QP: Circling back to Atwal, yet again

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A frigid Tuesday in Ottawa, and all of the leaders were present in Question Period, for a change. Andrew Scheer led off, mini-lectern on desk, and he immediately returned to the Atwal issue, wondering who was telling the truth about Atwal — him or the Indian government. Justin Trudeau stood up and said that he would always believe the advice of non-partisan public servants over anyone else. Scheer pressed, and Trudeau reminded him that Randeep Sarai took responsibility for proffering the invitation, but he trusted public service. Scheer tried again in French, and Trudeau repeated that same point about believing public servants. Scheer reverted to English, reset his preamble to provide a fresh media clip, and wondered if it was Chrystia Freeland who was telling the truth this time when she said it was an honest mistake. Trudeau reiterated the same point about believing public service. Scheer demanded an answer as to whether the “conspiracy theory” was baseless, and Trudeau reminded him that for ten years, the Harper government diminished and belittled the work of public servants, and the Conservatives hadn’t moved on from those habits. Guy Caron was up next, and worried about the Facebook data used by Cambridge Analytica. Trudeau noted that they take privacy seriously, and it’s why the Minister of Democratic Institutions was looking into electoral interference, and the Privacy Commissioner also indicated he was taking a look. Caron demanded that the issue of data protection be raised at the G7 meeting in June, and Trudeau assured him that they had already had these conversations and they would continue to do so. Hélène Laverdière raised the armoured vehicle sales to Saudi Arabia, and Trudeau first pointed asked her to ask her caucus colleague from London Fanshaw if she wanted them to cancel that contract, but that they were taking the issue more seriously than the previous government did. Laverdière demanded to know if human rights were for sale, and Trudeau took up a script this time to insist that they respect human rights obligations.

Round two, and Gérard Deltell demanded a date for a balanced budget (Lightbound: We made the choice to invest, and Canadians agreed), and Michael Chong and Pierre Poilievre demanded the infrastructure plan (Sohi: We have done more for municipalities in the last two years than the Conservatives did in a decade, and we are delivering on our commitment). Pierre Nantel asked about the disposition of Radio-Canada collections (Joly: We look forward to having discussions with stakeholders), while Tracey Ramsey asked why the cultural exemptions in TPP were in a side letter and not the agreement (Joly: We got protection for our sovereignty). James Bezan and Pierre Paul-Hus worried about the Mali mission (Sajjan: We will ensure they have the right equipment, training, and rules of engagement; Freeland: We are contributing our expertise for peace and security). François Choquette worried about translations on government websites (Qualtrough: We are working with the translation bureau about this), and Daniel Blaikie asked about francophone education outside of Quebec (Joly: We will make an announcement in the days to come).

Round three saw questions on people ordered to be deported who have not yet been (Goodale: We are applying all efforts to deal with the backlog, which ballooned under the previous government, and the total number now is lower than it was under the previous government), newsprint tariffs (Freeland: We have a plan in dealing with all forestry actions), household debt and childcare (Duclos: We have put childcare policies into place), access to medications for rare diseases (Petitpas Taylor: We are changing rules for patented medicines and Health Canada has a special access programme), surf clam contracts (LeBlanc: We can’t make commercial confidences public), Facebook and data privacy (Brison: We are taking this seriously to prevent election interference), icebreaker negotiations with Davie shipyard (Qualtrough: We will announce the conclusion when it happens), and sweet alcoholic drinks (Petitpas Taylor: We are holding immediate consultations).

Overall, the MPs were a bit chippy today, but more than anything seemed to find a number of things terribly amusing for no apparent reason. There were also plenty of questions in French today – more than usual from Andrew Scheer, and all NDP questions – which was marking the international day of the Francophonie, along with a number of related questions on official languages in Canada (and Mélanie Joly did announce on a backbench softball question that the new official languages policy would roll out on the 28th). This all having been said, getting back to Jaspal Atwal questions were getting a bit tired, especially because there continues to be some deliberate obtuseness to how things can exist at the same time without anyone actually not telling the truth. I would also note that Justin Trudeau returned more to form in answering off the cuff for most of the day, possibly because he’s completely internalized those Atwal responses by now.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Chrystia Freeland for a short-sleeved black dress, and to Raj Grewal for a tailored black three-piece suit with a light blue shirt and a red turban and tie. Style citations go out to Robert Sopuck for his brown corduroy jacket, with a taupe waistcoat, light blue shirt and brown striped tie, and to Kelly Block for a white collared blouse with a floral pattern under a black vest.