Last week, the provincial New Democrats made much ado about child and youth officer Jane Morley's investigation into the "timelines, changes to terms of reference, and other matters relating to" the director's case review of Sherry Charlie's death. Specifically, children and family development critic Adrian Dix said the report proved "key recommendations were suppressed" and pointed to the "clear need for the reinstatement of an independent Children's Commission." So it was somewhat surprising that yesterday's questions period didn't include any inquires about Ms. Morley's review. When asked why, party leader Carole James explained "In fact, we've raised issues about MCFD all week. We've been raising issues with the media. And we'll continue to raise issues." Of course, Ms. James made that statement on Monday. And that means it would have been temporally impossible for her to have been raising issues about the ministry of children and family development all week. But we digress.

Getting back to the question at hand, your humble organ then asked Ms. James whether there wasn't anything in Ms. Morley's report she wanted to ask about. Responded the leader: "There's a great deal. And we're going to continue to ask those questions when the Hughes report comes down tomorrow." There are, however, just two little problems with that cunning plan.

Number one: earlier this month, Ted Hughes announced his B.C. Children and Youth Review would be released in its entireity on April 7 rather than splitting the report into two parts - one to be published on February 28 and the other on April 30. So, for those who missed the point, Mr. Hughes's review won't be coming down today. And two: it's going to be a bit difficult for the Opposition to ask Children and Family Development Minister Stan Hagen any questions about Ms. Morley's investigation, given that he jetted off today for a meeting with federal Human Resources and Social Development Minister Diane Finley in Ottawa.