It being International Women’s Day, one expected that all questions posed would be by women MPs. Rona Ambrose led off, trolling for support for her bill on training judges in sexual assault law (which, incidentally, I wrote about for this week’s Law Times, and the legal community was pretty clear that they felt this wasn’t the right way to go and this bill could impact on judicial independence). Justin Trudeau spoke about the importance of supporting survivors of sexual assault, but would not commit to supporting it. After another round of the same, Ambrose wanted support for Wynn’s Law on bail applications, to which Trudeau said that the justice minister spoke to Constable Wynn’s window but would not commit to supporting it. Ambrose asked about a bill on human trafficking and why it eliminated back-to-back sentencing provisions, but Trudeau responded in his condemnation of those crimes but not in backing down on the provisions in the bill given their commitment to the Charter. Ambrose asked about helping women come forward to report sexual assault, and Trudeau noted that this was a concern and they have a ways to go. Shiela Malcolmson led off, heralding Iceland’s work on pay equity legislation, to which Trudeau said they were working on legislation. Brigitte Sansoucy asked another pay equity question in French, and got much the same answer. Sansoucy moved onto tax evasion and demands to end amnesty deals, and Trudeau noted that they were working on ending tax evasion by investing in the CRA’s capacity to do so. Tracey Ramsey asked the same again in English, and got the same answer.

I wrote about this bill for @LawTimes. Legal community was not keen on it — want more resources for Crowns instead. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) March 8, 2017

Round two, and Diane Finley worried about tax credits for seniors (Duclos: We have invested in helping vulnerable seniors), Alice Wong demanded small business tax cuts (Chagger: We are listening and engaging with small business owners to create opportunities), Shannon Stubbs worried infrastructure funds weren’t being used to build projects (Sohi: Federal dollars can only be used for infrastructure projects), and Kelly Block asked about privatizing airports (Garneau: What is important is improving service for passengers). Karine Trudel was concerned about Trudeau having a meeting with Blackrock (Garneau: Our motivation is more choice for air travellers), and Hélène Laverdière asked about exporting arms to Saudi Arabia (Freeland: We tabled a treaty on the arms trade and we will make legislative changes shortly). Candice Bergen asked if the PM had met with the Ethics Commissioner yet (Chagger: We are working hard to make Canadians’ lives better), and Marilyn Gladu railed about fundraisers by way of those nursing homes sold to the Chinese (Chagger: Same answer). Georgina Jolibois asked about investments in First Nations (Jones: We set up the MMIW inquiry, and have invested billions in First Nations), and Cheryl Hardcastle asked about inadequate resources to help women with disabilities deal with violence (Qualtrough: We are developing accessibility legislation).

Round three saw questions on those seniors homes sold to a Chinese firm, free birth control, homelessness among women, funding for Syrian refugee resettlement, anti-Malarial drugs affecting veterans, young women runaways being vulnerable to sexual assault, and Elizabeth May asking about the federal framework for Lyme disease (Philpott: We are working on the framework).

Overall, there were some questions with really tenuous connections to International Women’s Day, and it was curious the way in which some of those questions were framed. Ambrose, for example, went full-bore on tough-on-crime issues, mostly promoting private members’ bills (which are not the administrative responsibility of the government and pretty inappropriate to be used as QP fodder), while the NDP tried to shoehorn an International Women’s Day angle into their KPMG questions. Added to that, the sanctimonious tone adopted in several of the ethics-related questions put my teeth on edge, because again, trying to wedge a female angle onto your usual line of questions doesn’t make it any worse that the PM (or his House Leader) isn’t giving the answer you want.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Justin Trudeau for a tailored navy suit with a crisp white shirt and dark blue tie, and to Filomena Tassi for a well-cut black jacket with a black and white dress. Style citations go out to Karen Vecchio for a black smock dress with a white band around the middle and an otherwise well-structured red jacket, and to Jim Eglinski for a dark grey suit with a terra cotta shirt and a black, red and white patterned tie. Dishonourable mentions go out to both Ruby Sahota and Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet for each wearing black suits with yellow tops, Sahota’s more gold to Boutin-Sweet’s lemon yellow.