The shenanigans at committees on all sides are severely testing my patience, as things continue to spiral toward a potential contempt of Parliament charge, never mind that what’s being demanded is exceeding what is generally acceptable parliamentary norms.

The demands that staffers appear at committee are clearly outrageous and in violation of the sacrosanct notion of ministerial responsibility, but the Liberals are nevertheless pushing the bounds of what is acceptable in and of itself. Instead of sending staffers, they were offered the chance to send the prime minister instead – a bit of a long shot, but sending the Government House Leader was clearly testing the committee’s bounds. For them to then send the Minister for Middle Class™ Prosperity® on a second appearance is definitely pushing buttons, and they should know better. If you’re going to invoke the principle of ministerial responsibility, then gods damned well respect it and put the actual minister forward, and for PMO staff, then the prime minister is the responsible minister. Sending Mona Fortier is a deliberate slap in the face.

At the same time, I am also particularly at the end of my rope with the constant demand for unredacted documents, and the insistence that the House of Commons’ Law Clerk be the one to do any redactions. His office is already buried under the literal millions of documents that the Health Committee demanded, and now the Foreign Affairs committee also wants a piece of him and his time to do even more redactions when the non-partisan civil service is normally the body that does this work. This is generally beyond the scope of what the Law Clerk should be doing, and he’s already stressed his resources and staff to do work they shouldn’t be doing, and yet more MPs keep making even more demands. That’s not how this works, and not how this should work, and yet they keep hand-waving about “cover-up!” as though that’s some kind of talisman. I’m not sure what the solution here is other than telling MPs from all sides to grow up, but that’s where we are.

Good reads:

• At a Liberal virtual fundraiser last night, Justin Trudeau pushed back at Doug Ford blaming the federal government for the slow rollout of vaccines.
• The federal and Ontario governments have invested in a new Sanofi plant to  manufacture flu vaccines for future pandemics.
• Here is a good sorting of the issues around the advice around AstraZeneca doses.
• David Lametti has named to former judges to lead the consultations on the creation of an independent commission to look into wrongful convictions.
• The head of military personnel is under investigation for sexual assault regarding an allegation dating back to 1991.
• Those trying to combat sexual misconduct in the military say their efforts are hobbled by the fact that there is no central database of the reported abuses.
• The Federal Court has certified a class-action lawsuits involving RCMP-designated doctors who sexually abused recruits.
• There is pushback, particularly from Indigenous communities, around the government’s (likely unconstitutional) plans to legislate bilingualism at the SCC.
• Former House of Commons Speaker Geoff Regan has decided not to run again.
• It looks like there will be divisions around anti-Semitism definitions and solidarity with Palestinian causes at the upcoming NDP virtual convention.
• Ontario is going back into another mockdown this weekend, because murderclowns.
• Robert Hiltz makes the case for the need for governments taking profit out of long-term care (but this isn’t something that the federal government can do unilaterally).
• Hiltz also drags the government for their inability to communicate on the vaccine issue, especially around what was happening with the AstraZeneca pause.
• Colby Cosh recognises the danger that the bill to attack Julie Payette’s pension would pose going forward.

Odds and ends:

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