In which a Canadian negotiator for a treaty against anti-personnel weapons is removed by the Harper Government™ for being good at his job.

Earl Turcotte was holding firm on a draft Article that essentially gives aid and comfort to non-signatories to use cluster bombs with the connivance of signatories in joint operations:

Article 21 is intended to give legal protection to countries like Canada that take part in joint military operations with American forces — as has been the case in Afghanistan for much of the last decade, he said.

Turcotte said the true intent of the section is being subverted and would essentially “aid and abet” the continued use of cluster bombs.

In December, after two years of infighting, Foreign Affairs gave in to key Department of National Defence demands that would allow for an interpretation of Article 21 more in line with the U.S. position.

Turcotte said Canadian troops would never actually use cluster bombs, but could become party to their use by the U.S.

“Canada could be in part responsible for more civilian deaths because of the use of this weapon. That’s just, to me, morally and legally unacceptable. I simply couldn’t live with myself if I allow this go through unchallenged,” he said.

One brave man, speaking truth to Harper Power™. Not enough.

Canada was one of 108 countries to sign the cluster bomb treaty in December 2008, and it went into effect in August 2010 after being ratified by more than 50 countries.

But critics say the government is dragging its heels on tabling legislation in Parliament that would ratify the treaty, unlike its speedy adoption of the Ottawa Treaty to ban landmines in the late 1990s.

Harper’s Bureaucrats™ would prefer a weak treaty with loopholes. Civilians will die.

[H/t Bianca Jagger via skdadl]