QP: Bludgeoning about belief in climate change

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It was heartening to see a few more bodies in the Chamber, but alas, there remained only a mere two Liberals — Mark Gerretsen and the designated front-bench babysitter, Catherine McKenna. Candice Bergen led off in person, and she spun a very dubious connection between continued lockdowns and federal actions or perceived lack thereof. Jonathan Wilkinson, surprisingly, answered and gave a brief speech about how climate change is real, in the wake of the Conservatives’ policy convention. Bergen then pivoted to the trials of the two Michaels, and demanded the government withdraw their participation in the Asian Infrastructure Bank, which Marc Garneau disputed, citing that these were a top priority, and thanked allies for appearing that the court houses in China in protest. Bergen railed that the government sent $40 million to the Asian Infrastructure Bank, and Garneau gave a stern warning to China about arbitrary detention. Gérard Deltell took over in French, and received pay increases given to General Vance after the allegations against him were raised, for which Harjit Sajjan stated that he doesn’t determine pay raises, but that it was done independently on the advice of the public service. Deltell tried again, and this time Sajjan raised testimony from Harper’s former chief of staff at the defence committee earlier in the day.

Alain Therrien rose for the Bloc, and demanded increased health transfers for the provinces, crocodile tears about the plight of nurses metaphorically streaming down his face, for which Patty Hajdu reminded him they are already giving increased transfers to the provinces. Therrien was not mollified, demanding increases, and in response, Hajdu listed assistance given to the provinces.

Jagmeet Singh then led for the NDP in person, and in French, he also raised Vance’s pay increase and demanded an apology, for which Sajjan repeated that he does not determine pay. Singh then switched to English to demand concrete action to end systemic racism in the RCMP, and Bill Blair gave his condolences to Colton Boushie’s family, and said that the Commissioner of the RCMP agreed to implement the recommendations of the report.

Round two, and Pierre Poilievre amped up his smarm to demand that PMO staffer Ben Chin appear at committee on his communication with WE (Rodriguez: Committees are masters of their own destiny), Leona Alleslev demanded that Sajjan’s former staffer Zita Astravas appear at committee (Rodriguez: Ministers have appeared and provided documents, but committees are masters of their own destiny), James Bezan returned to the issue of Vance’s pay raise (Sajjan: Same answer).

Mario Simard took a shot at the Conservatives before he panned the government’s climate accountability Bill (Rodriguez: I agree that climate change is real and it’s concerning that the Conservatives denied it; Wilkinson: This Bill is the first step toward reaching carbon neutrality by 2050), and Marilène Gill worried about the a federally-regulated port affecting fishing capacity (Jordan: We will work with stakeholders to mitigate any challenges with this port).

Luc Berthold demanded a federal budget (Fraser: The minister will announce the date in due course but we have been transparent about our spending), and Ed Fast repeated the demand in English before railing about the request to increase the debt ceiling (Fraser: Same answer).

Don Davies demanded support for the NDP’s Supply Day motion on ending for-profit long-term care (Hajdu: This is provincial jurisdiction, but you know we have been there for provinces to support them through this pandemic and we are working to create national standards), and Laurel Collins demanded support for the NDP’s plan to forgive student debt (Qualtrough: We increased grants to help struggling Canadians, and ensure that they don’t need to repay until they are making enough money to do so).

Round three saw questions on vaccinated seniors giving hugs (Hajdu: Provincial and local public health authorities give guidance, not us), mental health resources (Hajdu: Our site connects people to local resources), Line 5 (O’Regan: Line 5 is non-negotiable), granting Canadian citizenship to Raïf Badawi (Mendocino: We are working with our colleagues in foreign affairs around his case), taking actions on various different harassment allegations (Guilbeault: We are studying the report of the Canadian Museum of History case, and we have a zero-tolerance policy), an immigrant candidate who can’t get authorisation while a subcontractor is closed (Mendicino: We are working with employers of various sectors), delaying regulations on off-shore oil workers (O’Regan: The legal framework continues to be in place, and we are working on permanent regulations with our partners), student jobs (Qualtrough: We have expanded the summer jobs programme), CRA suspending accounts because of hackers (Lebouthillier: You only read the headline and not the story, and we proactively ensured these accounts were not compromised), Rogers looking to acquire Shaw (Amos: Competition is important in the telecom sector, and this transaction will be reviewed by the CRTC, the Competition Bureau, the industry committee, and the department), and vaccination passports (Hajdu: We believe in a response guided by science).

Overall, it was not unexpected that the day would be spent by having the Liberals and other parties taking digs at the Conservatives for the vote at their policy convention that declined to make the point that climate change is real, but the NDP seemed to have sat that particular exercise out. Not all of the digs were appropriate – having Jonathan Wilkinson come out off the top to make the point rather than having a proper answer to throw Candice Bergen’s loaded question back in her face was not exactly one of those proper moments, but hey, why not score points as cheaply as possible? (This is not an invitation). As well, the usual dangers of pre-scripted questions reared its head again as there were multiple questions on the revelation of General Jonathan Vance’s pay raise that Harjit Sajjan didn’t have any actual authority over – and yet it kept getting asked again and again. It gets tiresome, but hey, everyone wants to get a gotcha moment on camera for a social media clip. And on and on it goes.

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

One thought on “QP: Bludgeoning about belief in climate change”

  1. The Conservatives are quite visibly and unapologetically in denial about the #1 existential crisis facing humanity, but all Poilievre can do is continue his broken-record conspiracy theory circlejerk over the Kielburger nothingburger. Ben Chin? No, he wants Ben Ghazi to testify that Margaret Trudeau shot Seth Rich in Reno just to watch him die. This is what you do when you have no credible policies benefiting the populace. I hope that whenever an election finally does come, the Conservatives will squeal WE, WE, WE all the way back to their natural opposition-bench home.

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