It's getting hot in here Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Justin Trudeau set the stage for a summer election on Tuesday, complaining that Conservative procedural delay tactics and the battle over the secret firing of two scientists is making Parliament unworkable, the Canadian Press reports. "We have seen a level of obstructionism and toxicity in the House that is of real concern," Trudeau said outside of the steps of Rideau Cottage, where he's quarantining under COVID-19 rules after a trip to Europe to attend international meetings. Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong pointed to the government and agency's repeated failure to hand over the unredacted documents, despite being ordered by the Commons to do so, as proof that the system of order under Liberal governance is broken. "The pandemic has laid bare the state our institutions," he told the House on Tuesday. Chong said the government has to go. Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen suggested an election is on the way: “Whether the rumours are true or not, two years certainly is, by conventional wisdom, on par for the standard length of a minority Parliament." Trudeau will reach the two-year mark for this government in October. From CLC to Senate: Trudeau announced three new Senate appointments Tuesday, including Hassan Yussuff—who, until just last week, was the president of the Canadian Labour Congress. Yussuff was accused by some within the union movement of being too cozy with the governing Liberals. Trudeau clashes with China: Trudeau challenged China to probe its mistreatment of Muslim minorities on Tuesday after Beijing called for an independent investigation into Canada’s treatment of Indigenous people, the Globe reports. “In Canada, we had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Where is China’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission?” Trudeau said during a news conference. At the UN on Tuesday, Canada and 40 other countries urged China to allow “immediate, meaningful and unfettered access” for independent observers to visit Xinjiang region, where Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims have been subject to mass detention. Ombudsman blames Sajjan: Canadian Forces ombudsman Gregory Lick on Tuesday accused the defence minister's office of trying to "exert control" over investigations and ignoring recommendations for change, the CBC reports. Lick is calling for the ombudsman's office to be made entirely independent, reporting to Parliament, not the minister's office. "When leaders turn a blind eye to our recommendations and concerns in order to advance political interests and their own self-preservation or career advancement, it is the members of the defence community that suffer the consequences," Lick said in a virtual media event on Tuesday. "It is clear that inaction is rewarded far more than action." The Conservatives have called for Sajjan's resignation for what they describe as his failure to root out misconduct. Super-rich, super lucky: Canada Revenue Agency efforts to combat tax evasion by the super-rich have resulted in zero prosecutions or convictions, according to data tabled in Parliament in response to question from NDP MP Matthew Green, the Globe reports. The CRA says it referred 44 cases on individuals whose net worth topped $50 million to its criminal investigations program since 2015 but that sent only two cases to prosecutors, and no charges laid. Big fat zero: On June 21, Nova Scotia reported zero new cases of COVID-19, the first time the province had nothing to report since March 29. Across the country, cases are down and vaccinations are up, Patricia Treble writes in Maclean's. Nova Scotia is opening its borders to other Atlantic provinces today, but travellers from New Brunswick will still have to isolate because New Brunswick opened sooner to the rest of the country and the two provinces appear not be co-ordinating policy effectively. On Tuesday, angry Nova Scotians set up a highway blockade in protest. Threat to press freedom: An Ontario Superior Court judge has forced Global News to hand over to the RCMP a recording from a 2019 interview conducted with an alleged ISIS member in detention in northeast Syria. Global News journalist Stewart Bell travelled to Syria in 2019 and interviewed Mohammed Khalifa, a Canadian who is alleged to have travelled there to fight for ISIS. The RCMP served Global News with a production order from a Superior Court judge that required Global News to hand over the recording. That order also imposed a gag on Global News and sealed the records of the case from the public eye. — Stephen Maher | 
