Brave, brave, brave Sir Stephen.

Quelle surprise:

OTTAWA - Conservative MPs threw a monkey wrench Tuesday into opposition plans to hold public hearings about Afghan prison torture by refusing to show up at a meeting of a special House of Commons committee.

Never forget, though, that these are the folks who will stoutly and courageously defend us from the savage, vicious Islamojihadifarianist hordes. The ones too terrified to show up to a committee meeting.

I'm feeling safer already.



BONUS TRACK: Pathetic political whore, useful idiot and Conservative MP Laurie Hawn contemptuously dismisses the Canadian public because, you know, who gives a crap what they think?

Conservative Laurie Hawn, the parliamentary secretary to the defence minister, dismissed the uproar Tuesday as opposition grandstanding and suggested the public doesn't care about what happened in Afghan prisons.

Reality begs to differ:

Despite recent testimony from Rick Hillier, the former chief of defence staff, and other top generals before a parliamentary committee, the majority of Canadians believe that some prisoners who were handed to Afghan authorities by the military were tortured, according to a new EKOS poll.

Among this group, 83 per cent believe the government was aware there was a strong possibility that prisoners would be tortured.

This opinion is consistent across all gender, age groups and regions. The belief that torture occurred is highest among NDP (71 per cent), Green Party (71 per cent), and Bloc (77 per cent) supporters as well as people in B.C. and Quebec...

In terms of the government's level of transparency and disclosure regarding the alleged torture of prisoners, more Canadians are dissatisfied than satisfied.

Forty-one per cent of Canadians say they are dissatisfied while 24 per cent are satisfied. Just over 35 per cent have no opinion or are waiting to draw conclusions at this time.

Conservative MP Laurie Hawn: Would someone please hit him with a shoe? I've heard that's no big deal.

P.S. Amusingly, Hawn claims that 41 per cent of Canadians is somehow an insignificant percentage that can be safely ignored. Someone should remind Hawn that his precious Stephen Harper Party of Canada was elected with only 37.65 per cent of the popular vote in the last federal election. There are those of us who wish that particular demographic could be made to disappear as well.