QP: The Commissioner’s conflicts

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Things got off to an unusual start, as the Commons immediately descended into Committee of the Whole, and Olympic and Paralympic athletes were invited into the Chamber for the MPs to congratulate them on their performances at Sochi. It was too bad that this couldn’t have taken place while the Prime Minister was here. And there were so many selfies taken by MPs. When QP did begin, Thomas Mulcair asked about the recommendations put forward by the veterans affairs committee about changing the system for the better. Peter MacKay thanked the committee for the report, and pledged the government’s continued support for veterans. Mulcair wondered what he meant by “deal with the recommendations,” to which MacKay snapped back that “It means we act on them.” Mulcair brought up that veteran’s wife who has been asking for support and training for spouses, to which MacKay thanked her and her spouse, and noted the improved benefits for veterans in eight budgets that the NDP voted against. Mulcair changed topics, and noted the places where the nominee for privacy commissioner would need to recuse himself for a conflict. Tony Clement noted Therrien’s thirty years of service, and noted that the commissioner has an office that can act in his stead. Mulcair pointed out that the Official Opposition didn’t agree to the nomination, and that the conflicts pointed out why Therrien couldn’t become the commissioner. Clement said that Mulcair’s attempts to drag Therrien’s name in the mud were shameful. Justin Trudeau was up for the Liberals — two days in a row this week! — and asked about the process for the next Supreme Court vacancy. Peter MacKay said that they intend to consult widely, but were concerned about the leaks in the previous process and that they would proceed with caution. Trudeau moved on, and pointed out that next year, there would be more temporary foreign workers accepted than permanent residents. Chris Alexander insisted that they got rid of backlogs and had increased the number of immigrants. Trudeau shot back that as a percentage of the population, the number of immigrants was down, but Chris Alexander tried to correct Trudeau and took several swipes at their record.

Round two, and François Choquette asked about the lack of oil and gas GHG regulations — taking numerous swipes at the Liberals along the way (Aglukkaq: We are less than two percent of emissions globally), Megan Leslie insisted that the government was ignoring climate science (Aglukkaq: We will continue to work with the United States to reduce GHGs in the oil and gas sector and we shouldn’t do it alone), Jean Crowder and Nathan Cullen pointed out the opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline (Rickford: We are continuing to consult and projects will only proceed if they are safe; you reject science and facts), Charmaine Borg pointed out that the nominee for privacy commissioner said that the “Cyberbullying” bill needs to be split (MacKay: The bill enables to police to act with modern tools), Jack Harris noted that Therrien also said a parliamentary oversight for national security agencies should be set up (Blaney: Look at all the oversight we have now), and Françoise Boivin asked for the prostitution law consultations to be released publicly (MacKay: This is a serious bill and more polling will be released in due course). Chrystia Freeland asked about the decline in exports and wondered when the stalled CETA be completed (Fast: We are converting the agreement in principle into a legal text), Scott Brison pointed out the cuts in infrastructure funding this year (Lebel: We have made record investments), and Ralph Goodale asked about our sluggish growth (Joe Oliver: We created a million jobs!). Pat Martin and Alexandre Boulerice made a gratuitous swipe about prime ministers’ chiefs of staff and SNC-Lavalin (Finley: Where wrongdoing is suspected, we won’t hesitate to cooperate with the RCMP), and Annick Papillon and Glenn Thibeault said that the government allowed banks to evade a complaint mechanism agreed to by the G20 (Oliver: We have a robust ombudsman for banks and financial services in place).

Round three saw questions on drug shortages, social housing, regulations impacting cooperative housing, a lesbian being deported to Uganda, Marine Atlantic cutting trips after they increased fares and transits decreased, drilling affecting Beluga whales, a derailment on the Churchill rail line, and support to help sex workers leave the trade.

Overall, there was a bit of perversity in the line of questions, as the NDP attacked Daniel Therrien’s suitability to be the new Privacy Commissioner, and yet quoted his comments in their later questions. If he’s not qualified, why treat his comments as expert? Meanwhile, there was an overall increase of the quality of Liberal questions today, and for whatever the reason, I’d encourage them to keep it up.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Megan Leslie for a green sleeveless dress, and to Jonathan Genest-Jourdain for a dark grey pinstriped suit with a crisp white shirt and a deep blue tie. Style citations go out to François Choquette for a black suit with a too-pale orange shirt and brown patterned tie, and to Françoise Boivin for a somewhat threadbare pink hoodie over a white collared shirt. Special mention goes out to Kennedy Stewart for his black jacket, pink shirt, purple tie and dark wash jeans.