QP: Questioning the legal basis for Syria

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After a morning of marathon press conferences about the motion on extending the Iraq mission, all of the leaders were present and ready to go as QP got underway. Thomas Mulcair led off, asking about the legal basis for bombing in Syria, and the two different ones given. Stephen Harper insisted that it was clear that we were operating under the same basis as our allies were. Mulcair wondered if we got a formal request from the Iraqi government to that effect, but Harper just repeated his answer. Mulcair then wondered if Harper had written to the Secretary Genral of the UN about the justification, and Harper responded that the chances of ISIS’ lawyers raising a case were negligible. Mulcair called the response “idiocy,” and the Chamber erupted, and he was cautioned by the Speaker. Mulcair switched topics and asked about an apology in the Commons for the Komogata Maru incident. Harper insisted that they had already addressed it, before returning to the previous answer to batter Mulcair about his ideas of what constitutes the national interst of Canada. Mulcair quipped about Harper thinking himself above international law, before he asked about the plight of that Saudi blogger. Harper responded that he had already expressed his desire to see that blogger freed, before he returned to the topic of taking a strong stand against ISIS. Justin Trudeau was up next, asking about the language in the motion about taking on ISIS affiliates in other countries. Harper insisted they were not. Trudeau repeated it in French, got much the same answer, and for his last question, Trudeau asked about weak job growth and job losses. Harper insisted that the fall of oil prices was all the more reason to stick to their economic action plan.

Round two, and Randall Garrison listed criticism made against C-51 (Blaney: International jihadi terrorists!), Rosane Doré Lefebvre asked about potential police overreach with C-51 (Blaney: More tools!), Murray Rankin and Pierre Dionne Labelle asked about the “political activities” audits being taken by CRA (Findlay: CRA is arm’s length), and Charmaine Borg and Charlie Angus asked about the CRA data breaches (Findlay: I’ve told CRA to implement the Privacy Commissioner’s recommendations). Chrystia Freeland asked about the declining economc forecasts (Poilievre: Lower taxes!), and Emmanuel Dubourg and Adam Vaughan asked for more infrastructure investment (Lebel: Biggest programme ever!). Irene Mathyssen and Élaine Michaud asked about cuts to veterans case managers (O’Toole: We’ve expanded our services), and Megan Leslie asked about micro beads in waterways (Carrie: We are launching a study before coming up with a management plan).

Round three saw questions on victim blaming of Aboriginal violence, regional development challenges in the North, poverty in seniors, layoffs at Veterans Affairs, unspent manufacturing assistance funds, the Pacific Herring fishery, repainting the Quebec City bridge, the invitation to join the Asian Infrastructue Bank, the Komogata Maru apology, the Algoma rail line, and the provision of RADARSAT-2 data to Ukraine.

Overall, it wasn’t a very brilliant day that went off-track pretty quickly. There was a lot of ground that could be covered on the motion on Syria, but went quickly to the Komogata Maru apology, which was made by the government years previous, albeit not in the Commons. With all of the various big issues going on, it’s curious that the NDP would zero in on that, other than the obvious notion that they are fishing for votes in the Sikh community. Why it was the priority among the Iraq motion and C-51, to name a few, strikes me as pretty odd, particularly if it means killing the momentum of questions. As for Harper, you can tell that he had his zingers saved up, anticipating five questions on the motion, and he was going to deliver them regardless, which adds to the terribly rehearsed nature of it all.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Justin Trudeau for a black suit with a light blue shirt and a dark fuchsia tie, and to and to Hélène LeBlanc for a tailored three-quarter sleeved black jacket over a black and white check-patterned dress. Style citations go out to Christine Moore for a black long-sleeved top with an orange, black and white mottled vest, and to François Choquette for a black suit with a bright teal shirt and a striped dark blue and black tie.