Working overtime at the Ministry of Condemnation

In the past two weeks Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs has issued seventeen news releases.

Nine of those have been condemnations. To be sure, these are condemnations of events that for the most part ought to be condemned, so perhaps the Ministers in charge should be commended.

But... it's all about the mote in one's own eye.

Outside of a handful of journalists and a few folks like me with too much spare time on their hands, does anyone read the Department of Foreign Affairs website?

Probably not.

What they do read is general news media, where they're far more likely to read stories like this; Canada accused of hiding child abuse evidence.

It's not a happy story. It's about the Canadian government, the same one that finds something to condemn in the world at large every other day, withholding evidence from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, that government appointed body that is charged with investigating Canada's abysmal record of genocidal treatment of its aboriginal people.

Indeed, "abysmal" is putting it all too lightly. It was and continues to be an unforgivable disgrace. You might think that Prime Minister Harper's much publicized 2008 apology for residential schools signaled a fresh approach to our relationship with our native population, but you'd be wrong.

It took a court order to get the Harper government to cough up relevant documents to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. And were they then turned over?

No.

Instead, the government appealed the court order.

That's something we should all condemn.