Despite it being only Thursday, only one major leader was present in the Chamber — Thomas Mulcair — which continues the worrying trend that QP somehow doesn’t matter. Mulcair led off today by asking why government agencies needed to collect telecom information on over a million Canadians. James Moore assured him that they were being used by law enforcement agencies for necessary actions. Mulcair mockingly wondered if there were a million criminals being tracked, but Moore insisted that Section 7 of the privacy legislation spells out why this information is necessary. Mulcair brought up the reports that there may be as many a thousand missing and murdered Aboriginal women, to which Stephen Blaney assured him of the measures they had taken. Jean Crowder and Niki Ashton followed up with increasingly outraged calls for a national public inquiry, but Blaney repeated that they were taking measures to keep the street safe. Chrystia Freeland led off for the Liberals, noting the record levels of unemployment in Southwestern Ontario while large numbers of Temporary Foreign Workers continued to be brought in. Jason Kenney insisted that anyone who cut corners and tried to bring in workers illegitimately would face consequences. John McCallum noted that the Canada Experience Class was created as a tool of diplomacy, and was since co-opted by the department of immigration for their own ends. Chris Alexander insisted that the programme benefited Canadians, and when McCallum noted that the previous minister went to Ireland to seek potential immigrants when youth unemployment levels were high, Alexander extolled the relatively buoyant job market in Canada.

Round two, and Alexandrine Latendresse asked about changes in the elections bill and their defeated amendments (Poilievre: You want people to vote without ID), David Christopherson angrily asked the same in English (Poilievre: There were problems with one in six voter cards), Jinny Sims asked about pilots being replaced by TFWs (Kenney: We have investigators if there are investigations), and Sadia Groguhé once again brought up the exotic dancers of the Liberal era (Kenney: There are audits carried out by independent officials and we gave them new powers). Stéphane Dion asked about the requests for telecom information of Canadians (Moore: The committee can call any witness it wants, but hey, look at our bill), and Wayne Easter demanded to know if the law enforcement agencies asked for warrants (Moore: It was your legislation and now you’re saying that Canadians can’t trust it?) Charmaine Borg and Charlie Angus kept up asking about that telecom information (Moore: You said you were happy to see these measures in Bill S-4), and Nathan Cullen asked about income inequality “spiralling out of control” (Oliver: Look at how well Canadians are doing under our leadership).

Round three saw questions on hydraulic fracturing, allegations of cash-for-access for donors to the Canadian Museum of History, the new statistics on missing and murdered Aboriginal women, workers’ rights and health and safety definitions, Canada Post cuts affecting rural areas, the Mirabel airport in Montreal, and EI payments for those affected by Lac Mégantic.

Overall, it wasn’t a great day for democracy, especially since the Prime Minister and Justin Trudeau couldn’t be bothered to show up. There were other script failures, and some really juvenile heckling that served no useful purpose. I’m so glad that MPs take the issue of accountability — and indeed respect for Parliament — to heart.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Lisa Raitt for a black leather jacket with a white collared shirt, and to Greg Rickford for a black suit with a crisp white shirt with a dark blue tartan tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to LaVar Payne for a dark grey suit with a black shirt with white cuffs and collar and a white tie, and to Megan Leslie for an orange jacket with three-quarter sleeves, with a fuchsia top and black trousers.