QP: Curious expectations of the ombudsman

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For the one-year anniversary of the declaration of the pandemic, there were more MPs in the Chamber than we’ve seen in weeks — there was more than bare quorum for a change, and not only was the prime minister present, but so was Catherine McKenna and three other Liberals — it’s almost a miracle. Before things got underway, a moment of silence was called for the victims of the pandemic. Erin O’Toole led off, script on mini-lectern, and he said that PCO told the PMO that the military ombudsman was not in a position to investigate sexual misconduct — which isn’t what anyone was asking, but may instead have been based on a poor interpretation of something the minister had said — and accused the government of a follow-up. Justin Trudeau reminded him that they take allegations seriously, and that politicians cannot do the investing, but appropriate independent authorities must do it. O’Toole tried again twice more with increasing sanctimony, and Trudeau repeated his same answer. O’Toole then pivoted to the 40-day delay between vaccine doses and if the off-label use would have an impact on the contract with Pfizer, and Trudeau reminded him that politicians don’t give guidance around vaccines, but experts to. O’Toole repeated the question in French, and got the same response. 

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and in light of the day, wanted them to put partisanship aside…and accede to the provinces’ demand for $28 billion without strings. Trudeau reminded him of the increased transfers they already gave for during the pandemic and an assurance that they would negotiate increases after it was over. Blanchet tried to then affect some gravitas in demanding that all seniors be given additional supports and not just those over 75. Trudeau explained that older seniors have greater needs than younger ones, which is why the government was giving them additional supports.

Alexandre Boulerice led for the NDP by video, and he returned to the allegations around General Vance, for which Trudeau gave a paean about working harder to giving support to victims and in transforming in institutions like the armed forces and the RCMP. Lindsay Mathyssen repeated the question in English, with an added demand for an apology, and Trudeau repeated his same paean, but he disputed the assertion that the government did nothing, and he listed some of those actions.

Round two, and Pierre Paul-Hus listed the people are of the allegations against Vance (Sajjan: We take all allegations seriously and we ensured that it was referred to independent authorities because politicians should not investigate), Luc Berthold complained there hasn’t been a budget (Freeland: The date of the budget will be announced in due time), and Pierre Poilievre sanctimoniously lied about unemployment statistics, and claimed that higher unemployment meant more suicides — never mind that the suicide rate is actually down (Freeland: Here are the actual statistics, and you need to pass Bill C-14 to support those businesses).

Claude DeBellefeuille demanded increased health transfers (Hajdu: The federal government has been there for provinces the whole time), and Stéphane Bergeron demanded the same under the rubric of helping seniors in long-term care (Hajdu: Same answer).

Michelle Rempel Garner accused the government of directing vaccine dose directives (Hajdu: The federal government does not provide healthcare to Canadians, and the advisory body is independent and the provinces can choose to follow their guidance).

Peter Julian complained about the tens of billionaires in Canada and demanded a wealth tax (Freeland: We are going to ensure that web giants pay their fair share), and Brian Masse worried about cross-border workers facing tax implications for working from home in Canada (Freeland: We are looking into this issue).

Round three saw questions on First Nations boil-water advisories (Miller: There were 105 advisories when we made the promise, and yesterday we celebrated the 101st lift), workers in the airline sector (Alghabra: We will never turn our back on airline workers and we have rolled out broad-based support and we are in discussions with the sector), increasing pensions for those age 65 and up (Shulte: We have increased supports for seniors, and more support to those most vulnerable), carbon prices (Wilkinson: The price is part of a broader approach and we have exemptions for agricultural uses), the claims that a million families found housing (Hussen: The plan is over ten years, and have no lessons to take from Conservatives), assisted dying (Lametti: Mental illness is a serious challenge and we have proposed guidance from experts and to re-compose a parliamentary committee to evaluate it), credit unions being treated differently than big banks (Freeland: Credit unions are great), gun crime (Blair: We won’t take any of your empty tough talk), the budget date (Freeland: It will be announced in due time), inadequate medical needs on a First Nation (Miller: We are investing in health infrastructure on First Nations communities), and old growth forests (Wilkinson: We are working with provinces and territories to protect these eco-systems).

Overall, it was good to see the PM in the chamber for a second day this week, for what it was worth – particularly as he took off shortly after the leaders’ round. The questions about expectations that the military ombudsman do the investigation of the sexual misconduct allegations don’t actually make any sense, and while I had a Conservative staffer chirping at me over Twitter with quotes from Hansard, it was a rather ungenerous reading of what was actually stated. Pierre Poilievre’s sanctimony over the misleading statistics he is quoting is just so hard to take seriously, but I know for a fact that people think he’s on the level and trustworthy, despite the fact that he is indeed using those statistics to lie. It’s just so frustrating trying to fact check. Meanwhile, Michelle Rempel Garner has been busy trying to sow confusion over what role the federal government plays over vaccine guidance, and trying to put a wedge between Health Canada’s regulatory approval and the NACI guidance, which are two very different things. The federal government doesn’t have any role on vaccine guidance, and provinces can accept or reject what NACI puts out. That Rempel Garner seems to think that the minister should have been micro-managing NACI, which is arm’s length from government, and most gallingly, she is accusing the government of fostering vaccine hesitancy when her deliberately confusing responsibility and jurisdiction is doing quite a good job of creating hesitancy on its own.

Sartorial snaps and citations remain on hiatus for lack of a sufficient sample size.