With the March for Life happening on the lawn outside — mostly Catholic high school students bussed in for the occasion, and disrupted by topless protesters — and with the House not sitting tomorrow because of the Day of Honour for the mission in Afghanistan, it was a bit of a Friday-on-a-Thursday day in the chamber. Well, attendance was a bit better, but not much. Megan Leslie led off for the NDP and brought up the government collecting data by “creeping” Facebook pages. Tony Clement assured her that the government wants to listen to Canadians, and they were engaging with the Privacy Commissioner, before accusing them of trying to shut down Canadians who were letting their views be known. Leslie changed topics to the Nadon appointment and the reports that he was advised to resign from the Federal Court and rejoin the Quebec Bar. MacKay accused her of conspiracy theory, and touted the consultation process and the expert legal advice they sought. Françoise Boivin carried on with the same line of questioning in both languages, to which MacKay continued to tout the process that they followed. John McCallum led off for the Liberals and accused the government of hating the Canada Pension Plan and being dismissive of Kathleen Wynne’s Ontario pension plans. Clement responded and decried the “massive tax grab” that would ruin jobs and opportunity. McCallum moved onto the topic of market wages for foreign workers and driving down Canadian wages, to which Kenney took a shot at the opposition parties.

Round two, and Sadia Groguhé and Jinny Sims asked about government departments recruiting staff using the Temporary Foreign Workers programme (Kenney: That’s totally ridiculous, and would you deny science or military exchange programmes?), Ève Péclet and Nathan Cullen decried the Conservatives also allowing temporary foreign strippers (Kenney: It took a majority government to make changes to the programme), and Guy Caron and Don Davies wondered where things were at with cheese trade with CETA (O’Toole: Get behind trade and the jobs that come with it). Stéphane Dion returned to the question of Justice Nadon and the suggestions allegedly made to him (MacKay: We got outside advice “that conformed to the position we had taken”), and Sean Casey decried the smears against the Chief Justice (MacKay: We followed an open, transparent and inclusive process). Jack Harris and Élaine Michaud decried talk of a renewed ballistic missile defence programme (Bezan: No decisions have been made and parliamentary committees are still studying it), and Rosane Doré Lefebvre and Randall Garrison bemoaned season three of Border Security (Blaney: This programme has 11 million viewers and shows Canadians the remarkable work that CBSA does).

Round three saw questions on getting the heritage minister to committee to discuss CBC/Radio-Canada cuts, sanctions against more Russian officials, out military high-tech exports to Russia, the court challenge around veterans funding, double-bunking in prisons, the shrimp quotas, EI rates, the promises made by Putin around the Ukrainian election, the gas tax fund agreement in Quebec, the convention on cultural heritage, and greenhouse gas targets vis-à-vis “Red China.”

Overall, it was a terrible day in the Commons, most especially when it came to questions of the temporary foreign workers programme. Opposition questions lacked context and smacked of xenophobia while Jason Kenney has taken to responding to all questions by trying to name and shame MPs who have asked for permits for whatever the reason. Given that the TFW programme is an umbrella that catches a whole lot of things, the fact that they ask questions on a global scale dumbs things down considerably for a subject with a lot of nuance. The fact that temporary foreign strippers became a topic of moralizing outrage just made it all the more embarrassing for everyone involved.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Rona Ambrose for a green tartan dress with leather half-sleeves, and to Bernard Trottier for a dark grey suit with a light lavender shirt and a darker lavender spotted tie. Style citations go out to Ben Lobb for a black suit with a maroon shirt and brownish patterned tie, and to Sadia Groguhé for a mottled black and tan jacket with a black top and trousers. Dishonourable mention goes out to Cheryl Gallant for a lemon yellow jacket with a black dress.