There is a piece on the Canadian Press’ newswire right now about how victims of sexual assault who went before House of Commons committees to testify, whether it’s on the PornHub issue or the Canadian Forces’ problems with sexual misconduct, have been ill-treated by MPs, usually by rudeness, or not allowing them time to deal with the trauma related to this kind of testimony. And they’re absolutely right – and Commons committees are some of the worst offenders for this kind of behaviour.

Why? Part of this is because MPs lack some basic self-awareness. There are tight rules around timelines in committee hearings, as to how long an MP has to ask questions and get answers, and they get so wrapped up in the issue of their time that they get tunnel vision, and witnesses essentially get railroaded by it. The bigger and more prevalent part, however, is that MPs are more concerned about scoring points at these hearings that they are simply being partisan dicks about everything. Ask anyone who has testified before both Commons and Senate committees, and they will tell you that Senate committees are far more preferable, as they are more interested in the subject matter and the actual expertise or experiences of the witnesses than they are in using those witnesses to score points on their behalf. And much of the time, they’re barely paying attention, because they don’t have to actually write the report at the end – the analysts provided by the Library of Parliament do, and MPs simply approve it or write dissenting recommendations. It’s a problem and it really, really devalues the role that Commons committees should be playing in our basic democratic processes in this country.

And I can speak to some of this from personal experience. I was once invited to testify before the Procedure and House Affairs committee as they were contemplating hybrid and remote voting rules, and it quickly became apparent that I had been asked not for my expertise or my insights as someone who had been watching Parliament longer than any member of that committee had been an MP – I was there to be treated as a reactionary whom they could hold up their proposals to and show that they were being reasonable and my opinions weren’t. It was kind of a gross experience, and I was rudely treated by a couple of Liberal MPs (one of whom has since become a minister), because they were interested in scoring points. I also didn’t have the added weight of having to re-traumatise myself to provide this testimony to be treated in such a way, like some of the women in the piece were. It’s pretty gross, and it’s a poor reflection of how Parliament operates, particularly in the current climate and context. MPs really need to shape up and do better, if they want to retain any credibility at all.

Good reads:

• Patty Hajdu has confirmed that the government is working on some kind of vaccine passport system to allow for international travel to be reopened.
• Harjit Sajjan says he’s open to “far greater” changes to how the military handles sexual misconduct, which seems a) obvious, and b) too little too late.
• In case you missed it, the Senate passed the back-to-work legislation for the Port of Montreal late Friday night (and the government has swallowed itself whole).
• Here is a look at how Ralph Goodale is preparing to take up the position as Canada’s new High Commissioner in London.
• Canada will be sending medical equipment from its emergency stockpile to India to help with the dire situation in that country.
• Here’s a longread about what we know about the alleged RCMP spy, and the processes at the RCMP he was able to exploit.
• Black current and former civil servants want faster action to addressing barriers that prevent them from promotion, five-years study disaggregated data.
• Freelance interpreters being employed by Parliament are not being offered sick leave, in spite of the high rate of acoustic injury they are facing from hybrid sittings.
• Expect more shenanigans at the defence committee as the opposition demands that the prime minister’s chief of staff testify on what she knew of the Vance allegations.
• Jason Kenney won’t make serious restrictions to fight the huge COVID fire in his province, but he will suspend the legislature for two weeks to avoid accountability.
• Heather Scoffield considers “Bidenomics,” and how he’s behind Canada’s curve in many ways, but also risks overtaking Canada with more robust spending promises.
• Chantal Hébert suspects that Harjit Sajjan is being allowed to stay on as dead minister walking in order to distract from Trudeau’s bigger failings as a feminist.

Odds and ends:

When COVID reared its ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled,
He's brave brave brave Premier Kenney.

With hospitals full and ICUs packed
He bravely turned and buggered off
He's brave brave brave Premier Kenney pic.twitter.com/VFBNJujnX8

— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) May 3, 2021

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