QP: The repetitive hyperbole around C-10

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On a gloomy day in the nation’s capital, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was present in the Chamber for this proto-PMQ exercise, with only his steady side-kick, Mark Gerretsen, in the otherwise empty benches behind him. Erin O’Toole led off, script before him, and he conflated the allegations against General Vance with the Special Forces commander who wrote a glowing letter of recommendation for a soldier who was convicted of sexual assault. Trudeau responded by reading a list of actions they are taking to combat sexual misconduct in the military. O’Toole tried to find out what the advice was given when Vance was given an extension to his contract and a raise, Trudeau read a laundry list of actions being taken to combat gender-based violence. O’Toole was not mollified and demanded an answer, but Trudeau stuck to generalities about providing safe spaces for victims. O’Toole switched to French to repeat his first question and the disingenuous conflation of the cases, for which Trudeau read the French script for the list of actions taken to combat sexual misconduct in the military. O’Toole then complained about the silence when victims come forward, and wanted to know who would be held to account. Trudeau, without script, spoke about the appointment of former justice Louise Arbour as a step in changing the culture of the military.

Yves-François Blanchet rose for the Bloc, and raised the case of a victim of CERB fraud where he lost his GST reimbursement and was asked to pay $3000 in taxes, and Trudeau read that they have given resources to combat CERB fraud and to support victims, who were not to be held responsible for the sums. Blanchet said these words for cold comfort, and Trudeau repeated that victims were not to be held responsible. 

Jagmeet Singh led for the NDP, and in French, wondered why the government didn’t create the independent centre for sexual misconduct complaints for the military as the Deschamps Report called for. Trudeau read some generalities about the work of changing the culture in the military. Singh switched to English to repeat the demand, citing that the figures work out to three allegations per week. Trudeau repeated his answer in English.

Round two, and Candice Bergen appeared by video, accusing the PM of blaming women for his failures (Trudeau: We have moved forward with measures across government to take concerns seriously, and we will do even more), and Leona Alleslev demanded to know who would be held to account for the failure of dealing with Vance (Trudeau: This was a process that your party took before they appointed Vance in the first place; We have demonstrated firmness and resolve in transforming the culture of the military).

Rhéal Fortin kept on the Vance allegations (Trudeau: What the member is saying is false, and they said the details of the allegations were unknown).

O’Toole was back up to give a hyperbolic nonsense reading of Bill C-10 (Trudeau: This bill is about putting Canadian creators ahead of web giants; This is not about restricting Canadian content, but making Canadian music more discoverable).

Singh was back up to lament that the promise to get all Indigenous communities clean drinking water was broken (Trudeau: Decades of neglect led to the situation, and we have provided additional funds to accelerate the commitment and stabilising operations), and advancing the calls to action in the MMIW report (Trudeau: We are working with stakeholders to develop the plan and are making investments).

Round three saw yet more hyperbolic questions on Bill C-10 (Trudeau: This does not focus on what Canadians are doing, but on what web giants are not doing with professionally created content), the fact that 5000 people who tested positive upon returning to the country (Trudeau: Our borders have been closed to non-essential travel for over a year and we are taking necessary steps; COVID came into Canada in March 2020 and we were not going to stop Canadians from returning to the country, so we took measures with the provinces), even more unbelievable hyperbole on Bill C-10 (Trudeau: The tinfoil hats are getting really spectacular), and Singh was back up to raise the situation in India by waiving the patent protections on vaccines (Trudeau: We have reached out with support and will continue to do so, and we are working with the WTO about these patents).

Overall, it was another fairly repetitive day, where there were only a couple of topics on offer, and the same questions being asked over and over by different faces, because social media clips. Well, different faces for the Conservatives anyway – Jagmeet Singh once again took all of the NDP spots for himself, defeating the whole purpose of these proto-PMQs of giving every MP a chance to ask a question of the prime minister (not that he’ll give them a substantive answer – but they can at least ask). And yeah, Trudeau not answering on the Vance questions and just reading laundry lists today was really not a good look. There wasn’t the same push for conspiracy theories regarding the Vance allegations today as there were yesterday, thankfully, but instead we got a lot more outsized nonsense on Bill C-10, which I’m finding increasingly irritating, especially because I’ve spent the past couple of days digging into this with the very experts that the Conservatives are citing, and lo, they are not saying the same thing the Conservatives are when they quote these experts, and once again, the Conservatives are now outright lying about the legislation (which has problems! Let’s not kid ourselves!) for the sake of trying to score cheap points instead of having a substantive discussion about the actual problems with this legislation. It’s so frustrating because this is the dumbest and most damaging way to play politics with serious issues. (And yes, this is an early plug for the piece I have in National Magazine that will be up by tomorrow).

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

6 thoughts on “QP: The repetitive hyperbole around C-10”

  1. Canadian GQP seems really worried that they’ll actually have to face consequences for lying and smearing people. Just for that, I hope that if the Liberals get the majority next go-around they put those clauses back in just to shut them up once and for all.

    I wish they hadn’t given any subsidies to the papers though. Let them rot. Friggin’ Der Sturmer North, the whole lot of them. What the Nazi Post did today with Sophie is galling, and reminiscent of what the press used to do to Maggie. They already destroyed the two women’s mental health podcast by torching the WE charity to the ground. They unleashed Jeff Ballzinger’s orcs on the vaccine video, and turned a blind eye to Fife floating Murdoch tabloid insinuations about her and Idris Elba. I just read an article that points out the Globe’s editor is an Englishman who was once a protégé of Murdoch, and he’s using A.I. to juice subscription drives. Explains the hardcore negative hyperbole against this government on all things COVID, while giving mere tut-tuts to, or outright ignoring, the egregious behavior of their preferred party and its irrelevant bald figurehead. The mask is off (pun intended): the cons and their propaganda apparatuses have gone all in, irrevocably, on an agenda of 100 percent burning-hot hatred of all things Trudeau.

    But hey, Charlie the tuna of all people has Susan Collins type of concerns about the “toxic” atmosphere at the committees. King of the Maggie-bashers says what now? Jerk.

    • Another bizarre rant, J.B. Every newspaper in Canada is now a Nazi front, apparently. Too bad Dale doesn’t care enough to call you on it. Sad.

  2. For weeks the Cons were asking for a Budget, it came and suddenly all they are talking about is Vance. How very strange. I take it then that the CPC is supporting the Budget when it comes for a vote.

  3. Conservatives could not devise a budget because they have no policies on anything. That is why they will continue to sit on the left side of the speaker for years to come.

  4. OK, so I just read the CBA article… Wow, what a mess. Geist remains an absolute techbro jerk who gives credence to the notion of abolishing tenure, and what even is this???

    “Cynthia Khoo, a technology and human rights lawyer and researcher with Tekhnos Law in Toronto, adds that we need to remember that the Broadcasting Act came about in an era of limited bandwidth for television and radio. The government had little choice but to regulate a scarce resource, but the internet doesn’t work in the same way.

    What’s more, the internet has done so a lot to promote media diversity, equal representation, political mobilization and civil rights, says Khoo. Bill C-10 would harm historically marginalized communities by taking the one channel they have to inject their voices, and close in on it with regulations that make social media companies responsible for user-generated content.”

    So because the Internet is big means it shouldn’t be regulated? That doesn’t even make any sense! If anything that’s WHY it needs to be regulated, because as it stands now, it’s a complete wild west of chaos where anyone can upload whatever they want and not face any consequences for the real-world harm! It’s provided political mobilization for the likes of MAGA and QAnon, but because Black Lives Matter and Land Back uses it *too* means the government needs to just let the websites police themselves? In other words, there are very fine people on both sides? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! What disingenuous BS!

    She says she wants to see “some form” of content moderation, but not any that affects marginalized communities? Um, does she realize that NOT having content moderation is what harms marginalized communities? Without government recourse, how are we supposed to take down the likes of Chris Sky from promoting his anti-mask and anti-vax garbage, if the websites themselves refuse to do so? How do we get rid of Rebel? Post Millennial? Metacanada on Reddit? Average nobodies who become overnight “influencers” pushing the same hateful, deceitful message? What if FB had brought Trump back, how the F would there be recourse to have him banned in Canada?

    I’m so mad about this climb-down, and I blame these stupid lawyers who claim to be “experts” but have no idea what they’re talking about. You HAVE to regulate them under the CRTC, and so what if some random high schooler’s Tik Tok gets a copyright rap? There’s no other way of bringing YouTube, FB, Reddit, etc. to heel!

    • “…it’s a complete wild west of chaos where anyone can upload whatever they want and not face any consequences…”

      So, I see the concept of irony still doesn’t resonate with you, J.B. You’re hoping that the CRTC will have a look at Routine Proceedings, perhaps?

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