PHAC boss won't back down Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. The head of the Public Health Agency of Canada is not inclined to release documents about the firing of two scientists to MPs today when he is called to the bar for a reprimand. Iain Stewart told the Commons health committee Friday that he can't release the documents: “I am a career public servant and, as a career public servant, I am required to follow the law." But his position sets him on a collision course with Parliament. The Canadian Press reports: Commons Speaker Anthony Rota ... ruled that the Commons and its standing committees have unfettered power to order the production of unredacted documents, no matter how sensitive, and to determine how they’re to be handled. Opposition members of the health committee repeatedly referred to that ruling Friday, demanding Stewart recognize that Parliament is supreme and to finally comply with the order to turn over the documents. “Nothing in the motions heretofore have made me not legally liable for the choice I’m being asked to make,” Stewart told them. Stewart has twice refused orders to produce unredacted documents that would shed light on why scientists Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were escorted out of Winnipeg’s National Microbiology Laboratory in July 2019 and then fired. Americans want the border open: American politicians who are normally friendly to Canada are angrily demanding that Justin Trudeau open the border, Alexander Panetta reports for CBC. "I wish there was a more artful way to say this — but this is bullshit," said Buffalo Democratic congressman Rep. Brian Higgins. New York state is the main source of cross-border travellers to Canada. Goldy Hyder, President of the Business Council of Canada, told CTV the border closure extension is “extremely disappointing.” “We knew this day was going to come where more and more people are going to be vaccinated and they’re going to want to know what the benefits of that vaccination are,” he said. In the National Post, Tristan Hopper argues that it's time to end the lockdowns and open up. On Thursday, only 12 people in Canada died from COVID-19. For context, in a typical year 19 Canadians can be expected to die every day from flu or pneumonia. In that same average day, 17 will die of Alzheimers, 38 will be killed in accidents and 11 will die by suicide. In much of the country, the risks from COVID-19 have now been definitively outstripped by Canada’s other public health emergency: the opioid crisis. Two Albertans died of COVID-19 on Thursday. By contrast, in just the first two months of 2021 Alberta saw an average of four fatal overdoses per day. Paul to fight on: Green Leader Annamie Paul tells the Globe that she is resolved to keep leading her party even though many are calling on her to step aside after an MP crossed the floor to the Liberals. And in her moments of doubt, she says she thought about quitting, but a comment from her son made her determined to stay. “He said to me for the first time, ‘Mom, if you don’t want to do this any more, I understand,’ “ the Green Party Leader said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. “It actually paradoxically strengthened my resolve to continue, just knowing that he would be okay if I didn’t.” Green Party founder Trevor Hancock tells the Star that the party is off the rails and should get back to basics, which means a focus on the environment. “I’m watching it from the sidelines, but my sense of it is that people are a bit losing the plot as to what Green politics and Green parties are all about,” he said. “It’s really not about Israel and Palestine. It’s not about gender politics.” Inhospitable landscape: In the Star, Chantal Hebert notes that as election fever takes hold of Parliament Hill, Trudeau can anticipate a more difficult fall, because of provincial political rhythms and the departures of known quantities, such as Hassan Yussuff and Perry Bellegarde. Hebert seems to think this points to an election: "It may be that the only lasting cure will be a return to the polls." Reason to wait? In the Telegraph Journal, Adam Huras points out that "for the 142 MPs elected for the first time on Oct. 19, 2015," the pension qualification date is Oct 19, 2021. Since those MPs would no doubt like to qualify for pensions, they might be inclined to urge caution on their leaders, at least until Oct. 20. —Stephen Maher | 
