“He obviously has the right to his own opinion on that,” said PMO spokeswoman Sara MacIntyre. “Having a brother in cabinet doesn’t preclude Arthur from expressing his opinion.”
Minister's brother: Harper wants to dodge probe
By CHRISTINA SPENCER,
Parliamentary bureau,
QMI Agency
OTTAWA — The suspension of Parliament until March is under fire from the brother of one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s own cabinet colleagues.
Arthur Kent, the younger brother of Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Peter Kent, used his news blog Sunday to charge that Harper prorogued Parliament primarily to stifle discussion of Afghanistan.
“In truth, there has been an unwritten fatwa maintained by the Prime Minister’s Office against discussion of any and all controversial aspects of the Afghan debacle,” wrote the Canadian-born journalist, who became known as the “Scud Stud” for his coverage of the first Iraq war.
Kent has reported in the past for NBC, CBC, The Observer and other media outlets and has covered Afghanistan for 27 years.
“The silencing of the House of Commons enables Harper to dodge a parliamentary committee’s probe into his government’s stifling of bad news from the Afghan war,” he wrote on skyreporter.com. He said as a result of “this information-control freakery, Canadians have been treated to a rose-tinted depiction” of Afghanistan’s corrupt government.
Kent’s brother, Peter Kent, is a junior minister in Harper’s cabinet, with responsibility for the Americas. A Harper official declined to comment on the content of the article.
“He obviously has the right to his own opinion on that,” said PMO spokeswoman Sara MacIntyre. “Having a brother in cabinet doesn’t preclude Arthur from expressing his opinion.”
Eleanor Johnston, spokeswoman for minister Kent, said: “The fact that Arthur is the minister’s brother just happens to be coincidental and circumstantial. He’s certainly entitled to his own opinion.”
Johnston said the minister has heard from many constituents on Afghanistan, “some for, some against.”
“And the minister is always interested in hearing everybody’s points of view.”
christina.spencer@sunmedia.ca
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Whew....Harper's "fatwas" have limits
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3 comments:
“He obviously has the right to his own opinion on that,” said PMO spokeswoman Sara MacIntyre. “Having a brother in cabinet doesn’t preclude Arthur from expressing his opinion.”
I guess a one-size fits-all muzzle doesn`t quite fit all.
Is that water I see coming thru that crack??
Dr Mike Popovich
"Eleanor Johnston, spokeswoman for minister Kent, said: “The fact that Arthur is the minister’s brother just happens to be coincidental and circumstantial. He’s certainly entitled to his own opinion.”
Am I reading this correctly?
Is the inference that they are brothers is "coincidental and circumstantial"?
;)
Big Winnie:
Perhaps she got her words mixed up this way:
And maybe she meant to say that they must be sons of the same mother, hence brothers, since they are both circumsized?
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