Government Ops. Committee - June 2 2010 - Warkentin

Proceedings from the chaotic June 2nd session of the Parliamentary Committee on Government Operations and Estimates


From CBC News: http://bit.ly/bhAU8F

"A parliamentary committee looking into the Rahim Jaffer affair descended into a shouting match during an unprecedented — and uninvited — appearance Wednesday by a trio of Conservative cabinet members led by Transport Minister John Baird.

Baird, appearing in Ottawa alongside Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis and junior science minister Gary Goodyear, clashed with opposition MPs on the government operations committee until the testimony of two other witnesses was suspended by a vote call in the House.

The heated appearance was the latest salvo in the battle between Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government and opposition MPs over the Conservatives' decision last week to bar ministerial staffers from appearing before committees as witnesses.

On Wednesday, the committee's opposition members had sought to hear from staff members of all three ministers, only for their bosses to show up ready for a fight.

At one point, Baird repeatedly bellowed over the committee's chair, Liberal MP Yasmin Ratansi, and tried several times to present a point of order, despite not being a member of the committee. Ratansi threatened to have the minister removed by security, while Baird charged that Ratansi didn't know how to do her job."


Here, commitee chair Yasmin Ratansi's decision to not treat the three Conservative ministers as "real" witnesses comes back to haunt her. Conservative MP Chris Warkentin saves the day (as much as it can be saved) with a more sensible idea.


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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Government
• Ops
• Committee
• June
• 2010
• Warkentin