"Consent of the governed" takes a holiday

Liz Thompson, who may yet turn out to have been the last journalist in Canada to get out of Canwest while the getting was still good, is breaking stories for her new employers at Sun Media, and this one is pleasantly surreal in a kind of that-sound-you-hear-is-the-last-bit-of-air-going-out-of-Canadian-democracy way: she found the Commons Immigration Committee meeting "informally" for four hours this week. Which is to say, without telling anyone they were going to meet, and without any plan to post a transcript. Members of every opposition party love to make hay out of Stephen Harper’s secretive streak. But given a chance, they’re all perfectly comfortable hiding their business from you. Now there’s a heartwearming thought.