QP: Who ordered a conspiracy theory?

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While Justin Trudeau was back in the country following his week in India, he was not, however, present for QP today, nor was Andrew Scheer. That left Candice Bergen to lead off, asking if it was the PMO’s contention that the government of India conspired to ensure Jasper Atwal’s attendance at the PM’s visit. Ralph Goodale said that while he can’t comment on individual security arrangements, the system works well. Bergen asked if the PMO arranged the for the national security advisor to brief media about the supposed plot around Atwal, but Goodale said that the invitation never should have been given and it was rescinded. Bergen tried a third time, but Goodale did not vary his response. Pierre Paul-Hus tried again in French, adding a level of insinuation about the PM loving terrorists, but Goodale stuck to his points, and again once more on Paul-Hus’s second attempt. Guy Caron was up next, levelling new accusations about KPMG around the Isle of Man, but Diane Lebouthillier responded that she was at meetings last week around tax evasion and had set up a meeting in Canada for further steps. Caron demanded to know if any tax-fighting measures were in the budget, and Lebouthillier responded that access to data is essential in the fight against tax evasion, which they have now that they didn’t years ago. Hélène Laverdière wondered what the point of the India trip was, and Kirsty Duncan assured her that they came back with renewed ties and $1 billion in investment. Laverdière lit into the list of irritants with India that went unresolved, but Duncan’s response was the same.

Round two, and Erin O’Toole, Alain Rayes, and Peter Kent returned to the Atwal conspiracy theory (Goodale: Our security services do their jobs well, and your insinuations are false). Karine Trudel and Peter Julian demanded an apology and compensation for the Phoenix pay system (Qualtrough: We sincerely apologise, and we are leaving no stone unturned in fixing it). Phil McColeman, Cheryl Gallant, Alupa Clarke, and John Brassard demanded action on veterans pensions (O’Regan: Listing off the new changes since the Liberals formed government). Alistair MacGregor and Pierre-Luc Dusseault demanded action against supercalendered paper duties implemented by the Americans (Leslie: We are taking this to the WTO).

Round three saw questions on the Anbang takeover of BC care homes (Lametti: We are actively monitoring the situation), Bill C-49 not being split so that some of its provisions can be expedited (Garneau: I hope the other house passes it as soon as possible), the murder of Tina Fontaine (Bennett: Her death put a face to the MMIW Inquiry, and we must do better), pensions affected by bankruptcy (Lametti: We are monitoring the situation with Sears), whether the budget will be balanced (Lightbound: You don’t understand the theory that when the economy is growing, it becomes easier to reach balance), surf clam fishing quotas (LeBlanc: We are including Indigenous fisheries in this process), taxing web giants (Joly: We are developing an overall strategy for web giants, not doing this piecemeal), a fisheries quota being given to an MP’s brother (LeBlanc: We are including Indigenous communities in this fishery), the PM equating Quebec separatists with Sikh separatists (Garneau: He didn’t say any such thing), and the designation of Resolute Bay where Inuit were forcibly relocated as national historic sites (Wilkinson: We would welcome a nomination of this site).

Overall, it was bit of a meh day. The legitimacy of the questions on whether or not the government put out a senior bureaucrat to run politician interference on the Jaspal Atwal issue got a bit lost with some of the snide insinuations that went along with it (such as the assertion that the PM loves to cozy up to terrorists). You think that they would learn that that kind of tactic generally makes it easier for the government to get away from answering because they’ll respond to the snideness rather than the substance, but nobody ever really learns. I also think that Goodale could have been clearer up front about which insinuations were false, rather than his saying that in his tenth or so response of the day, but that seems to be how these things go.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Seamus O’Regan for a dark grey three-piece suit with a blue-striped white shirt and a pink tie, and to Ginette Petitpas Taylor for a short-sleeved grey and black houndstooth dress. Style citations go out to Candice Bergen for a bizarre 1980’s autumnal patterned dress with puffy sleeves, a pleated skirt and a ruffled front, and to Bev Shipley for a taupe suit with a black shirt and gold tie.