The House of Commons ethics committee had another full slate of witnesses ready for tomorrow. But there are some things you just can't control.

Elmer MacKay, a former minister in the government of Brian Mulroney and also a friend of Mulroney's current antagonist, Karlheinz Schreiber, won't be there. MacKay, the father of Peter MacKay, the current defence minister, had a fall, was taken to hospital and is unable to travel.

That is too bad because MacKay might have offered some important bits of information that could contribute to a greater understanding of this whole affair.

Schreiber has testified in the past that, among other things, Elmer MacKay sent him an e-mail to help Schreiber draft a letter of apology to Mulroney, a letter that Schreiber has since mostly repudiated.

Schreiber says he wrote the letter because he believed it would help him to avoid extradition. Mulroney points to that letter as proof that there was nothing improper about the business arrangement between the two men.

The ethics committee hopes to hear from MacKay senior in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, tomorrow's witnesses will include Giorgio Pelossi, a former business associate of Schreiber, and author and journalist Stevie Cameron, who has written extensively about all of this.