UPDATED - Maybe the minister wants to talk Rights and Democracy in public - Liveblogging Lawrence Cannon at Foreign Affairs

At the very least, his appearance today will force the committee to extract itself, however briefly, from the depths of those infuriatingly inaccessible in camera confines in which it persists in meeting -- including, by the way, today before the minister shows up. 

AFTER THE LIVEBLOG WAS OVER UPDATE:  Unfortunately, I'd already closed the CoverItLive window by the time I noticed the minister was somewhat reluctantly submitting to a post-meeting scrum, but he did manage to get himself into a bit of a talking point bind over his replies on the PM's maternal and infant health initiative; while repeating his line that it has nothing whatever to do with family planning or reproductive health, he mentioned at one point that "everyone knows [his] position" -- on abortion, or contraception, it wasn't clear where I was standing to what he was referring, exactly. Unfortunately, it became clear almost immediately that no one -- or, at least, none of the reporters assembled -- actually did know his position, nor, it transpired, did his aide when she was buttonholed after he made his getaway from the room; at last sight, she was promising to get back to all and sundry as soon as she had an answer.