While the prime minister was off meeting the president of Croatia, and Andrew Scheer was elsewhere, Candice Bergen led off QP, and she started off with more angry rhetoric about the Mark Norman case. David Lametti responded with his bland assurances that the RCMP and the Public Prosecution Service were independent, and that all stated there was no interference or contact. Bergen stated that she wasn’t disputing their independence but that the decision to stay the charges was in spite of government interference. Diane Lebouthillier, bizarrely, repeated Lametti’s response in French. Bergen demanded that the government allow the Defence Committee to investigate the matter, and Lebouthillier repeated her response. Alain Rayes got up next to decry that an infrastructure announcement was made in Quebec with no member of the provincial government present. Jean-Yves Duclos got up to recite how their infrastructure programme was making a difference. Rayes accused Duclos of attacking the government of Quebec, and Duclos repeated his praise for the government’s investments in Quebec. Jagmeet Singh was up next for the NDP, and he read some platitudes about the NDP environment plan and wanted a declaration of a climate emergency. Oddly, Ginette Petitpas Taylor read some praise for the 50 measures that the government was taking to reduce pollution. Singh switched to French to repeat the demand, and Petitpas Taylor read the French version of the script. Singh then raised the report on money laundering in BC, and Lebouthillier noted that CRA is ramping up their audits to combat this. Singh repeated the question in English, and Bill Blair directed Singh to read Budget 2019, which gave greater police funding and new regulations to help investigations and prosecutions. 

Round two, and James Bezan and Pierre-Paul Hus returned to the Norman questions and the demands that the defence committee investigate (Cormier: The committee works independently, there was no interference, and General Vance will have a conversation with him about his future; Lametti: The RCMP and the PPSC made their own decisions), and Leona Alleslev got back up with more thundering hyperbole (Qualtrough: The process that unfolded did so with complete independence; Lametti: We turned over all documents, and all requests for redactions were not made by government but by an apolitical agency). Tracey Ramsey demanded the Mark Norman information be made public (Lametti: All of the premises of that question are false). Luc Berthold, Earl Dreeshan and Dean Allison demanded action on the canola file (Carr: I’m sorry that you haven’t been paying closer attention to the file; O’Connell: You are continuing the Harper era of turning your backs on the world), and Erin O’Toole railed about proposed partnerships with China in the Arctic (Freeland: With regards to the American comments on the Northwest Passage, Canada’s claim is strong). Pierre Nantel demanded taxing web giants (O’Connell: We are working with international partners to have a coordinated approach), and Peter Julian railed about the money laundering report (Lebouthillier: We have ramped up audits and new investments in the budget to support the housing market).

*MPs.
There’s always a typo. https://t.co/5ylTHbjSV6

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 13, 2019

Round three saw questions on the deficit (O’Connell: Look at the benefits of our investments; Lightbound: Look at your record of adding billions to the debt while we have the greatest record of job growth), sick leave benefits (Duclos: We put in place substantive improvements to the EI system, and we are going to add two more benefits), the changes to the asylum system in the budget implementation bill (Blair: People in need of protection will still get it), carbon taxes (Fraser: Our plan will reduce emissions and you haven’t asked what we can do to reduce even more emissions; the plan will make life more affordable for Canadians ), the recommendations of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce (Ng: We have cut more red tape in the last three-and-a-half years than your party did in ten), protecting the southern resident killer whales (Garneau: We are taking unprecedented steps), the Loblaws contract (Fraser: The fund had an open application process), Supply Management (Carr: We have committed to the compensation), the hours that international students can work (Hussen: We’ve made changes to the post-graduate work permit). 

Pierre Poilievre, believing he’s clever, said that the theory of “trickle-down government doesn’t work.” #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 13, 2019

Overall, the number of Mark Norman questions has started to decline but the hyperbolic nonsense hasn’t yet abated around it. I also noticed that Candice Bergen was framing her questions as though Trudeau wasn’t answering, even though he wasn’t there, so that’ll likely show up in a shitpost on Twitter or Facebook sooner or later. We also had a protester in the gallery today, and his outburst was pretty short, but the rain of papers he threw down was a new twist (and I’m sure security will start getting draconian about any papers on someone’s person from now on). I am very curious why they put Diane Lebouthillier to start answering Mark Norman questions in French during English questions when David Lametti is perfectly capable of answering in either language, while the other Conservative bugaboo of the day was the announcement of infrastructure money in Quebec for a joint project without any provincial ministers present — and it sounds like the federal government is having similar issues with the Quebec government as they are having with Ontario in that the province is holding up funds, so the federal government is moving to go directly to the municipalities when they can. It’s not great for the federation, but it seems to be where the mood is at these days, for what it’s worth. I will also add that we’re seeing much sharper responses from the parliamentary secretaries these days – Sean Fraser and Jennifer O’Connell especially – but I think we need a few more ministers to start stepping up and calling out the falsehoods more on a more frequent basis.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Pamela Goldsmith-Jones for a tailored black double-breasted jacket top with black slacks, and to Blake Richards for a black suit with a light blue shirt and light purple tie. Style citations go out to Colin Carrie for a black jacket with an eggplant shirt, mustard and burgundy striped tie and mustard pocket square, and tan slacks, and to Karina Gould for a zebra-print top black slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to repeat offender Deborah Schulte for her black top and slacks with a yellow jacket.