It was an early start in the Senate, and only one statement was made, regarding the committee report on on-reserve First Nations housing. Routine proceedings sped along, and the QP started, Senator Mitchell asked about the recent media reports on intelligence information sharing, and that the agencies asked only for more sharing and not broad powers. Carignan talked about protecting Canadians from jihadis and then raised the news of today’s attacks in France and Tunisia. Senator Plett tried to rise on a supplemental, but Mitchell wasn’t finished yet, and after some back-and-forth, Mitchell carried on with the questions about the unnecessary overreach in C-51 that CSIS didn’t ask for, but Carignan insisted they were concerned about the safety of Canadians. Mitchell noted the lack of oversight for intelligence agencies and how that would show leadership, but Carignan moved immediately to partisan swipes, saying he felt safer with Harper than with Trudeau. Mitchell started mocking Harper’s “leadership” in not getting pipelines, and asked again about oversight, and Carignan insisted things were great with SIRC. Mitchell gave one last attempt to get more of a commitment to oversight, but it did not happen.

Senator Plett finally got his supplemental, asking the National Security committee chair, for the facts on C-51. Senator Lang got up to say that they had a great debate on the bill in committee and that they got commitments from the government on things like privacy impact assessments on information sharing. Lang went on, and on, and on, and on — there is not a strict clock on questions and answers in Senate QP, remember. Senator Moore decided to throw in his own supplemental, and returne to the issue of oversight, and if all other models were worse than Canada’s. Carignan repeated his praise that SIRC is the best model for us. Moore then asked if our government was aware of American surveillance of the French government and if they knew if the Americans were surveilling us. Carignan repeated his praise of SIRC. Moore tried again twice and asked if we were spying on our allies before Carignan said that he couldn’t comment, and noted judicial warrants in C-51. Mitchell got back up and asked if CSIS got one of the new warrants from C-51 to spy on that Ontario cabinet ministers. Carignan said he couldn’t comment on CSIS’ activities.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Senator Raynell Andreychuk for a melon pink jacket with a white top and black trousers, and to Senator James Cowan for his tailored charcoal suit with a crisp white shirt and a burgundy tie. Style citations go out to Senator Percy Mockler for a milk chocolate brown suit with a grey shirt and dark brown tie, and to Senator Marjory LeBreton for a zebra print top and leopard print skirt with a light brown sweater.