Ottawa

UPDATED: 106(4)Watch: Hey, you know what else drives ITQ stark, staring bonkers?

UPDATE: Okay, we’ve got the name of one potential witness, at least: ITQ has been told that Suaad Mohamud is in Ottawa, and ready to testify if invited to do so by the committee.

When she can’t get a copy of the proposed witness list for an emergency committee meeting that is supposed to take place in a few hours.

Honestly, y’all, ITQ understands that the clerk can’t put out the official agenda until after the members have voted on the 106(4) motion — although somehow, the Natural Resources committee managed to do exactly that in advance of last Friday’s meeting, which was a welcome, if unexpected development. Really, though, is there any reason why the four (or more) members who sign off on a 106(4) request couldn’t at least give us some idea of which witnesses made it onto their respective wish lists?  Or better yet, but even less likely still, make the preliminary meeting – at which the motion is passed, and the list of witnesses finalized — public instead of holding it in camera.

Opening the meeting up from the start definitely would have made it a lot easier to follow the fingerponint over last week’s kerfuffle at the aforementioned Natural Resources committee, which got off to a rancorous start when the Liberals called chairnanigans over alleged witness list tampering by the Conservatives, who countered the charge by claiming that it was actually the other side who dropped the ball.)  ITQ can confirm that she’s sat in on public 106(4) votes in the past, so it’s not like it would be a gross violation of parliamentary precedent — all it takes is a motion to go public.

Anyway, on a happier note, the commentorectorate has spoken and it looks like ITQ will be heading to Foreign Affairs this afternoon, just like she was hankering to do.

Of course, now she’s wondering if she should at least drop by Agriculture, where it seems there is the distinct possibility that there are silly buggers in the works:  The Conservative chair — Larry Miller — will apparently not be able to make it to Ottawa for this afternoon’s meeting, which means that an opposition member will be obliged to take over, reducing the combined opposition vote to five. That shift in the numbers results in a de facto majority for the Conservatives, who can then vote down the 106(4) motion to investigate the government’s response to the Weatherill report on listeriosis.

Will a similar fate befall Foreign Affairs committee chair Kevin Sorenson? I guess we’ll have to wait until this afternoon to find out.



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