Every Liberal who isn't in cabinet, that is Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Correction: Yesterday's newsletter incorrectly referred to the accusations against former defence chief Jonathan Vance. He is facing accusations of inappropriate behaviour with two female subordinates. We regret the error. The G-word: Most votes in the House of Commons are routine. A lot of them are whipped votes, where disciplined parties stand together. Some of them are less disciplined, but inconsequentially so. A couple of mavericks don't make a revolution. The Commons typically produces very few surprises. Yesterday offered a rare exception. The Conservative opposition moved to declare China's mistreatment of its Uighur minority in Xinjiang province as a genocide. The final tallies on both the main motion and a Bloc Québécois amendment were a bit of a mystery until voting was underway. A crucial leak earlier in the day gave away part of the Trudeau government's strategy. Almost every cabinet minister would avoid the vote, including the PM. Only the foreign minister, Marc Garneau, would express an opinion. And he abstained. The opposition slammed Trudeau—to paraphrase Tory leader Erin O'Toole—as gutless and embarrassing. The first vote on the Bloc amendment called on the feds to lobby the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Beijing games. The final vote was 229-29 in favour. Most of the votes against came from Liberal backbenchers, including Olympian Adam van Koeverden. The main motion brought a different dynamic. No Liberals voted against. Within a matter of minutes, the motion passed by a vote of 266-0. Garneau intervened to abstain "on behalf of the Government of Canada." Tory MP Gérard Deltell and NDP MP Daniel Blaikie weren't amused. They slammed the foreign minister for attempting to vote on behalf of anyone else. Garneau clarified that he, and he alone, was voting to abstain. The intent appeared clear: Garneau was sending a signal to the Chinese, even if it broke parliamentary decorum—and even if dozens of his caucus-mates had sent their own blistering signal. A key question: What's next? Last June, the Prime Minister announced that Joseph Ribkoff Inc., a women's clothing manufacturer in Montreal, would produce 1.2 million medical gowns. Federal documents, obtained via access-to-information, offer a peek behind the scenes of that deal. After Ottawa put out a call to 22 companies who could make gowns and hooking them up with fabric providers, the feds negotiated with Joseph Ribkoff for several weeks. The company sent sample gowns to Health Canada for testing. Procurement Minister Anita Anand approved the deal on June 2. The documents redact the per-unit cost and the total order size, but do reveal the price tag: $45,122,052.60. Some quick math suggests the feds paid $37.60 apiece. Trudeau and Big Pharma, not a love story: Canada's inability to actually secure vaccines in the first two months of 2021 is a problem with many explanations. One of them is the federal government's relationship with the pharmaceutical industry. Wells spoke to the CEO of Pfizer Canada and the head of a prominent industry lobby group. Here's what he found: Late last summer, as the Trudeau government scrambled to lock down agreements with manufacturers of several vaccine candidates, people in the Canadian pharmaceuticals industry were amazed, and grimly bemused, to find their phones ringing off the hook. Because for years before COVID-19, their attempts to interest Justin Trudeau’s government and Stephen Harper’s government before it, in building a robust pharmaceuticals sector for Canada had met consistent bland indifference. CTV's Richard Madan reports that today's first bilateral meeting between Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to stretch more than two hours. He adds that Vice-President Kamala Harris will also jump on the virtual call, as will no fewer than six cabinet secretaries and various top-ranking presidential advisers. Hundreds of Canada Post workers at a distribution hub in Mississauga, Ont., have been infected with COVID-19 since the start of the year—and one employee has died. But the facility falls outside provincial jurisdiction, which means health inspectors aren't allowed in. Angus Reid has a new poll on the nation's view of Official Ottawa. Trudeau's disapproval numbers now outpace approval (52%-45%). O'Toole's numbers are worse (51%-29%). The NDP's Jagmeet Singh has a positive net rating of +8. The Liberals remain in the horse-race lead at 34 per cent, followed by the Tories at 31 and the NDP at 20. Job #1: The feds publish dozens of contracts for tender every single weekday. Sometimes they buy missiles, other times they procure laboratory equipment. Yesterday, they put out a call for national equine fluid collection services. Said the procurement officer to the winning bidder: "You're in for it now!" —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 
