutional law of Canada," House law counsel Robert Walsh writes in a faxed letter dated today to Carolyn Kobernick, assistant deputy minister of DOJ's public law sector.
"Your opinion engages peripheral legal issues to defend the withholding of evidence from the Special Committee, disregarding its powers and authority."
"In my view, your legal opinion fails to recognize the constitutional function of the House of Commons to hold the Government to account and does not adequately address parliamentary privilege as part of the constitutional law of Canada," House law counsel Robert Walsh writes in a faxed letter dated today to Carolyn Kobernick, assistant deputy minister of DOJ's public law sector.
"Your opinion engages peripheral legal issues to defend the withholding of evidence from the Special Committee, disregarding its powers and authority."
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About the Author
Kady O'Malley has been covering the Hill for more than a decade (yes, really) for a variety of publications. An Ottawa girl (not quite born, but raised), she has a passion for politics that borders on the unhealthy, and has liveblogged her way through hundreds of committee meetings, press conferences, judicial inquiries, budget launches, cabinet shuffles, and even the odd constitutional crisis. Oh, and yes, her Boston Terrier really is named "BlackBerry."
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