The House of Commons gets back to work next week and that means that parliamentary committees resume as well. In fact the Standing Committee on Health will meet tomorrow afternoon.
Kady O'Malley, as @kady on Twitter, was kind enough to link to this page which provides the schedule of upcoming meetings. O'Malley also took note of the number of padlocks associated with the entries which indicate when meetings will be held in camera — closed to the public.
Of the ten meetings currently listed, eight of them will be held in camera. Admittedly this isn't something I've kept track of but that seems high. It's worth noting that aside from preventing the press and public from viewing the proceedings, taking the meeting behind closed doors automatically binds the participants — including opposition MPs — to secrecy.
Eight out of ten would certainly suggest one of two things: either something is in the works that a lot of us won't like or keeping the public in the dark about what goes on in committees has become the default position of this government. Either way, democracy loses.
Update:O'Malley has now posted on this herself. The relevant bit:
...this isn't an entirely unusual occurrence during the first few days of a new sitting -- there are, after all, various bits housekeeping business to which to attend, much of which is, in fact, traditionally done in private.
At the same time, given the frequency with which Conservative MPs were ejecting the public from previously open sessions before the House rose for the holidays, it may not be the most auspicious omen with which to start the New Year.
This isn't a new parliament. They're just getting back to work after the Christmas recess. So I'm not sure how much housekeeping they'd have to do before settling in to their normal duties. I think this bears watching.
