QP: Concern trolling over perjury

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The Thursday before the Easter break, and neither Justin Trudeau nor Andrew Scheer were present. That left Alain Rayes to lead off in French, and he demanded that the prime minister commence his legal action right away. Bardish Chagger said that Canadians heard the truth because the PM had the courage go waive any confidences, but the legal letter was sent because the leader of the opposition keeps speaking falsehoods. Rayes dared Chagger again, and Chagger reiterated that they took the first step with the letter. Mark Strahl took over in English, with added bluster, in demanded that the prime minister see his leader in court. Chagger reiterated her points in English, and so Strahl tried again, and again, not that the answer changed. Jagmeet Singh was up next, and he wanted assurances that the government would not interfere with the Director of Public Prosecutions, to which Chagger was concerned that Singh seemed to indicate a lack of confidence in the Ethics Commissioner of other institutions. Singh demanded a public inquiry in French, to which Marc Garneau stood up to say that Canada was cooperating with the OECD. Singh then asked about big banks’ sales practices and worried the government was only worried about big corporations, and Ralph Goodale reminded him that they introduced tougher penalties against banks giving misleading information. Singh tried again in English, and Goodale repeated his response with a tone of exasperation. 

Round two, and Rachael Harder, Marilyn Gladu, Pierre Paul-Hus, and Shannon Stubbs returned to their insinuation that the prime minister would perjure himself on the stand (Chagger: Maybe we should talk about issues that matter). Tracey Ramsey worried about the OECD watching the SNC-Lavalin prosecution (Leslie: We support the OECD), and Charlie Angus worried about Loblaws lobbyists at Liberal fundraisers (Fraser: The investment will have ten equivalent impact of taking 50,000 cars off the road). Leona Alleslev, Steven Blaney, and John Brassard demanded there release of documents related to the Mark Norman trial, and well as demanding his legal fees be paid (Lametti: The Public Protection Service handles this, and we don’t interfere; His fees are according to Treasury Board policy). Brian Masse and Pierre-Luc Dussault returned to the question about bank practices (Lightbound: We took the report seriously and tightened regulations and increased penalties, which they voted against).

Round three saw questions on canola (Bibeau: I am working intensely on this file, and we are waiting on China approving a technical delegation), steel and aluminium tariffs (Leslie: Both Democrats and Republicans have been asking their administration to lift these tariffs), international trade (Algabra: Our government has secured trade deals yours couldn’t), the Loblaws contract (Fraser: The Budget has all kind of money for energy efficiency; Petitpas Taylor: You mentioned Pharmacare, so we’re waiting on the implementation report), the implication the government was interfering in RCMP investigations (Goodale: That is utterly false), the proposed changes to refugee policy (Blair: This is about the well-established international principle of asylum primacy), why don’t you care about Canadians (Chagger: We lowered taxes on the middle class and raised children out of poverty), the Quebec “secularism” bill (Lametti: The state should not dictate what people can and can’t wear), and Jane Philpott asked about the annual evacuation of Kasheshewan (Vandal: We remain committed to a relocation plan, as you well know).

Overall, it was a much better behaved day than it has been for most of the week, and it was nice that MPs took a brief pause from the theatrics to come together when Liberal MP Pam Damoff briefly passed out at her desk. I would also like to take a moment to give kudos to the parliamentary secretary for environment, Sean Fraser, for not only giving decent responses to the Loblaws questions, but was able to come up with some quips on his feet while he was at it. Would that most of our ministers be able to respond with a bit of wit more often than not (though I will say that Bardish Chagger’s theatrical concern for the tone of questions occasionally makes me chuckle). And what theatre it was today, with all of these Conservatives so very concerned that the prime minister will somehow perjure himself on the stand (as they continue to read complete falsehoods into the record in the House of Commons), and how they got a number of their MPs to read these questions to gather clips for what I am willing to bet will be a shitpost campaign coming to social media over the coming days. Because that’s all that QP is for these days — gathering clips for social media.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Michel Picard for a dark grey three-piece suit with a blue striped shirt, and a grey and purple tie and pocket square, and to Linda Lapointe for a black and white patterned dress with a black jacket. Style citations go out to Leona Alleslev for a multicoloured striped dress with a black jacket, and to Robert-Falcon Ouellette for a powder blue suit with a white shirt and pocket square and a purple tie.