Shortly after the final report on the MMIW Inquiry was delivered, the prime minister got on a plane for Vancouver, leaving QP behind. Andrew Scheer led off, and raising the MMIW Inquiry report, wanted more action on human trafficking. Seamus O’Regan stood up and recited their thanks for the report and stated that they would work on a national action plan in response. Scheer the switched to French to lament attacks on the free press, per their Supply Day motion, and wanted the government to stop stacking the deck. Pablo Rodriguez stated that the Conservatives devoted a full day toward attacking journalists, and that the government would support them. Scheer turned to English to whinge about Unifor being on the advisory panel, and Rodriguez stated that they needed to hear from employers and employees in the sector. Alain Rayes took over to ask again in French, and Rodriguez repeated response, and then they went a second round of other same. Jagmeet Singh was up next for the NDP, and he returned to the MMIW Inquiry report, and tried to make it about him by asking the prime minister to join him in responding to it in a list of areas. O’Regan reiterated his previous response with an added list of steps they have already started taking, and when Singh asked again in French, O’Regan read the French version of his script. Singh then turned to a demand that the government adopt his climate change plan, and Jonathan Wilkinson read that the NDP’s plan simply adopted most of what the government said doing already. Singh tried again in English, deploying the “New Deal” terminology, and got the same response from Wilkinson.

Round two, and Candice Bergen, Luc Berthold and Mark Strahl turned back to the media bailout package and the whinge about Unifor (Rodriguez: You are attacking journalists and organised labour; Gould: You made democracy harder for Canadians under your watch). Ruth Ellen Brosseau and Brian Masse read some condemnation of the New NAFTA deal (Goldsmith-Jones: Canadians saw how hard we worked to get this agreement and the NDP is irresponsible to demand it being reopened). Pat Kelley and Gérard Deltell worried about the Auditor General’s funding (Murray: When an officer of parliament asks for more resources, we consider it carefully, and your party cut his budget). Cheryl Hardcastle claimed the Accessibility Act didn’t include the Canadian Transportation Agency (Beech: We are sorry to hear about this case, but the CTA has the competency and should be approached), and David Christopherson hollered about the Auditor General’s budget (Murray: Same answer as before).

Round three saw questions on the Richmond Hill arrests for explosives (Goodale: The investigation is early and ongoing, and the local police have not referred it to the RCMP or national security agencies), the settlement for the lawsuit around the family resettlement system (Hussen: The only chaos was the mess you left behind that we had to clean up), EI access for energy transition (Fraser: Your plan is not well thought through, and we already have transition fund in our plan), high frequency rail (Beech: We are working with the Infrastructure Bank to attract the right partners for VIA Rail’s project), a plan to reach the Paris Targets (Fraser: We’ve been waiting 400 days for your plan while ours is rolling out), Bill C-69 amendments (Sohi: We are open to amendments, and we look forward to the work from the Senate), interprovincial free trade (Morneau: We met with the provinces last week, and progress has been made), a contagious virus in salmon farms (Wilkinson: I met with the biologist in question last week and we are taking her concerns into account), the Manitoba-Minnesota transmission line (Sohi: There were a number of outstanding issues that we are ensure are resolved), the family reunification process (Hussen: We are the government that will back this process and are working to improve it, and put in place four times as many spaces), the ratification of the New NAFTA on a bilateral basis (Goldsmith-Jones: Mexico is carrying forward with ratification and we will move in tandem).

Overall, it was a fairly unremarkable day, but it was interesting — but not unexpected — to see both Andrew Scheer and Jagmeet Singh try to claim some aspect of the MMIW Inquiry report for their own purposes, Scheer selectively cherry-picking the aspects of human trafficking, while Singh tried to assert that he has some kind of leadership role in the response, which was fairly risible, but is par for the course with his inability to grasp his role in Parliament. The rest of the day was fairly usual — the same hand-wringing about Unifor being part of the advisory panel on the media bailout, the lamentations about the New NAFTA deal, and accusations about the job the government is doing around climate change, but we got a few more questions on the Auditor General’s budget, for which David Christopherson offered some of his trademarked volume and bluster (which has been absent in QP for a very long time). Otherwise, there was nothing really to write home about, which is about how we can expect this to go in the dying days of this parliament.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Candice Bergen for a short-sleeved dark blue dress, and to Terry Beech for a tailored navy suit with a white shirt and pocket square with a plaid tie. Style citations go out to Darshan Kang for a brown jacket with a blue checked pattern with a light grey shirt, lavender paisley tie, and a red turban, and out to Joyce Murray for a white and floral dress with a pale lavender jacket. Dishonourable mention goes out to Deborah Schulte for a black top and slacks with a bright yellow jacket.