QP: Twin moral panics in play

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While Justin Trudeau was off to Toronto, Andrew Scheer was present for Question Period, and he led off with the role that Christopher Wylie, the infamous “Facebook whistleblower” had worked for the Liberals, and demanded answers. Scott a Brison pointed out that the Liberal Research Bureau had already issued a statement saying that they decided not to go ahead with his services and that he had no access to voter data. Scheer lamented that Trudeau didn’t answer — being cute because Trudeau was not present — and when he continued to rail about Wylie, Brison reiterate his response, and hit back with contracts the Conservatives tendered for their own data services. Alain Rayes took over in French to ask the same thing two more times, and Brison repeated his responses (albeit in English). Scheer got back up to rail about the “peoplekind” joke and the apparently scandalous news that Service Canada is not supposed to use the honourifics of “Mr.” of “Mrs.” The horror! Jean-Yves Duclos assured him that they can still use the honourifics, but that they were working to be more inclusive of all gender identities. Guy Caron led off for the NDP, condemning the lack of action on tax evasion despite the $1 billion investment to do so. Diane Lebouthillier got up to assure him that they were looking into tax evasion and had new agreements to get necessary data, and when Caron got up to rail that CRA was slapped with a $1 million fine for abusive behaviour, Lebouthillier reiterated that the case dated back to the Conservatives. Peter Julian got up to repeat the condemnation around tax evasion in English, and Lebouthillier reminded him that they now have the data they need. Julian tried one more time, throwing every thing else in the question, and Lebouthillier retorted that the OECD has recognised Canada’s leadership in data-driven combatting against tax evasion.

Round two, and Jacques Gourde, Peter Kent, Candice Bergen, and Mark Strahl returned to the “scandal” of Wylie being employed by the Liberals (Brison: We decided not to move forward with what was offered). Anne Quach and Sheila Malcolmson demanded action on status of women initiatives in the budget (Monsef: We are investing billions of dollars in women). Erin O’Toole and Pierre Paul-Hus returned to the Atwal invite and demanded the National Security Advisor appear at committee (Goodale: The invitation to Atwal should not have been issued and was rescinded, and our public service acts in an impartial fashion), while Sylvie Boucher and Marilyn Gladu returned to the moral panic over honourifics (Duclos: We have all kinds of families in this country). Brian Masse and Matthew Dubé took their own kicks at the Christopher Wylie issue (Brison: I don’t think we can thank him for our electoral “successes” in 2008 and 2011).

Round three saw questions on the infrastructure plan (Sohi: We are working with provinces and municipalities), the deficit (Lightbound: We chose in invest), Canada Post not paying rent to a local outlet (Qualtrough: We are looking into this issue), southern resident killer whales (LeBlanc: We announced a $1.5 billion oceans protection plan to do what is necessary to protect them), security deportation orders (Goodale: Part of the problem is countries of origin refusing to issue travel documents), Kinder Morgan protesters injuring RCMP (Goodale: We support our public safety officers), grade level crossings for railways (Garneau: There is a process and I can point you in the right direction), the Arctic surf clam contracts (LeBlanc: You haven’t seen the bid, but are just responding to incorrect media reports), the rail grain backlog (Garneau: We were not satisfied with the initial response, and we continue to monitor the situation). 

Overall, my patience for the two moral panics being advanced in QP today was thin. The pearl-clutching that the Liberals may have engaged in *gasp* data-mining was unbelievable considering that all parties engage in data-mining in various capacities, and they all use Facebook especially to do so. Trying to capitalize on this particular Cambridge Analytica/Christopher Wylie issue is cheap because they should all be looking at their own practices rather than trying to paint only the Liberals as doing something untoward. As for the other moral panic, trying to make it both a scandal and a big joke that Service Canada is changing forms to be gender neutral (i.e. “Parent 1” and “Parent 2” instead of “Mother” and “Father,”) and making a note on someone’s file so that they’re not being misgendered in future interactions is ridiculous. Nay, it is bullshit. Trying to wedge this into a culture war/”PC culture run amok” narrative as opposed to government responding to the fact that same-sex parents and transgender Canadians exist is crass, and it’s a bit ugly because it’s premised on implicit homophobia and transphobia. One would hope that the Conservatives would know better than to peddle in this, but one has to fear that if they think this will be a wedge that they can try to exploit, they absolutely will, no matter how much it makes them look like insensitive jerks at best, or bigots at worst. Do better, guys.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Ginette Petitpas Taylor for a short-sleeved grey and black houndstooth dress, and to Frank Baylis for a tailored black suit with a lavender shirt and dark purple tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to Scott Reid for a black suit with a grey vest, light blue shirt and orange tie, and to Anita Vandenbeld for a black turtleneck with a boxy grey knit jacket with half-sleeves.