QP: Spinning a Vance/Norman conspiracy theory

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It was a grey day in the Nation’s Capital, but the prime minister was in the Galactic Senate House of Commons for Question Period, along with the other fixture in the Liberal benches, Mark Gerretsen.

Erin O’Toole led off in French, worrying about the message that NACI gave yesterday, deliberately conflating it with Health Canada. Justin Trudeau told him that the most important thing is to get vaccinated with the first one offered to you, as they have all been judged safe and effective by Health Canada. O’Toole asked again in English, and got the same answer. O’Toole then switch to the Vance allegations, and spun an elaborate conspiracy that Katie Telford was friendly with Vance, and wondered if they didn’t pursue the allegations because of the Mark Norman investigation, to which Trudeau offered a simple no. O’Toole insisted that things all seemed a little too cozy, and Trudeau insisted they would support with anyone who came forward with an allegation. O’Toole spun the conspiracy out again, and Trudeau called him out for doing so.

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and worried that victims of CERB fraud were being told to pay now and get reimbursed later. Trudeau insisted that was false, and that the department was working closely on the issues with fraud, and nobody had to pay for it. Blanchet was not able to reconcile the statement, and Trudeau repeated that they were there to help fraud victims.

Jagmeet Singh led for the NDP, and in French, he wondered why they were refusing to implement the Deschamps Report, and Trudeau insisted that they did take concrete measures, and listed a number of federal strategies around things like combatting gender-based violence. Singh switched to English to state that there was a chilling effect for women who complain about sexual misconduct in the Forces, and Trudeau largely repeated his list of measures taken.

Round two, and Richard Martel denounced Telford and that the prime minister claimed he didn’t know what was happening (Sajjan: We have taken action; Your leader knew what was happening in 2015 and they still appointed Vance), James Bezan found it difficult to know that they could not have known that the Vance allegations were about sexual misconduct (Sajjan: Your leader knew and the appointment went ahead), and Karen Vecchio took exception saying that the nature of the allegations didn’t matter (Sajjan: You are taking this quote out of context).

Rhéal Fortin kept on the same issue, and listed four strikes against Sajjan, wondering if he was still credible (Sajjan: I disagree with your characterisation), and he panned the appointment of Louise Arbour if the Deschamps recommendations have gathered dust (Sajjan: We are taking seriously).

Michelle Rempel Garner gave a deliberately misleading framing about the different vaccines (Hajdu: All vaccines are safe and effective), and Pierre Paul-Hus did the same again in French (Hajdu: Same answer), and wondered about an $80 million contract for masks that did not meet standards (Anand: We terminated the contract and we will be seeking legal remedies).

Alexandre Boulerice asked about taxing Netflix, citing “Do or do not, there is no try” (Freeland: There are no exemptions for Netflix), and Jack Harris demanded support for his motion on dental care (Hajdu: I have encouraged the Health Committee to study the issue).

Round three saw questions on Bill C-10 (Guilbeault: This is about forcing web giants to pay for Canadian culture), taxing web giants (Guilbeault: We are trying to get web giants to pay into Quebec culture and taxing web giants is in our budget), bringing about true culture change in the Canadian Forces (Sajjan: This is why we appointed a Chief Professional Conduct and Culture officer), Providence Therapeutics (Champagne: I will continue to engage with the CEO), sexual misconduct in the Armed Forces (Sajjan: We are acting), and delays to oaths of citizenship and work permits (Mendicino: We have been processing applications).

Overall, it was a much quieter day than yesterday, which is just as well (because I was trying to tweet Star Wars gifs to go along with it). It was also a fairly repetitive day, where once again the Conservatives in particular kept asking the same couple of questions with a variety of different faces, because social media clips. I am a bit surprised that Erin O’Toole decided that his winning move was to try and spin some kind of elaborate conspiracy theory to tie the General Vance allegations to the Mark Norman investigation, especially considering that I’m sure most Canadians have no idea who retired Vice-Admiral Mark Norman is, and what his investigation and attempted prosecution was all about, nor would the vast majority of them care, so trying to tie the Vance allegations – for which they already have more than enough to call for the minister’s resignation (which is long overdue by this point) and trying to create this additional convoluted narrative around it is, well, a choice. I am alarmed that the Conservatives are leaning into this deliberate confusion around the role of NACI as opposed to Health Canada, and vaccine advice, and trying to pin this on the federal government (NACI is arm’s length), so as to paint a picture of incompetence that doesn’t actually exist. It’s not only disingenuous, it’s dangerous, and I can’t believe they think they’re going to score points this way. But again – choices.

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

2 thoughts on “QP: Spinning a Vance/Norman conspiracy theory”

  1. “O’Toole then switch to the Vance allegations, and spun an elaborate conspiracy that Katie Telford was friendly with Vance … O’Toole insisted that things all seemed a little too cozy”

    Oh, just come right out and say it Erin, the psychotic base already believes without a shred of evidence in reality that Katie is doing the fuddle duddle with Justin. As a woman, I’m disgusted by the QAnon insinuations being made throughout this whole fracas. Moreover, whatever happened to the allegations made against Bezan, and why don’t we know who actually leaked Will Amos’ photo to Brian Lilley of all people?

    Cons care SFA about women or about sexual misconduct more generally. They’re only interested in using yet another “scandal” to satisfy their perverse and, arguably, sexualized obsession with the PM, the women (and, apparently, some men) in his caucus, and his “feminist cred.” It goes beyond a mere desperate grab for polling points. Their Javert/Ahab level of dogged pursuit is the worst form of gutter politics and it’s sick.

  2. The CBC 6 o’clock news tonight did exactly what the conservatives did in the house today the reporters conflate NACI with health Canada even stating that the Prime Minister takes his advice from this advisory body. Then Vic Adopia gave a report on vaccines and made a mess of it no wonder people are confuse. What he did achieve was to sow panic and fear in listeners. Why do we even have CBC today I don’t know.

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