committee
Nothing to see here
A number of recent findings by the auditor general apparently won’t be studied at committee.
Preventing inquiry
While the Conservatives launch inquiries into the CBC and NDP, another proposal disappears.
Let he who is without fallibility
Some enterprising filmographer has spliced together a video of Jason Kenney both lamenting that anyone would call a member of a minister’s staff to testify at a Parliamentary committee and, years earlier, listing all the aides and staff members he hopes to hear from at an upcoming Parliamentary committee.
‘The tyranny of the opposition’
Below is the prepared text of government House leader Jay Hill’s statement in the Commons this morning, in which he laments for the state of Parliament’s committee system and explains why ministerial staffers will no longer be taking part. Those who delight in irony might wish to read Don Martin’s 2007 column on the government’s handbook for committee manipulation before reading the following.
With or without you
Afghan committee hearings will apparently resume, unofficially, next month.
Bless this mess
In a two-part post—here and here—Kady O’Malley reviews all that has befallen Parliament’s committee system.
It depends what the definition of ‘is’ is
Canadian Press, the Star, the Globe, the Sun and the CBC report from today’s session of the special committee on Afghanistan. From CP’s dispatch.
So, what’s it like being an Assistant Secretary for Cabinet specializing in macroeconomic policy? Liveblogging various Langevinians at the Government Operations and Estimates Committee
What? Inquiring minds want to know! Anyway, here’s the notice, which I figured would help keep these deliberately faceless PCO officials straight for the duration of today’s meeting, which gets underway in — yikes, 22 minutes. ITQ, needless to say, will be there.
What to get the ex-couple who has everything: His ‘n’ hers orders to compel
At least now Julie Couillard’s lawyer can’t complain that she’s being treated any differently than her ex-minister ex-boyfriend:
This is why we can’t have nice things. Or constitutional debate.
Flipping y’all back to Colleague Wells, who put his Google-fu up against Peter Van Loan’s communications director, and – well, you can decide for yourselves who came out ahead.
Who wants to be a committee chair? No, seriously. Someone has to do it.
Another possibly relevant section of the Standing Orders (emphasis added):
A watched PROC never boils – except when required under Standing Order 106(4)
“… Within five days of the receipt, by the clerk of a standing committee, of a request signed by any four members of the said committee, the Chair of the said committee shall convene such a meeting provided that forty-eight hours’ notice is given of the meeting. For the purposes of this section, the reasons for convening such a meeting shall be stated in the request.”
But wait! What if the committee doesn’t have a chair, because – well, we won’t get into exactly why it doesn’t have a chair. It just doesn’t. Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown. Anyway, I’m not sure what the scenario would be for bringing back a committee without going through the chair, but it can’t be impossible, can it? I mean, that would mean the government could just shut down every single Conservative-chaired committee, and that just seems awfully undemocratic. Tyrannical, even.