QP: Outrage theatre, part eleventy

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While Justin Trudeau just got off the plane from Madagascar and wasn’t in the Commons for QP, neither was his counterparts from the Official Opposition. Denis Lebel led off, worrying about the statement that Trudeau had made about Castro’s passing, and if he regretted them. Stéphane Dion rose to reply, and he mentioned that similar statements were made by other leaders, and they were trying to support the Cuban people by not focusing on old antagonism. Lebel demanded the official statement on the website be changed to use stronger language, and Dion said that they were using Canada’s relationship to better the lives of Cubans and that they desired for Cuba to be a democracy. Lebel asked again in English and got the same response. Peter Kent go up to go another round, worrying that the PM had never met with Castro’s victims, and Dion assured him that they were supporting the people of Cuba rather than the regime. Kent demanded that condolences be sent to said victims, but Dion listed the other world leaders who made similar statements. Thomas Mulcair was up next, and worried that the government was reneging on the promise to be rid of First-Past-the-Post. Maryam Monsef said that she was waiting for the report of the committee but would not move ahead unless there was the broad support of Canadians. Mulcair raised the StatsCan report on sexual assault in the military, and Harjit Sajjan reiterated that they had zero tolerance for it and still had work to do. Nathan Cullen was up next, accusing Monsef of undermining the committee’s work on TV over the weekend, and Monsef reminded him that she was there to talk about C-33. Cullen groused some more about the lack of commitment to propositional representation, but Monsef reiterated that she was waiting for the committee report.

Round two, and Marilyn Gladu gave a veritable word salad on fundraising practices (Chagger: The Chief Electoral Officer affirms that our system is the strongest), Karen Vecchio railed about the Trudeau Foundation (Chagger: I would hope you support research), and Sylvie Boucher and Chris Warkentin railed further about fundraising (Chagger: Yay rules, yay consultations). Hélène Laverdière and Irene Mathyssen asked about the Canadian Forces sexual assault survey (Sajjan: This will help us get a handle on this). Mark Strahl demanded that approved pipelines get built (Carr: We will respect the principles we set out), Cathy McLeod asked about First Nations who are equity partners in Northern Gateway (Carr: We have engaged meaningful consultation with all First Nations, and the previous government didn’t do their due diligence), Gerry Ritz and Luc Berthold railed about the lack of a softwood lumber agreement (Freeland: Your government allowed it to expire and didn’t start negotiations like we did). Guy Caron lamented the Infrastructure Bank and the effect on smaller municipalities (Sohi: Here are a bunch of small community projects we approved), and Robert Aubin decried a “credibility deficit” with the NEB (Carr: We are working to completely reform the environmental assessment system).

Round three saw questions on the recently crashed CF-18 (Sajjan: We’ll have more information as it comes in), a mission to Africa, the opioid crisis, First Nations fisheries, the Castro statement, Thalidomide compensation, automotive investment, foreign aid versus poor seniors, and Quebec’s consumer protection act vs the banks.

Overall, the day was pretty tiresome, with the outrage theatre cranked up to eleven. Marilyn Gladu’s question about the global corruption index and the fundraising issue was so ridiculous that my eyes very nearly rolled right out of their sockets, and continued attempts to cite the Trudeau Foundation as being some nefarious influence laundering body were borderline histrionic. It was no wonder that Bardish Chagger led off her first response with a fairly dramatic sigh, because hey, this is all amateur drama club theatrics at this point. Add to that, the lineup of Conservative MPs who had to denounce the statement about Castro was similarly problematic – though I will add that some of Stéphane Dion’s answers were not particularly great either, and served to only fuel the Conservatives’ invective. It was also very telling that Thomas Mulcair and the NDP assiduously avoided that particular topic, and were utterly scattershot in their questions for the day – much more so than they usually are. By that same token, the fact that the Conservatives never raised this morning’s Statistics Canada report on sexual assault in the Canadian Forces was also problematic.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Julie Dzerowicz for a navy top with a banded collar and a black jacket, and to Bill Morneau for a tailored navy suit with a white shirt and a medium blue tie. Style citations go out to Kyle Peterson for a dark grey suit with a hot pink shirt and a black and pink striped tie, and to Maryam Monsef for a gauzy white top with a floral pattern with black slacks.