Or so we assume. I bet they even have sandwiches — and date squares. Anyway, the committee listings for this afternoon has a distinctly clandestine theme: out of the seven meetings currently on the schedule, just three are slated to take place before the prying eyes of the public, liveblogging or otherwise.
One of those, at least, has the potential to be a lively outing: National Defence, which has called in the head of the Russian Embassy’s political section to explain just what was going on with that aborted fly-by through Canadian airspace last month – on O-Day, no less!
You can tell that they’re counting on an uncharacteristic degree of media interest: just a few minutes ago, today’s meeting was moved from the wilds of East Block to one of the big kids’ tables in Centre Block.
Over in West Block, Foreign Affairs resumes its study of Canadian foreign policy with a tasting plate of testimony from assorted witnesses, including the International Red Cross, the Association of Sri Lankan Graduates of Canada and a pair of academics: Carleton University’s Elliott Tepper, and Kenneth Cross, who studies conflict at Saint Paul University. (If there’s time after the Defence hearing, ITQ will try to catch the last hour.) Meanwhile, Veterans’ Affairs will pick up where it left off in its seemingly exhaustive examination of comparative benefits and services offered to veterans by other G8 countries.
What about the rest of the usual Monday afternoon suspects? Holed up working on draft reports, apparently, on – in no particular order – privacy reform (Ethics), arts and culture program cuts (Canadian Heritage), impaired driving (Justice) and that whole auto sector bailout crisis thing (Subcommittee on the Automotive Industry in Canada).
I’ll update this post with the highlights from the rest of the week later today.
