Former cabmin Solberg: "I am embarrassed for not doing nearly enough"

Monte Solberg was a great MP. He was one of the original wave of Reformers who won in the 1993 election, and he went on to become a successful minister in Stephen Harper's first term government. Last fall he left Parliament after 15 years, but hasn't left public life -- he writes for the Sun chain of newspapers now. I'm so glad, because the only downside of him becoming a cabinet minister was that he had to stop writing his blog. I'm not just saying that as a partisan and as a friend; I think his lively commentary was regarded by Liberals and Conservatives alike as a hilariously honest criticism of politics in Canada.

Well, today Monte weighs in with a review of Shakedown in the Edmonton, Ottawa and Calgary Sun newspapers. It's a very generous review of the book, but it also contains a surprising and touching statement from Monte, speaking not as a columnist but as an ex-politician himself:

After reading Shakedown I am embarrassed for not doing nearly enough to take up this cause when I was in government.

Secondly, I'm angry. Now that all has been laid bare I hope current federal and provincial cabinet ministers are also embarrassed at this outrage, embarrassed enough to rein in human rights commissions who long ago quit caring about real human rights.

That's an incredible statement. I'm grateful for it, but perhaps Monte is being too tough on himself -- the Canadian Human Rights Commission wasn't his portfolio, it is that of the Justice Minister. And much of the corruption and abuse commited by the CHRC had not been widely aired until the last year. But I'm grateful for his statement, and for his exhortation to his former colleagues to take up the cause. Here are some other excerpts from the amazing review. I've bolded one particular sentence:

...there are some stories that shouldn't be forgotten after a week. As satisfying as it is to complain, sometimes the situation is serious enough that actual action is required. This is one of those situations.

Six months ago I left my 15-year career as a member of Parliament, including close to three years as a cabinet minister in the Conservative government. During that time I followed the story of my friend Ezra Levant as he battled the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission over his right to publish the controversial Danish cartoons that depicted Muhammad as a terrorist.

At the time I was proud of Levant for not backing down, but mostly I was too busy as a minister to pay attention to the bizarre antics of the commission.

Nor, did I understand the degree to which the same and worse abuses were taking place at the Canadian Human Rights Commission, pretty much right under the noses of me and my colleagues in the federal cabinet.

Thanks to Levant's terrific new book, Shakedown, at least now I have a full understanding of how bad things really were, and I suspect still are.

It's true. Cabinet ministers are exceedingly busy, and have little time for elective reading outside of their areas of responsibility. And even a Justice Minister has so many blinking lights on his radar screen, a relatively minor agency, such as the CHRC, would normally not come to his attention.

I myself didn't know 10% of what I now know about HRCs until I myself was ensnared by one.

But over the past year, a tremendous amount of scrutiny has come to bear on Canada's HRCs, especially the abominable conduct of the CHRC. First it was bloggers and talk radio hosts doing the heavy lifting, but soon reporters and columnists in the mainstream print media joined in, too. The HRCs have been largely denormalized. Their greatest defence -- keeping a low profile, and hiding behind their Orwellian name -- has been breached.

We know for a fact that the Justice Minister is now well briefed on the CHRC's corruption. He himself voted to repeal their odious censorship provision, at a party policy convention last November. So ignorance is no longer an excuse. Now it's just a matter of political will. 

Monte's call to action is well timed. I hope it's heeded by his former colleagues.