Roundup: The problem with pulling out of NSICOP

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The demand for documents related to the firing of two scientists from the National Microbiology Lab reached a boiling point yesterday, as the House of Commons voted to summon the president of the Public Health Agency of Canada to the bar in the Commons to face censure – and turn over the document – while Erin O’Toole also declared that he was pulling the Conservative members from NSICOP, alleging that there is some kind of cover-up happening.

For weeks, O’Toole and Michael Chong in particular, have been trying to paint a story that these two scientists caused a national security breach at the Lab, and that there have been a string of resignations over it. There’s no actual evidence for any of this – all signs point to the firing as being over a breach of intellectual property protocols, which was coupled with the fact that there used to be a permissive culture in the Lab where scientists (especially those deemed “favourites,” and one of the two fired scientists was indeed a favourite), did whatever they wanted and staff were instructed to make it happen – but that management changes started to end that culture, and it’s currently a fairly toxic workplace. (Check out my interview with the reporter who’s been on this story for two years here). The government has insisted they can’t turn over documents because of privacy laws, and the vague notions about national security because the two were marched out by federal RCMP, without any elaboration, and this opacity just made it easier to build up conspiracy theories – especially when they could tie them into the Wuhan lab in China, were samples of other viruses were sent to.

O’Toole withdrawing from NSICOP, a mere day after new members were appointed to the committee, damages the national security oversight in this country overall. Yes, there are legitimate criticisms about how NSICOP is structured – especially when it bumps up against the realities of a hung parliament – but it could also have been used to build trust between national security agencies and MPs, so that when it came up for review in five years, they may have been able to move toward a more UK-like model where it became a parliamentary committee. (More history in this thread). Some national security experts, like Stephanie Carvin, have argued that it should have been where initial determinations about those documents could be made, especially because they could be read in context – you can’t just read national security documents cold and make sense of them. But there is an additional, cultural problem for opposition MPs in this country (of all stripes) is that they prefer to remain ignorant in order to grandstand, and that’s exactly what O’Toole did yesterday – grandstand at the expense of the trust with national security agencies, and the cause of oversight of national security by parliamentarians. Short-term partisan considerations once again take the fore. What a way to run a democracy.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1405508435521806338

Good reads:

  • The prime minister named Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Mahmud Jamal to the Supreme Court of Canada, making him the first non-white justice on the top bench.
  • NACI is now recommending an mRNA vaccine for a second dose for AstraZeneca recipients, as the US is donating a million more Moderna doses to Canada.
  • Vaccine certification will go live in July for the ArriveCan app for travellers arriving in the country.
  • The government is pledging $115 million over two years to assist Venezuelan refugees living in Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean.
  • Palestinian refugees in Canada are asking the government to resettle their families here in Canada with them.
  • Here is a look at what some of the government’s arguments in their Federal Court challenge of the Human Rights Tribunal overreaching its mandate.
  • We got an update on the Centre Block renovations, and they are now aiming for work to be completed in 2030/31. (More photos here).
  • The Commons’ industry committee is calling on the government to amend the Competition Act in order to make wage-fixing an offence equal to price fixing.
  • The Commons’ public safety committee’s report on systemic racism in policing says that ending RCMP contract policing should be explored.
  • The ethics committee released their report on PornHub, and want fines levied if the company doesn’t remove non-consensual content when they are alerted to it.
  • Annamie Paul tried another swipe at Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland, calling her a “female shield,” which Freeland hit back forcefully over.
  • Heather Scoffield hopes for coordinated efforts in taxing web giants, as is shaping up for global minimum corporate taxes, in spite of American foot-dragging.
  • Susan Delacourt is decidedly unimpressed with Annamie Paul’s attempt to blame Justin Trudeau for her woes, and her demands that he patronize her leadership.
  • Colby Cosh makes the salient point that the people decrying Ford’s use of the Notwithstanding Clause to limit political ads are usually in favour of such limits.

Odds and ends:

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One thought on “Roundup: The problem with pulling out of NSICOP”

  1. “Impeach Fauci! Impeach Fauci! Beijing Biden is selling us out to the Commie Chinese!”

    I’d say that the Cons should just up and do a Vulcan mind meld with the Republicans, but neither one has much in the way of minds in the first place. I’m sure it must be from all of Bill Gates’ 5G microwaves getting through their tin foil MAGA hats.

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