Saved by the bell – the cowbell, even

By kadyomalley - Monday, August 18, 2008 at 1:53 PM - 0 Comments

ITQ may have a committee to liveblog this week after all – and a potentially juicy one, too. I forget who it was who first alerted me to it last this week – in my defence, it was a really frantic few days – but the opposition parties are 106(4)ing the Agriculture committee back to discuss cuts to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, or the “Walkertonization” of the Canadian regulatory system, depending on who you ask.

Also, have you – yes, you! – voted in the macleans.ca poll, which this week asks a question near and dear to the hearts of ITQ readers everywhere?

And now, a few very pointed questions from the audience: Liveblogging the Ethics committee's afternoon session

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 1:42 PM - 0 Comments

1:54:11 PM
… And we’re back, or at least on the verge of it – that two hour lunchbreak just flew by, although I did manage to wolf down a balanced and nutritious lunch of — black cherry ice cream. Two scoops. Which I hope answers the question of whether I’m some sort of health nut somewhat definitively.

Marc Mayrand is already in his seat, along with Francois Bernier, his — co-election thingy; I’ve forgotten his title, but he’s a senior staffer at Elections Canada.

They’re only scheduled to do two more hours of questioning — the last two will be spent on committee business, which will mean dealing with David Tilson’s trio of motions, and finalizing the witness list. That could get very interesting indeed, as the chair wants to hold in public, rather than in camera, which is how these things are usually done.
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UPDATE – In and Out Inside Out: Liveblogging the Ethics committee

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 9:12 AM - 0 Comments

UPDATE THINGY: Instead of making this the longest post in the history of macleans.ca, I’m going to switch threads for the afternoon session, so click here for part two.

9:40:42 AM
Twenty minutes to go, and I’m already installed at the media table, having once again shown up early on the assumption that journalists would have slept in line outside the committee room overnight to secure a prime viewing spot, because I apparently haven’t yet figured out that not everyone gets as excited over committees as I do.

(Although this is likely to be a slightly better-attended session than the last meeting I covered, at which I was quite literally the only reporter there.)

Anyway, before they get started, a brief recap for anyone out there who hasn’t been following the story with as obsessive an eye as ITQ: The Ethics committee is about to kick off its long-awaited investigation into the so-called In and Out scandal, an ongoing battle between Elections Canada and the Conservative Party over whether the latter went over the advertising spending limit for advertising during the last election by funneling national ad buys through local campaigns. (For more background, check the FAQ here.)

.

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Oh, and just in case there was even a shadow of a doubt in anyone's mind …

By kadyomalley - Monday, July 14, 2008 at 10:32 PM - 0 Comments

Of course I’ll be covering the Ethics committee this week — both days, gavel to gavel; from10am til 6pm – not including the two hour break for lunch and however many hours of Conservative-driven procedural shenanigans Paul Szabo can take before he starts cuts off government members’ microphones.
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Bury my heart at 269 West Block – The very last Ethics committee. Really. Maybe.

By kadyomalley - Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 3:55 PM - 0 Comments

3:29:44 PM
I know I’ve said this before – and I may end up saying it again – but this is almost positively definitely absolutely the last Ethics meeting before the summer break. In fact, it may be my last committee, period, before the summer break. Suddenly, I feel so lost. What will I do with myself without the comforting buzz of a government filibuster?

Then again, they could always bring it back over the summer, should something break wide open on the in and out scandal, or the scourge of veiled voting menaces democracy again.

Man, I miss Procedure and House Affairs.

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Liveblogging Ethics for the possibly very last time: When shall we twelve meet again – in thunder, prorogation or in rain?

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 3:49 PM - 0 Comments

3:28:12 PM
Can you believe this may be the very last time I get to liveblog the Ethics committee before the summer break? If the House rises on Thursday, that is—as everyone seems to think will likely be the case—and they don’t bother scheduling a final meeting for that afternoon. I guess it depends what happens today, really: the in and out motion is still on the table, and that could eat up the whole two hours, plus a few other loose ends to tie up—the letter from Brian Mulroney’s lawyer declining the invitation to make a follow-up appearance and a motion from Pat Martin to do we don’t know what. Well, I don’t know; I expect the committee members have a copy, though.

The mood seems surprisingly buoyant on both sides of the table—the Conservatives, and especially Mike Wallace, are downright giddy with delight. They’re teasing the opposition side over the fate of the in and out motion: “Do you really think it’s going to pass?” Wallace asks Sukh Dhaliwal. “Were you smoking something during the break?”

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Government Ops – Who investigates the NAFTA leak investigator? (These guys do!)

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 11:50 AM - 0 Comments

11:09:32 AM
After a somewhat haphazard start to the day that involved much strategic scrambling on the part of your humble liveblogger, I managed to make it to Government Operations — with time to spare, even. That’s no small accomplishment, considering I only found out this morning that the committee will be considering a most intriguing motion from Liberal MP Mario Silva. He wants the committee jumpstart its investigation into the Lynch Report, the PCO-authored inquiry into the notorious NAFTA/Obama/Clinton/PMO/CTV/And-A Player-To-Be-Named-Later/Just-Don’t-Call-It-NAFTAGate leak, which may or may not have cost Obama a crucial win in Ohio by implying he wasn’t serious about re-negotiating NAFTA. Of course, since then, Hilary Clinton has dropped out of the race, Obama secured the nomination, and it’s all one big happy Democrat family, except for those possibly mythical angry Clinton supporting women who John McCain is hankering to seduce into voting Republican just to show The Man.

Anyway, Silva is calling on the committee to hold its first hearing on Thursday, just one day before that very same John McCain is scheduled to speak to a Chateau Laurier ballroom-sized crowd on, of all things, free trade. Why is that relevant, you ask? Well, because the suspect list has recently expanded to include Frank Sensenbrenner, Republican operative, Canadaphile, and formerly on contract with the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC, much to the reported displeasure of the existing staff. According to the Toronto Star’s Jim Travers, Sensenbrenner was foisted onto the embassy by PMO, and was basically treated like Langevin’s spy in DC by all and sundry. Although his name surfaced at the time, he was never interviewed by Lynch’s handpicked detectives, which the opposition finds somewhat suspicious. That’s one reason – among many – why the opposition members want Government Operations to review the report.
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So this is it – the final countdown? – Liveblogging the Ethics committee debate on Conservatives' in and out ad scheme

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 4:09 PM - 0 Comments

3:24:55 PM
Signs That Are Not All That Promising: You walk into committee, and the first thing you hear is one clerk telling another that he’s hoping he won’t have to stay all night and the other clerk replies by telling him, brightly, that there’s a roster.

Oh, good. Is there someone there who can spell off an exhausted liveblogger?

Yeah, so apparently, the rumours are true: there’s a fairly good chance that this afternoon’s meeting of the Ethics committee could turn into an evening meeting, then a midnight meeting—hell, maybe even a breakfast meeting. It all depends on whether the Conservatives launch a last ditch attempt to filibuster the vote on a motion to investigate the Conservative in and out advertising scandal, which is hauntingly similar, in substance, to that fateful motion that brought Procedure and House Affairs to an ignomious end. There’s a key difference this time around, though.

Unlike Proc, which was chaired by the ever-obliging Gary Goodyear, who was always willing to call a five minute break to allow a filibustering colleague to slip off to the men’s room, this committee is run by Paul Szabo, and he’s prepared to make them sit all night if that’s what it takes — and it very well might.

3:36:01 PM
If you’re wondering why the meeting hasn’t started yet, it’s because of a vote—the members are only just starting to trickle into the room and the chair hasn’t made his entrance yet. If he’s carrying supplies for a sit-in, we’ll know this could be a long night.

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Resolution InSite? Liveblogging the Health committee on harm reduction

By kadyomalley - Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 11:12 AM - 13 Comments

9:52:07 AM
As it turns out, it’s a good thing I showed up early to beat the crowds – when I arrived, the media table had been taken over by staffers, leaving no room for your intrepid liveblogger. After a brief tete a tete with the slightly harried clerk assistant at the door, the all-important Reserved for the Media signs came out and the table was recaptured for the fourth estate. (For anyone about to chastise me for bad manners, the displaced staffers were fine with moving back one row. I’m not one of those reporters, imperious and convinced that she is entitled to her journalistic entitlements.)

10:01:09 AM
The chair, Joy Smith, a mild-mannered Conservative, starts the committee with a disturbing announcement: apparently, one of the witnesses who was supposed to appear today was targeted by protesters earlier this week.

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The other side of the story: Liveblogging the Khadr committee

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 12:23 PM - 0 Comments

11:51:11 AM
Okay, I know every other journalist in the country is chasing the shooting star that is the Bernier Affair. But just because we have our first genuine political sex scandal in possibly ever—I don’t think Gerda ever did the deed, did she? Just lots of long, lingering looks?—doesn’t mean that we can ignore fundamental issues of human rights, international law and all that stuff, right? And today is a very special day at the Subcommittee on International Human Rights: We’re going to hear from witnesses who think the government should leave Omar Khadr to rot in an American military detention camp! Won’t that be… different?

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The Senate Preservation League—Liveblogging the Senate Legal Affairs Committee

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 4:41 PM - 0 Comments

3:55:13 PM
What, you thought just because Justice was denied that I’d slough off early, claiming some sort of procedural force majeure? I’m hurt. No, as soon as the crowd started to disperse at Wellington, I hit the bricks and headed for East Block, where I am currently dripping on the very plush carpet of Legal and Constitutional Affairs, the august senatorial body poised to deliberate on the anti-Senate election bill discussed earlier today. I am also eating a chocolate chip cookie.

3:59:34 PM
The chair opens the meeting with a discreet, civilized bang of the gavel; she welcomes the minister—that would be Peter Van Loan—and his entourage, and tells the committee to be brief and succinct, as he has not one but two engagements at 5. And with that, over to PVL.

4:00:59 PM
Change: it’s a good thing. That seems to be Van Loan’s theme today, at least, as far as the opening statement. Change good, sneaky attempts to stonewall change bad. Continue…

Liveblogging the Khadr Committee – Children's Crusade, redux

By kadyomalley - Monday, May 5, 2008 at 2:11 PM - 0 Comments

Last week, the Subcommittee on International Human Rights got a
whirlwind tour of the looking-glass world of U.S. military justice,
courtesy of William Keubler, the American army lawyer assigned to
defend Omar Khadr, who described a parallel legal system that seemed to
owe as much to Lewis Carroll as George Orwell, and implored Canada to
come to the defence of his child soldier client. This afternoon, the
committee is likely to hear a similar message from the Canadian Bar Association, which will be represented at the
table by Lorne Waldman, who headed up Maher Arar’s legal team for the
O’Connor Report, and who has repeatedly condemned the current (and
former) government for refusing to intervene on Khadr’s behalf, making
Canada the only Commonwealth country not to stand up for the rights of
citizens caught in the jurisdictional crossfire of the “War on Terror”.

12:50:55 PM
So sorry, y’all, for the eerie silence emanating from these parts this
morning; there were, shall we say, technical difficulties plaguing ITQ
Central this morning, with the ultimate result of delaying this
morning’s committee lookahead, which will hopefully go up later this
afternoon. Right now, though, I’m waiting for the gavel to drop at the
Subcommittee on International Human Rights, which is holding a second
hearing into the case for (and against) Omar Khadr, and how Canada has
handled the situation thus far. With a few minutes to go before the
chair drops the gavel, there’s lots of congenial handshaking and
backclapping between witnesses and committee members; it’s a very civil
atmosphere, although I suspect that might change once the Q&A
portion of the afternoon gets underway.
Continue…

Fraser to PCO: Put the comm plans down and nobody gets hurt

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 2:32 PM - 0 Comments

The relevant bit, from yesterday’s liveblog:

12:38:55 PM
David Christopherson just asked a very good question that produced an
even better answer from Fraser – the money quote, I would suggest.
There are certain statutory conditions that apply to all officers of
Parliament that give an “inappropriate role” to a minister or the
government itself. “My communications strategies aren’t going to PCO,”
she quips.

Wait, why does PCO get anyone’s communications strategy? That seems odd.

Anyway, Christopherson is widely supportive of her position and
offers the services of this humble committee, if necessary, to force
the issue in Parliament. Yes, bow, that sudden breeze was a shot.

12:47:45 PM
Borys wants to know about that PCO policy too, the one that requires
officers of Parliament to turn over their respective communications
strategy. Specifically, when did that come into effect? She doesn’t
really answer the question. It’s a draft policy and she’s not sure if
was part of the old policy.

And… that’s it. Huh. Definitely worth following up on that, I’d say.

Remembrance of PROCs Past: Those who forget history …

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 4:17 PM - 0 Comments

… are fortunate enough to be able to relive it, in almost realtime, via the ITQ archives:

• Liveblogging the Procedure and House Affairs Committee: Filibuster ahoy! (February 5, 2008)

• Liveblogging PROC: We’ll stop blogging when he stops talking – the return of the killer filibuster (February 7, 2008)

• Liveblogging PROC: Bustafila! Round Three Macleans.ca Blog Central (February 12, 2008)

• Liveblogging PROC: His point – and he *does* have one … (February 14, 2008)

• Liveblogging PROC: Is this the end of a very Goodyear? (March 4, 2008)

• Liveblogging PROC – We’ll leave a candle in the window, Gary (March 6, 2008)
  

Liveblogging the Environment committee: Huh, maybe we *can* just get along.

By kadyomalley - Monday, April 28, 2008 at 3:55 PM - 0 Comments

3:20:23 PM
As it turned out, I couldn’t just turn my back on my old pal, the Environment committee – at least, not until they’ve licked to the centre of the Tootsie Pop that is Jack Layton’s climate change bill. For those joining us late in the program, a brief recap: Jack Layton introduced a bill on climate change, and the Conservatives proceeded to filibuster it for weeks and weeks, until they just — sort of gave up the fight right before the break. Anyway, thanks to truceiness forged by the NDP’s Nathan Cullen, the Layton bill will no longer play the role of Prometheus having its guts ripped out nightly by ravenous eagles; instead, the committee will file a sort of they-a culpa to the Speaker, explaining why they weren’t able to make it through clause by clause. That’s why I’m here, in fact – today, they’re supposed to finish up the not-really-a-report, so I figured that I should be here. Closure, as they say.

3:30:02 PM
And it’s off to a brisk, efficient start; the chair will hand out copies of each party’s respective submissions, so that everyone can see what the others are going to tell the Speaker, as far as what went horribly wrong, and who is to blame.

Mark Warawa, who, as parliamentary secretary, is Environment Minister John Baird’s Man on the Scene, wants to make sure that his – and the government’s – concerns over the bill itself will be reflected in the final version.

And – wow, is that really that? I figured they’d at least want to talk about the letter. I wonder if I can make it to Finance in time to catch Diane Finley’s appearance. Probably not. Curse you, consensus, for messing up my afternoon!

Liveblogging PROC – We'll leave a candle in the window, Gary (From the archives)

By kadyomalley - Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 4:22 PM - 0 Comments

(Originally liveblogged on March 6, 2008)

10:58:15 AM
Somehow, this seems like the perfect way to kick off what could be the last conventional meeting of the Procedure and House Affairs meeting for some time: up until about two minutes ago, we were all standing around in the hallway outside the committee room, waiting for Human Resources – one of the few remaining functional committees – to finish up a study on something of actual substance. Now, however, we’re inside, and the opposition MPs are serenading a somewhat bootfaced Gary Goodyear with “Goodbye, goodbye, it’s time to say goodbye.”

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Liveblogging PROC: Is this the end of a very Goodyear? (From the archives)

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 4:22 PM - 0 Comments

(originally liveblogged on March 4, 2008)

10:56:12 AM
Four minutes to
go before what could be the swan song for Gary Goodyear, whose tenure
as chair and chief filibuster-wrangler at Procedure and House Affairs
may be drawing to a close. On Thursday, the committee will debate a
motion of non-confidence in the chair, which will almost certainly lead
to hurt feelings, lingering bitterness and maybe a new
soon-to-be-long-suffering face at the head of the table. At this point,
I can’t imagine that Goodyear is overly distraught by the prospect of
stepping down; somehow, I doubt he thought the job would be limited to
babysitting cranky opposition MPs while his caucus colleagues eat up
the clock.
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Liveblogging PROC: His point – and he *does* have one … (From the archives)

By kadyomalley - Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 4:22 PM - 0 Comments

11:03:20 AM
Well, this
meeting has a lot to live up to, as far as the standard set by Ethics.
Bang goes the gavel, and the Conservatives lose no time in proposing
that the committee proceed “immediately” to Bill C6, the veiled voter
bill. (Incidentally, my entirely unsolicited recommendation: kill it
with fire.)
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Liveblogging PROC: Bustafila! Round Three (From the archives)

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 4:22 PM - 0 Comments

11:00:13 AM
An oddly serene atmosphere in the room, given the tensions simmering at
the table. On the agenda today: an opposition-backed motion to sidestep
any further attempts at filibustering by the Conservatives, and finally
get down to the business of debating whether or not to investigate the
‘In and out’ controversy.
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Liveblogging PROC: We'll stop blogging when he stops talking – the return of the killer filibuster (From the archives)

By kadyomalley - Thursday, February 7, 2008 at 4:22 PM - 0 Comments

10:58:45 AM
It’s baaack -
the Procedure and House Affairs committee, that is, after an enforced
time out that sent opposition parties into a collective fit of pique.
The morbidly curious can read the original posts for details; suffice it to say that no one knows exactly what’s going to happen today.
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Liveblogging the Procedure and House Affairs Committee: Filibuster ahoy! (From the archives)

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 4:22 PM - 0 Comments

11:03:27 AM
Order, order! Actually, it was far less dramatic than that. The chair just gavelled his way into control of the meeting, which we’re joining already in progress. The meeting was in camera ’til now, so the reporters who have shown up — and there are a surprising number of us — will have to catch up via deductive reasoning and/or tipoffs from members’ staff.

Michel Guimond is making disturbing half-references to something that sounds suspiciously like a possible filibuster. He’s discussing what happens if there are no “motions to adjourn” when 1pm rolls around. Basically, the committee keeps going, and going, and going, and going, and eventually, a committee made up of the great-great grandchildren of today’s members, as well as superintelligent robots, will find our dessicated bodies, still wearing earpieces.
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