QP: A moral panic competing with hysteria

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While the prime minister was in the building, he was not at QP today, though his deputy was, fortunately. Michael Chong led off, and he worried that Canada voted against Israel at the UN General Assembly earlier in the day, insisting this was contrary to policy. Chrystia Freeland said that Canada stands with Israel, and with Jewish Canadians in the face of rising anti-Semitism. Chong tried again, and Freeland spoke of the worrying rise of authoritarianism in the world, which Canada is standing up against. Richard Martel would took off and listed a number of judicial appointments in New Brunswick which have a connection to Dominic LeBlanc, to which Freeland read a statement about their recent appointment process. Martel raised another appointment who is connected to the justice minister — which media reports show that he was cleared for — and Freeland assured him that the process put into place was transparent and sound. Martel raised another name, who he claimed was denied an appointment because she was married to a Conservatives candidate. Freeland disagreed with the question and reiterated that the process is open and has increased diversity on the bench. Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he demanded support for the Bloc’s bill on requiring knowledge of French for citizenship in Quebec, to which Freeland said that they agree that the state of French in Quebec and Montreal is fragile and that they all need to work together to preserve it. Mario Beaulieu asked the same again, and Freeland reiterated her response, and added an example that they fought for cultural exemptions under the New NAFTA. Jagmeet Singh was up next for the NDP, and in French, he lamented that it took so long for climate accountability legislation, to which Freeland praised their bill’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Singh switched to English to repeat the question, to which Freeland asked in return whether they would support the bill.

Round two, and Candice Bergen lamented that the Fisheries minister hadn’t actually read the Marshall decision (Jordan: I was asked if I read it in its entirety, and I consulted with experts before I finished reading it to put it into proper context), and why she wasn’t meeting with both sides in the Mi’kmaq fishery dispute (Jordan: I have been meeting and had another one this morning), Pierre Poilievre worried that CERB went out to people who didn’t need it based on a false media story (Rodriguez: This was an important programme; Freeland: The CRA will make sure that all claims are legitimate), Tracy Grey worried about a possible travel ban and demanded more rapid tests (Hajdu: I’m glad you’re asking about rapid tests, and you should contact your MLA because this is provincial jurisdiction), and Leona Alleslev worried that there wasn’t a clear vaccine distribution plan (Hajdu: We are working with provinces to ensure that we have a fair, logical and equitable distribution agreement). Rhéal Fortin returned to the moral panic over judicial appointments (Lametti: We have an open, transparent, responsible process, and the Ethics Commissioner deemed there was no conflict in this case), and Stéphane Bergeron raised the G20 in Saudi Arabia to ask the government to press for the release of Raïf Badawi (Champagne: We have raised the issue and will continue to do so). Luc Berthold returned to the cries about the supposed decline of French in Quebec and to demand that MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos be removed from the official languages committee (Joly: I had a conversation with her and she apologized, and it’s rich for the Conservatives to be so concerned about official languages; Rodriguez: We have no lessons to take from you). Alistair MacGregor raised the moral panic over judicial appointments (Lametti: Donations do not denote friendship, nor do they curry favour), and Jenny Kwan demanded support for the NDP’s unconstitutional phrarmacare bill (Hajdu: We are taking the steps to deliver pharmacare including negotiating with the provinces).

https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1329474376643846146

Round three saw questions on First Nations drinking water, particularly Neskatanga (Miller: There is a new testing cycle for their new plant and we are cautiously optimistic that the community will be back by early December), grocery chains charging fees to suppliers (Bains: We share these concerns and will work with the provinces; Ellis: We will be discussing this at the next meeting of agriculture ministers, but these contracts are under provincial jurisdiction), the contents of the climate change bill (Wilkinson: We are promoting a transition to a greener economy and cannot afford to delay), the judicial appointments moral panic (Lametti: The only qualifications is merit and only consideration is diversity), simplifying paperwork (Joly: This is constant work for government), the alcohol escalator tax triggering a trade dispute (Ng: We are proud of the wine sector and we came to an arrangement with Australia on this matter), the CRA making compliance audits on the wage subsidy (Lebouthillier: We delivered these programmes in record time), connectivity for Pelee Island (Monsef: Get in touch with my office to see which programme will work for that community), a national suicide prevention hotline (Hajdu: I will look into how we can accelerate this work), for-profit long-term care homes (Hajdu: It’s important that we work with provinces to strengthen these homes and we will develop national standards with them), and travel agents losing commissions if airlines are forced to refund tickets (Garneau: One of the conditions for a bailout is refunds, but negotiations are ongoing).

Overall, it was a fairly meh day, with no real excitement. The two main preoccupations continue to be the moral panic over judicial appointments, which is a non-story that keeps getting new additions in the media (like this particular nothingburger), as well as the ongoing hysteria about the supposed “decline” of French in Quebec and Montreal – in spite of a lack of evidence. But when all of the parties are looking for votes in Quebec, these kinds of stories will get traction, and a narrative will continue to be fed. It’s also disturbing that a discredited media story got the kind of play it did around people getting CERB who were allegedly ineligible (which was not the case), but more to the fact, the government didn’t actually refute the false story, but stuck to platitudes. The fact that they can’t push back against misinformation in a reasonable manner is hugely problematic, and continues to push this country in the wrong direction.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Lianne Rood for a dark blue v-necked dress under a black jacket, and to Kyle Seeback for a dark blue suit with a white shirt, navy tie and blue-grey pocket square. Style citations go out to Stéphane Bergeron for a boxy black suit with a matching bow tie and white shirt, and to Candice Bergen for a leopard print dress over black tights with a belted black jacket.

One thought on “QP: A moral panic competing with hysteria”

  1. I do not understand why the media writes about immigrants applying for Quebec Citizenship, there is NO such thing. Quebec already selects its candidates since 1962 and gives French language test before giving out its selection certificate. People apply for Canadian Citizenship.

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