MPs don't get their docs Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. The boss of the Public Health Agency of Canada was rebuked by MPs on Monday but did not hand over documents related to the 2019 firing of two scientists from a federal lab. MPs voted last week to summon him to try to pressure the government to release documents. He has said he is prevented by law from handing them over. Global News reports: News that [Iain] Stewart had not brought the documents quickly prompted heated exchanges between the Conservatives and Liberals, with Conservatives arguing the government was yet again defying the order to produce the documents and asking [Speaker Anthony] Rota to rule whether the refusal had breached House rules. Such a finding could theoretically escalate into an opposition bid to incarcerate Stewart through the House of Common’s rarely used powers to discipline—though it hasn’t used that power in more than a century. Liberal House Leader Pablo Rodriguez suggested the government was willing to hand the documents over to an ad hoc parliamentary committee in the same vein as the one created to study thousands of documents related to the Afghan detainee scandal in 2010. The government has accused the opposition of playing political games. The opposition says it has the right to know why the scientists were fired. From CTV: The requested material was also supposed to contain details on whether the firing of the scientists is linked to the fact that four months prior to having their security clearances revoked, Qiu sent a shipment of Ebola and Henipah viruses to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in March 2019, the same lab that’s at the centre of a new probe launched by the U.S. to determine the origins of the COVID-19 virus. Opener borders: On July 5, Canada will lift international travel restrictions for Canadians, permanent residents, and some fully vaccinated foreign nationals. As of that date, fully immunized Canadians will be able to arrive in Canada without having to self-isolate for 14 days, taking a test on Day 8, or having to stay in a quarantine hotel upon arrival. Proof of vaccination will be required in order to be exempted from the quarantine measures, and travellers are being asked to either have a paper or digital copy of their vaccination documentation. They will also have to submit proof of their vaccination as well as COVID-19-related information into the federal government’s ArriveCAN app before arriving in Canada. It's still a long road to reopening: Writing for Maclean's, Justin Ling points out that the public is distrustful of a reopening and the Liberals are ill-prepared, which makes reopening slower than necessary. Ottawa has promised that it is working furiously to bring online technologies that will allow for this reopening: Allowing Canadians, workers, and tourists alike to come-and-go from the country. Sources who spoke to Maclean’s, however, said those technologies—from an app tasked with scanning physical vaccine cards, to a digital vaccine passport—have not been pursued with any kind of urgency. The sluggish pace of reopening seems to belie two intertwined issues: The Trudeau government is coasting on a swell of public opinion that remains distrustful and anxious of even our nearest neighbours; and Ottawa seems fundamentally ill-prepared for a broader reopening. " Mysterious payments: Liberal MPs have been using parliamentary funds to pay for services from a voter-identification company run by Justin Trudeau's longtime friend, Tom Pitfield, the Globe reports. The Liberals say a firewall prevents the use of parliamentary funds for electoral ends, but MPs interviewed by the Globe appeared uncertain about what the money was actually buying. Liberal MP John McKay also said he had no idea why money from his office budget was going to Mr. Pitfield’s company. “I haven’t got a clue,” he said. “I can’t explain it. I vaguely recall once a year we write a cheque and it’s always been explained that it is within the ethical guidelines, so we all kind of sign up for it and it goes into some oblivion.” Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett is skeptical about the firewall: “Taxpayers dollars are being used to effectively subsidize the political digital operations of the Liberal Party of Canada.” Whistleblower pulled off file: The Transportation Safety Board pulled the lead safety investigator of a deadly derailment off the case after Canadian Pacific Railway threatened to sue, CBC reports. Don Crawford suspects major safety failures had led to a 2019 crash that killed three crew members. When his bosses declined to call in the RCMP, he went public. CBC has documents that show the railway threatened legal action and then yanked Crawford off the case. Musique du pays: Quebec Culture Minister Nathalie Roy announced Sunday that music played on government phone lines and in a government buildings will be from Quebec, ending the current practice of playing American music. She was inspired to make the change on hold: “I was on hold with the culture ministry’s phone line and I was taken aback to hear an American singing a little song in English to me.” —Stephen Maher | 
