CBC News has learned that the government took between four days and three and half months to notify the Red Cross it had transferred detainees to Afghan authorities.

The revelation can be found in a document that was used to brief former Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier. The CBC obtained this document through an Access to Information request.

Join the CBC's Chris Hall and James Fitz-Morris Tuesday mornings for Ottawa Report.

Each week they talk with morning shows across the country on CBC Radio One about the latest developments on the national political scene.

An on-demand version of the audio will be posted as soon as it's available here. You can also tune in to your local regional news broadcast at cbc.ca/radio.

As previously noted, Prime Minister Stephen Harper missed Question Period today.

Here's a shot from the photo opportunity his office scheduled for him instead. (That's an official Team Canada Field Lacrosse jersey, if you're wondering.)

Perhaps we could use the comments below as a caption contest... a place to invent witty puns about stickhandling the detainee issue... or... something. 

  

The Press Gallery has just circulated a letter sent by David Mulroney, the current Canadian Ambassador to China and the former deputy minister of the Afghanistan Task Force, to Conservative MP Rick Casson, the Chair of the House of Commons Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan.

You can read it here.

In a nutshell, Mulroney says he will be available to appear before the committee next week (presumably meaning this week, as the letter is dated November 20.)

He says he would "welcome the opportunity" to address the allegations made during Richard Colvin's testimony last week and to "set the record straight."

 

 

As somewhat courageously predicted in Orders of the Day, I remain steadfastly convinced, despite the absence of any corroborating evidence, that this meeting will turn out to be more interesting than it sounds, which may will curse me to losing two hour of my journalistic life listening to arcane arguments over full accrual accounting. Still, I haven't dropped in on the gang at Public Accounts in ages, so it seemed like as good a time as any to do so.

Check back at 3:30 for full coverage! Text-only feed here

If you are a regular viewer of Power & Politics you may have noticed that we like to end the show with a little tidbit.

It's sometimes funny (see last Friday's show featuring old footage of MP Charlie Angus as a punk rocker), or sometimes a place to put news that doesn't get the attention that it should (the heated debate over the use of ten-percenters is a good example), and sometimes it's just a chance for Evan and I to share a giggle about life on Parliament Hill.

The problem is... the segment doesn't have a name. We sometimes call it the political goodie bag, but frankly, that name isn't that good.

We're sure YOU can come up with better.

Happy Monday, QOTDers! Today's Question of the Day is:

Tell us what you think. Feel free to comment below, or break out the #CBCQotD tag and tell us -- and the twitterverse at large -- what you think.

Today's essential political reads:

The Toronto Star's Susan Delacourt points out what some nitpickery journalist types might cite as a glaring contradiction between the prime minister's weekend musings on the importance of a free and feisty press, and the strictly-for-the-cameras event he plans to hold later today. What struck me more, however, was the timing of this afternoon's photo op, which is scheduled for 2:15 p.m., and takes place in his Langevin office.