Page - 143 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

143Ensuring Executive and Legislative Accountability in a Pandemic parliamentary committees, to determine post hoc whether the political branches overreached. All of these elements have been evident in the federal govern- ment’s and Parliament’s initial responses to COVID-19.5 Even by emergency standards, however, the pandemic has presented serious accountability challenges. The public health crisis initially prompted the adjournment of the Senate and the House of Commons and the near-total closure of the courts.6 Prime Minister Trudeau and some members of his Cabinet were forced to self-isolate after potential exposure to COVID-19. In the weeks that followed, the political par- ties engaged in protracted discussions about how they might meet safely to enact further legislation to deal with the social and economic fallout of the pandemic.7 At the time of writing, some two months after the initial lock- down, progress has been made toward resuming normal opera- tions. The Senate and the House of Commons are sitting periodically, and some committee hearings have resumed, mostly online.8 While a range of matters are proceeding in virtual courtrooms, the courts remain closed for in-person hearings.9 But at a moment when the fed- eral government is both exercising extraordinary powers and seek- ing new powers to respond to the pandemic, the principal means of accountability—parliamentary debate, scrutiny by a parliamentary committee, and judicial review10—remain hobbled. The current situation raises questions about how we ensure that the executive and the legislature are held accountable in a public Times (21 March 2018), online: <www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/us/politics/ congress-spending-deal-government-shutdown.html>; Ian Dunt, “‘You Don’t Even Know What You’re Voting For’: MP Paints Damning Portrait of Life in Westminster”, Politics (16 June 2013), online: <politics.co.uk/news/2013/06/16/ you-don-t-even-know-what-you-re-voting-for>. 5. See Paul Thomas, “Parliament Under Pressure: Evaluating Parliament’s perfor- mance in Response to COVID-19” (3 April 2020), online: Samara Canada <www. samaracanada.com/democracy-monitor/parliament-under-pressure> [Thomas, “Parliament Under Pressure”]. 6. Ibid. 7. Ibid. 8. Ibid. 9. See Amy Salyzyn, “‘Trial by Zoom’: What Virtual Hearings Might Mean for Open Courts, Participant Privacy and the Integrity of Court Proceedings”, Slaw (17 April 2020), online: <www.slaw.ca/2020/04/17/trial-by-zoom-what-virtual- hearings-might-mean-for-open-courts-participant-privacy-and-the-integrity-of- court-proceedings>. 10. See generally Appleby, supra note 3.