Commons Ethics committee chair Paul Szabo sure knows how to enjoy the holidays. He says he spent a good amount of time during the Christmas season watching and re-watching DVD copies of Karlheinz Schreiber and Brian Mulroney testifying at committee in November and December.

One of his discoveries is that of the twelve hours allowed in total for both men's testimony, a full 4-1/2 hours were spent by committee members dealing with points-of-order, attending to votes, motions and administrative work, as Schreiber and Mulroney sat there looking on.

Szabo may hope the committee spends more of its time actually gathering testimony when hearings resume January 29th. He says he's whittled the list of 40 possible other witnesses down to a prioritized dozen, which he hopes to hear from before the end of February (in case the government falls over the budget.)

Upcoming witnesses include one who's expected to testify via videophone from Europe. Szabo also insists both Schreiber and Mulroney will be called back for more talk themselves, also before the end of February.