While the prime minister was in Montreal to meet with business leaders, Andrew Scheer was also absent, which is becoming increasingly common of late. Candice Bergen led off, concern trolling that the Statistics Canada plan to gather transaction data could endanger trade with Europe (which I am dubious of). Navdeep Bains thanked her for the thoughtful question, and reminded her that this was a pilot project that had not yet started, and they were working with the Privacy Commissioner to ensure it was done properly. Bergen tried again, and this time, Bains called out her mischaracterisation and read the portion of the Statistics Act that spelled out that nobody could compel the release of that personal information. Alain Rayes took over to ask the same question in French, and Bains reiterated the point about pilot project. Rayes then switched topics to inquire about what the “secret mission” assigned to missing MP Nicola Di Iorio was, and Bardish Chagger read that the member is responsible to his constituents and he is reflecting on his work. Bergen got back up to ask the same question in English, and Chagger read the same in English. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, and demanded that Canada follow Mexico’s suit in order to refuse to sign the New NAFTA until the steel and aluminium tariffs were lifted. Marc Garneau stood up to express come confusion that the NDP were praising the deal in some venues, but attacking it in others. Caron changed topics to ask about the star of the Paradise Papers, but Garneau ignored the question in order to read more of the NDP’s praise for the agreement. Tracey Ramsey reiterated the Paradis Papers question in English, and Mélanie Joly a stood up to praise the reinvestment in CRA’s resources. Ramsey then repeated the demand to not sign the new NAFTA as long as the tariffs were in place, and Garneau repeated his confusion about the NDP’s position in English.

Statistics isn’t spying.
Cripes. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 5, 2018

Round two, and Dan Albas, Gérard Deltell, and Mark Strahl returned to the mendacious Statistics Canada questions (Bains: We have increased safeguards and nobody can compel them to release that data; We need good data and you don’t trust that; This data can be used for monetary policy and helping seniors get benefits). Karine Trudel and Daniel Johns demanded the government support their motion on reinvesting lapsed veteran’s affairs funds (Sajjan: Here is a list of things we’ve done to support veterans; We will support the notion but the funding is based on estimates because the supports are demand-driven). Pierre Poilievre worried the federal carbon backstop would go higher than $50/tonne (Fraser: The plan is transparent and we will conduct a review of the policy in 2022; Even if you keep repeating a falsehood it doesn’t mean it’s true). Brigitte Sansoucy and Murray Rankin wanted changes to the medical assistance in dying legislation because it’s too restrictive (Wilson-Raybould: This is a complex and sensitive issue, and our legislation draws the correct balance, and we have three reviews coming back in December).

Deltell says the Liberal Party wants people’s financial data.
No. This is mendacious. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 5, 2018

The Speaker is starting to lose patience, calls on MPs to act like adults. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 5, 2018

Poilievre continues to lie about the carbon price plan for large emitters.
Fraser points out that just because Poilievre repeats a falsehood, it doesn’t mean it’s true. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 5, 2018

Round three saw questions on prison needle exchanges (Goodale: This is about public safety, and stopping the spread of disease), IRB backlogs for asylum seekers (Blair: We have been restoring the capacity of the IRB, and half of these arrivals are children; Hussen: It’s important that we talk to Canadians about immigration), Rona/Lowe’s store closures (Bains: We are concerned about those jobs, and will monitor the situation), the Mark Norman court documents (Goodale: This is a matter before the courts that the judge is seized with), demanding Canada grant asylum to a Pakistani Christian (Leslie: We are relieved that the country’s Supreme Court has cleared her, and are asking the government of Pakistan to keep her safe; There are discrete and delicate conversations underway), Tanzania going on a hunt for LGBT people (Khera: We will champion their rights with Tanzania), Quebec content showing up on Netflix (Rodriguez: We are updating our laws, including that everyone in the system must contribute to it), the severity of Nunavut’s housing shortage (Duclos: Yes, it’s a crisis, and we are changing it with the national housing strategy).

Overall, it was not a terribly exciting day for questions or answers, but it should be noted that the government side was a little more pointed in their responses today, and were actually calling out the falsehoods embedded in the questions being asked. Hell, Navdeep Bains even offered a couple of examples of what the transaction data SatsCan is looking or could actually be useful for, which is more than we’ve heard in the past week, so that’s mild progress, and better than just some bland assurances and pabulum. Likewise, it was good to see Sean Fraser actually call out Pierre Poilievre’s completely misleading line of questions, and had a couple of decent responses about programme reviews. Shocking! Of course, other Liberal responders dropped the ball in their responses (hello, Kamal Khera and Ahmed Hussen), and it was the supplemental to Garnett Genuis’ question about the Pakistani Christian woman that gave a clue as to why the government is sometimes vague in their initial responses – because there are sensitive matters being attended to behind the scenes and the government can’t tip their hands (much as we saw with the LGBT situation in Chechnya a couple of years ago).

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Shannon Stubbs for a maroon dress with a black jacket, and to Pablo Rodriguez for a tailored navy suit with a white shirt and a purple tie. Style citations go out to John Aldeg for a medium grey suit with a lemon yellow shirt and a blue and yellow crosshatched tie, and to Bernadette Jordan for a brown corduroy jacket with paisley embroidery with a cream top and black slacks.