The expected happened in a way that was a little unexpected – and perhaps a bit improper. The Board of Internal Economy apparently met (possibly virtually), and decided that as of November 22^nd, there is a vaccine mandate for the parliamentary precinct, and that includes MPs, staffers, and contractors. It’s a bit of a cute way of imposing a vaccine mandate on MPs themselves, but it may not fly regarding the Chamber itself because of parliamentary privilege.

Mind you, a privilege argument won’t last long. While the decision to go the route of BoIE seems to be a bit of a dare – and Yves-François Blanchet seems to indicate that he’s of the opinion that this is a legitimate use of its powers (I wouldn’t be so sure), this could easily be challenged in the Chamber, but even if the Speaker determines that there is a prima facie case of privileges being infringed, the rest of the House can vote instead to dismiss it rather than send it to committee, or even if they do send it to committee, vote it down afterward. And they likely will, because all of the parties except for the Conservatives are in favour of the vaccine mandate, so it’ll pass one way or the other. Now the government can head off any challenge by introducing a motion in the Chamber on the first or second day to declare that MPs need to be fully vaccinated in order to be in the Chamber, and they can then vote it through and it’ll be fully legit, so if they’re smart, they’ll ensure that happens once there is a Speaker in place. (This will also likely happen in the Senate, but they are still in discussion in that Chamber, but one can likely assume a similar vaccine mandate will be in place with their own precinct areas and Chamber in a similar manner).

This leaves the question of hybrid sittings. The Conservatives and Bloc have been in favour of ending them, while the NDP have supported keeping it going. The Liberals haven’t officially said, but they have been pushing for this since before the pandemic, so you can bet that they’ll be fine with some form of hybrid ability going forward, which shouldn’t be allowed – the human cost of hybrid sittings when it comes to the toll it takes on the interpreters is frankly immoral to continue with. That will nevertheless by an ongoing conversation between the parties before any order to resume said sittings goes ahead in the first few days of the new parliament – but a rule should also be made that unvaccinated MPs shouldn’t be allowed to simply join by hybrid sitting instead. Parliament, whether in the Commons or the Senate, is an in-person job, and it’s an essential function of this country. The hybrid measures should only ever have been temporary and for the duration of that pandemic emergency, and now that we have vaccines, there is no longer a need for them.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau had his meeting with Yves-François Blanchet, and agreed that all MPs present in Ottawa need to be fully vaccinated.
• Former Conservative MP James Cumming says he plans to delve into where the party bled votes, whether to the PPC or to the NDP.
• The Green Party is “temporarily” laying off staff while their financial situation remains dire, as Annamie Paul’s resignation drags on during legal wrangling.
• Heather Scoffield contemplates what changes the government will need to make to its pandemic supports now that the recovery is taking hold.
• Althia Raj looks to the Liberal platform to find areas where the government may find commonality with opposition parties on their agenda.
• Jen Gerson points to the equalisation “referendum” in Alberta as that province and Quebec acting as dark twins of one another.
• My column wonders if we need a lot more than the new seats planned for the House of Commons, given the need to strengthen our backbenches.

Odds and ends:

For the CBA’s National Magazine, I wrote about last week’s Supreme Court of Canada decision in R. v. Khill, and what it says about jury instructions in our courts.

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