Now, about those specialized syringes Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. The European Union's health commissioner says Canada won't be caught in the cross-fire as the E.U. ratchets up a spat with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca over vaccine supply. Stella Kyriakides says the U.K.-based manufacturer, which says production issues will hamper delivery, must live up to its commitments. She said Europe was "not imposing an export ban," and had been in touch with G7 allies. In question period, Tory leader Erin O'Toole asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about Europe's "vaccine protectionism" and urged him to lobby for Canada. "Has this Prime Minister picked up the phone to call European leaders to ensure our vaccines will be delivered?" Trudeau confirmed he'd spoken an hour earlier with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and she said Europe's measures "would not affect" Canada. (Watch their full exchange.) A readout of that phone call, released late in the afternoon, concluded that any measures were "not intended to disrupt" any vaccine deliveries to Canada. Not intended doesn't mean won't. The latest hiccup: The Globe and Mail learned that Pfizer had officially asked Health Canada to amend the label requirements for its vaccine to allow immunizers to extract six doses—not the standard five—from each vial. The feds have bought up 145 million syringes, but only 37.5 million of those are specialized syringes that can reliably extract the extra dose. Those so-called "low dead space" syringes are just the latest hot commodity to spur a global buying spree. The Privy Council Office released a heavily redacted version of the internal review into the conduct of former governor general Julie Payette and Assunta Di Lorenzo , a longtime friend who served as the GG's secretary. CBC News reports that Rideau Hall staff complained of "yelling, screaming, aggressive conduct, demeaning comments and public humiliations." Sen. Murray Sinclair, once the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, came down hard on retired senator Lynn Beyak a few days after he stepped away from the Red Chamber. Beyak retracted a discredited view that there was "good" in residential schools before standing by those comments on her retirement. Sinclair didn't hold back. "She was hiding her true thoughts and feelings all along," he said. "This suggests to me that she is not only continuing to be unwilling to learn, but that she will continue to espouse her racist views going forward." That escalated quickly: On Tuesday, epidemiologist David Fisman—you might remember him from our 2021 Power List—tweeted that Toronto Sun columnist Anthony Furey had asked him about a potential conflict-of-interest: Fisman, who heads up a COVID-19 advisory group, was also paid by a teachers' union for some consulting work. Furey's column caught the attention of Premier Doug Ford , who expressed official concern. Then, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland publicly stood up for Fisman, who has never hidden any of his work. Statistics Canada's latest report on the automation economy reached back to Ancient Greece. "Fears of artificially intelligent machines have lingered in the human imagination for thousands of years," wrote Jay Dixon, a StatsCan economist. "Millennia ago, Greek myths like those of Talus or Pandora told of artificial beings created by the gods wreaking chaos and destruction when they are sent among mortals on Earth." The tl;dr version of whether or not robots are actually taking over: "Some of the worst fears, like a robocalypse for labour, are not evident in the data." Christmas grift: On Dec. 25, the Canada Border Services Agency pulled over a transport truck that had crossed the Canada-U.S. border at Coutts, Alta. On further inspection, agents discovered 228 kg of methamphetamine—here's what that looks like—worth $28.5 million. That's the largest-ever seizure of meth at the border. The driver faces multiple charges. Parli, the dictionary of Canadian politics that defines various and sundry oddities and minutiae on the federal scene, recently scored a bit of a get. John English, the author of a renowned two-part biography of Pierre Trudeau, penned a Parli entry on another former prime minister. Read all about why Lester Bowles Pearson earned a nickname like Mike. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 