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Former public safety minister Bill Blair claimed ignorance about a critical CSIS warrant delay in 2021 that allegedly involved his own party when he testified before the federal inquiry into foreign interference Friday. 

For 54 days, this high-stakes warrant application sat idle while Blair insisted he knew nothing about it, leaving the day-to-day operations of the ministry in the hands of his chief of staff as he largely worded from home during the COVID lockdown. 

Questions are swirling as to whether Blair's chief of staff, Zita Astravas, exploited the fact that Blair was essentially checked out during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect a friend and the Liberal party. 

With Blair functioning more like a semi-retired politician than an engaged minister, did Astravas use his disengagement to keep this sensitive CSIS warrant from him — especially since she reportedly had a long-standing friendship with the warrant's alleged target, Michael Chan, a former Liberal MPP insider with connections to China?

Blair himself acknowledged that if his staff were familiar with the targets of the warrant, they should have recused themselves from advising him. So why didn't they?

Was this a calculated move to shield political allies, or just another case of Liberal incompetence?

Gib Van Ert, the lawyer representing Conservative MP Michael Chong — who was himself a target of Chinese interference — cut straight to the heart of the issue, saying, “Do you accept that the responsibility for these various failings, we can point all around town as much as we like, but at the end of the day, constitutionally, you are the person responsible?”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to testify before Commissioner Marie Hogue's inquiry on Wednesday.