QP: Believing a phone call could solve it

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On a fairly lovely day in the nation’s capital, the prime minister was present in the House of Commons, with the usual Liberal in attendance, Mark Gerretsen, a couple of rows behind him amid otherwise empty benches.  Erin O’Toole led off in person and in French for a change, and he listed the people who knew about the allegations against General Jonathan Vance, and whether he knew. Justin Trudeau said that they knew there was an allegation but were not privy to details. O’Toole tried again in English, and Trudeau repeated the answer before he embellished with the talking point that when O’Toole himself heard a rumour of allegations against Vance, his staff went to Privy Council Office, and the same process had been followed, while the current government had done more about changing the culture in the armed forces. O’Toole tried yet again, insisting that emails showed that the phrase sexual harassment was used, and Trudeau more forcefully insisted that they did try to investigate but could not go further which was why they were putting more measures into place. O’Toole tried yet again, with more bluster, for which Trudeau started sermonising about doing more for women and marginalised people in the military.

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and insisted that the prime minster could have personally picked up the phone and stopped the Port of Montreal strike, for which Trudeau insisted that if the Bloc wanted to take action on behalf of Quebeckers, and pass the bill so that they can set up a neutral mediation process. Blanchet again insisted that the prime minister needed to pick up the phone, and Trudeau stated that they tried negotiating for two-and-a-half years, and it was for naught, and he demanded support for the bill.

Jagmeet Singh was up next for the NDP, and in French, he demanded the government withdraw the back-to-work legislation for the Port of Montreal, and Trudeau insisted that they did try negotiations, and that this bill would not impose a contract but rather neutral mediation. Singh then switched to English to demand the government improve the federal sickness benefit — oblivious to what that entails — and Trudeau reminded him that the best leave is the one from employers and that the NDP voted against them implementing it for federally-regulated sectors.

Round two, and Richard Martel offered the fantasy that there was an unlimited vaccine supply globally in January and February (Anand: Production was still ramping up, and vaccines need to be accompanied by strong public health measures), and demanded increased health transfers to provinces (Hajdu: Here are the billions we have already transferred to provinces), Leona Alleslev returned to the issue of the Vance allegations (Sajjan: We followed the process, and your leader didn’t act before Vance was appointed), and Ed Fast made a bunch of specious comparisons to other countries’ post-pandemic plans and panned the budget (Fraser: You can’t decide if we should spend more or less), and railed about the “harm” that a budget centred on childcare would have on families (Fraser: This is a budget for a profound economic recovery).

Louise Chabot repeated the assertion that the strike at the Port of Montreal could have been averted with a phone call from the prime minister (Rodriguez: We encouraged dialogue, but now it’s time for action), and then another round of the same.

Alain Rayes raised the changes to Bill C-10 at committee (Guilbeault: You were criticising that the bill didn’t have this kind of regulation, and now you’re saying you don’t want it), and Rachael Harder repeated it in English and accused the government of planning a ministry of truth (Guilbeault: This bill has nothing about online harms, and you seem to be mixing things up; User-generated content is excluded but platforms that host them is subject to regulation).

Peter Julian raised the PBO’s dubious and heavily caveated report on their proposed “excess profits tax” (Fraser: You voted against our measures to may the wealth pay more and to combat tax evasion), and Leah Gazan demanded the action plan to respond to the MMIW report (Bennett: Survivors are helping us develop this plan, and we working with provincial leaders).

Round three saw questions on retraining energy workers (Qualtrough: We are investing $2.5 billion to help employers train people), certain small businesses who can’t access aid (Fraser: We are aware of the situation, and these programmes were struck trying to balance integrity with the need to help as many as possible), the Port of Montreal strike (Rodriguez: We have been on this for two-and-a-half years and there were a hundred sessions with the federal negotiator but now we need to move forward — and then took swipes at the Bloc), housing affordability (Vaughan: We are investing in a housing strategy, and are taking new steps to ensure Canadians have a choice), the budget not having enough in it about trade (Bendayan: We ranked number two in the world in terms of foreign direct investment attractiveness, and support our exporters), the deficit (Fraser: If we had not acted in the pandemic, the deficit would have been the same size but Canadians would be worse off), the problems with the government’s COVID testing contractor (Qualtrough: We all worked together to accelerate the arrival of temporary foreign workers and have a new contractor to help meet the increased demand), the cost of housing increasing (Vaughan: We are focused on getting Canadians a home), and needing greater climate targets (Jordan: We support enhanced reporting and support embedding the 2030 target into the bill).

Overall, there were very much two narratives going on – one around the General Vance allegations, and Trudeau trying to insist that his government was doing more to prevent sexual misconduct in the military as his deflection from the fact that his defence minister ballsed this up and needs to fall on his sword for it; the other around the strike at the Port of Montreal, and the government swallowing itself whole on its previously stated commitment to negotiated solutions. There were plenty of places that Trudeau could have been absolutely skewered over this shift in rhetoric, or the weaselling around it, but instead both the Bloc and the Conservatives insisted that somehow a phone call from the prime minister could have averted this whole situation. Two-and-a-half years of negotiations and one hundred sessions with a federal mediator couldn’t do it, but a phone call from the PM? That would have solved everything – just like it would have solved the issue with shorted Pfizer shipments back in January while they retooled their plant. (Green Lantern Theory, anyone?) It would be great if we had competent opposition parties who could actually do the job of holding the government to account, but that seems to be too much to ask for these days. It would also be great if the government could actually talk about the impossibility of reforming the federal sickness benefit because of back-end IT limitations, but that’s also too much to ask for instead of yet another line about “working with the provinces and territories.”

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

3 thoughts on “QP: Believing a phone call could solve it”

  1. Dale,

    I just laughed at your Effing Bird cartoon.

    Unfortunately, that is all we get from the “powers to be” in Queen’s Park, Toronto.

    Ronald A. McCallum

  2. I wish they would let this Vance thing die like the victims’ group asked for. This isn’t about accountability or rooting out bad dudes. It’s about getting another head on a platter, recycling the old Kokanee smear and feeding QAnon narratives about “Liberal sleaze” taking place on social media. And probably because Mercedes wants a participation trophy from the back-slappers in the Ottawa bubble for rooting out another supposed “Liberal scandal,” like Murdoch gossip-floater Fife got with the Multi-Hyphenate Affair. But the Stepford/Gilead CPC and their pet press cares as much about these women as the GOP did Monica Lewinsky. Women aren’t stupid. Women know when they’re being used.

  3. Sorry J.B. it has been axiomatic that a majority of conservative women don’t know when they are being used. The most significant revolution will be the day that women tell men and the party of the right dogmatists that their day is done. I find sad that few if any women have the courage to tell these social “reporters” where to go. It is far past time when women should be telling men that they won’t just put their backs to the wheel for less money than men and their backs to mattresses because the are obligated to do so. The evangelical quasi fascist party the CPC is going to find itself on the outside looking in in less than two decades.

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