Mar 14 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — As of Tuesday morning, it hadn’t happened yet, but at some point over the next few days — possibly as early as this afternoon, but more likely later this week — members of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs will vote on whether to expand the witness list for their ongoing probe into […]
Mar 7 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — As even occasional readers of this column have undoubtedly picked up over the years, Process Nerd has accumulated a handful of very particular procedural pet peeves: referring to time allocation motions as “closure,” using “session” and “sitting” interchangeably, and pairing the words “contempt” and “parliament” for dramatic effect when decrying a government’s failure to comply […]
Feb 28 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — Given how swiftly the latest twists in the plot seem to be unfolding, it’s probably not a bad idea to start out by dropping a buoy in the timeline. As of right now, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hasn’t announced his intention to convene a public inquiry into allegations of attempted political interference by the Chinese […]
Feb 22 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — For the first time in nearly 15 years, the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner is vacant. Not, to be c lear, the lower-case office, which (at least, as far as Process Nerd knows) is still open for business as usual, but the capital-O Office of the capital-C Commissioner, which, up until […]
Feb 14 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — Let’s start with what we know: barring a wildly unlikely but still mathematically possible combination of procedural glitches (more on that later, fear not), by this time next week, Justice Paul Rouleau’s report on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s unprecedented decision to invoke the Emergencies Act in response to the rolling cross-country anti-COVID vaccine mandate blockades […]
Jan 24 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — “This sounds like a small point, and of course it is.” So writes Bill Morneau midway through more than 500 words of genteel grumbling over the state of the office in which he took up temporary residence during his tenure as finance minister. “The furniture was dowdy, the walls were bar e and the environment […]
Jan 4 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — If the Liberals are worried that publicizing the location details of party fundraisers headlined by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or members of his cabinet could constitute a security risk, they’re going to have to convince Parliament to rewrite the current political financing laws. That, in a nutshell, is the major takeaway from a draft interpretation […]
Nov 29 2022 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — Who else has spent the last six weeks glued to the live feed of the Public Order Emergency Commission, watching dozens of progressively more senior civil servants and elected officials submit to hours of polite yet relentless questioning led by highly trained commission counsel? After that, it’s hard to tune into a House of Commons […]
Nov 22 2022 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — When she rises in the House of Commons later this afternoon to launch the final round of debate on her backbench bid to protect workers’ pensions during corporate bankruptcy proceedings, Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu can take no small satisfaction in having achieved something that relatively few rank-and-file members will ever get the chance to do: […]
Nov 1 2022 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — The commissioner has given us a hint. It’s been two and a half weeks since the independent commission tasked with examining Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s unprecedented invocation of the Emergencies Act began holding public hearings. Media coverage has, for the most part, focused on one simple but crucial question: Does the evidence submitted so far […]
Oct 12 2022 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — The Liberal party’s much self-touted 2017 pledge to go above and beyond the law in ensuring “open and transparent” fundraisers no longer includes providing a public heads-up on the venue for events featuring Justin Trudeau. Previously, those listings — which can be found on the party website — included not just the date, time and […]
Oct 4 2022 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — The fall sitting hasn’t even made it to the first extended time-out, but we’ve already watched two procedural battles play out on the floor of the House of Commons. It was just two days into the sitting when, as recapped by iPolitics’ own Jeff Labine, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis rose on a point of privilege […]
Aug 2 2022 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — The prime minister may be officially off the clock — and, as Canadian Press reports, out of the country entirely as he vacations with his family in Costa Rica — for the next two weeks, but the summer ministerial circuit is still up and running as key front benchers hit the hustings to promote their […]
Jun 7 2022 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — The Conservatives may have dropped their omnibus pitch to draft an off-season assignment list for committees, but the question of how to keep those Liberal feet to the fire until the fall is still a live one.
Jun 1 2022 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — Is it time to pull the plug on virtual House proceedings? With the time-limited protocols that, for the last two-years-and-counting of pandemic-imposed restrictions, have allowed MPs to take part in Commons debates and committee meetings via video — and, as of last fall, vote remotely from anywhere in Canada using a custom-built mobile app — […]