QP: Taking allegations outside

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While the PM took a personal day after his return from the G20, Andrew Scheer was off in Winnipeg to talk guns and gangs. Pierre Poilievre led off concerned about the PM’s supposed “celebrity lifestyle” that referred to the pre-planned tweet around funds for women and girls’ education, before he suddenly pivoted to Bill C-69, demanding it be scrapped. Amarjeet Sohi reminded him that the system the Conservatives put into place that wasn’t working, so they were working to get a one project-one-review process. Poilievre railed that the PM was at the G20 talking about how there were negative consequences when male construction workers went to rural communities,  before returning to the demand to scrap C-69. Sohi reiterate his response, and when Poilievre went for another, more boisterous round of the same, he got much the same answer. Alain Rayes took over to ask about the report in the National Post about a potential investigation on a land deal that might involve Navdeep Bains and Raj Grewal, to which Bains told him the allegations were false and invited him to repeat them outside of the Chamber. Rayes tried to insist on Liberal connections to the situation, to which Bardish Chagger read a statement that functionally repeated Bains’ response. Guy Caron was up next for the NDP, railing about high-protein milk under Supply Management, to which Lawrence MacAulay deployed his usual lines about defending the system. Caron then turned to the Oshawa closure and demanded action by the government, to which Bains read that the sector was strong, that they had the auto innovation fund if GM wanted to use it. Tracey Ramsey demanded action on Oshawa, to which Bains reiterated his previous response. Ramsey then railed that steel and aluminium tariffs were still in place, to which Mélanie Joly read that the NDP celebrated the deal behind closed doors.

Round two, and Peter Kent and Jacques Gourde returned to the allegations around Bains and Grewal in the land deal and the connection to the India trip (Chagger: If you can make the allegations here while you’re protected, repeat it outside; We can’t comment on a report that hasn’t been tabled in this House yet), and Mark Strahl railed about Grewal’s possible investigations (Chagger: He’s no longer part of the Liberal caucus, but we hope he gets the help he needs). Nathan Cullen also raised Grewal’s actions (Chagger: The RCMP operates independently of government), and Charlie Angus returned to the land deal (Bains: Any innuendo or allegations are false). Luc Berthold deployed the false numbers around the irregular border crossers (LeBlanc: We are working hard to take care of the situation and the number is going down), and Michelle Rempel concern trolled about the UN global compact on migration as “border erasure” (Hussen: This is about best practices and recognising Canada’s success with orderly migration). Linda Duncan and Alexandre Boulerice took exception to the government’s record on keeping international promises (Fraser: We are putting a price on carbon and taking measures to fighting climate change).

Round three saw questions on the GM plant closure (Bains: GM supports a price on pollution and we are fighting to remove the tariffs), steel and aluminium tariffs (Leslie: Under the side-letter under the New NAFTA our supply chains have been protected), Bill C-69 (Sohi: The previous government’s failed process didn’t get any pipelines to new markets), Canada Post’s labour practices (MacKinnon: There is a process under the back-to-work legislation for continue bargaining), the Statistics Canada data-gathering project (Bains: The Chief Statistician has stated they will only proceed when they get privacy protections right), Davie shipyard by way of the Mark Norman case (Goodale: We should leave this matter to the courts), failed medical devices (Oliver: We are deeply concerned by these reports, and are coming up with an action plan), looking for federal commitment to a French university in Ontario (Joly: We will always stand up for Franco-Ontariens), VIA Rail not preferring Bombardier for their new fleet (Garneau: VIA is arm’s length, and under trade agreements, we can’t prefer or insist on minimum Canadian content), consumer protection legislation vis-à-vis banks in Quebec (O’Connell: We ensure that our legislation is complementary and doesn’t supersede Quebec’s legislation), and the UN migration compact (Hussen: This is Rebel Media conspiracy theories).

Overall, it was a bit of an odd day, where Pierre Poilievre really wanted to make a spectacle about the foreign aid tweet and Justin Trudeau’s discussion about legitimate concerns about the impacts of so-called “man camps” in rural and remote communities, but kept wedging them into questions about Bill C-69, which was transparent showboating. As well, the questions about that Brampton land deal directed at Navdeep Bains saw some pretty forceful language about repeating the allegations outside of the House, where they wouldn’t be protected by parliamentary privilege, was also interesting and you don’t often see that kind of strong language. On top of that, it’s a bit alarming that the Conservatives are going full tinfoil hat on the UN compact on global migration, describing it as “border erasure,” which is the kind of language used by paranoiacs and conspiracy theorists rather than members of parliament, which is yet more of their apparent attempts to use just enough extremist language to try and score points by making people angry, as though it wouldn’t also trigger the actual extremists in the audience – a tactic that should alarm people.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Alexandra Mendès for a black dress with white cuffs a white scarf, and to Will Amos for a tailored three-piece suit with a blue and white checked shirt and a burgundy tie. Style citations go out to Guy Lauzon for a dark brown corduroy suit with a butterscotch shirt and a black and brown tie, and to Jane Philpott for a black dress with pink florals.