Of their own motion

The Gordon O'Connor letter to his fellow party whips reported on by Susan Delacourt is certainly interesting enough as a matter of curiosity, particularly in the fact that O'Connor apparently can't so much as write to his counterparts without including partisan slams. But the most significant part of the letter released so far looks to be the part which isn't yet publicly available (emphasis added):

With respect to the next session of Parliament:

- It is our position that all committees, including the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan be reconstituted quickly, upon the return of the House. I have attached for your and the other Whips' consideration, motions in this regard.

So what makes that statement significant? I've posted several times about my view that the prorogation should have served as an ideal opportunity for the opposition parties to hit a reset button of their own, using the convening of a new sitting of Parliament as an opportunity to coordinate the structure of committees and otherwise work on amendments to existing Parliamentary procedures to permanently shelve the Cons' dirty tricks manual. And hopefully they'll have made some progress on that front.

But O'Connor's letter signals that the Cons are looking to foreclose that possibility by offering their own motions - which presumably wouldn't have to be reviewed in advance by the opposition parties if they were merely pro forma materials. So I'm not sure anybody should be surprised if the Cons are now including requirements that, say, all questions for witnesses must be pre-cleared with the PMO.* And it would be even less surprising if the Cons demand that the opposition parties agree to whatever rules they want to set as the price of having committees back to work "quickly".

Which makes it doubly important that the opposition parties have their own plans to put in place new rules which prevent the Cons from torpedoing committee proceedings. And if the opposition is faced with a choice between a delay in getting started and a set of rules which lets the Cons hide from accountability at any time, then this looks to be a battle worth fighting.

*No, not really. Right? RIGHT?