QP: Inventing an “Internet Czar” out of whole cloth

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For Wednesday, proto-PMQ day, Justin Trudeau was present, as was the usual Liberal placeholder, Mark Gerretsen. Erin O’Toole led off, script on mini-lectern, and he led off by accusing the government of moving the goalposts on vaccines, blamed him for not getting any last winter (when no one else in the world did), and Trudeau reminded him that they had stated the goals of three million doses by the end of March and they got well more than anticipated. O’Toole raised the CanSino conspiracy theory and accused Trudeau of wanting lockdowns until Thanksgiving, and Trudeau stated that by accelerating first doses means people can do more with one another in the summer, in advance of getting their second doses in the fall. O’Toole then accused the government of “stealing doses from COVAX” and of being late by trying to partner with CanSino, and Trudeau reminded him they have seven signed contracts and none were with a Chinese firm. O’Toole declared that we were in a third wave because of the CanSino non-deal, and Trudeau called out the misinformation and disinformation coming from the opposition. O’Toole then switched to French to repeat his first question, and got the same answer about first doses meaning a better summer.

Yves-François Blanchet led off for the Bloc, and he accused the government of wanting an election and invited all leaders to have a private meeting to come to a consensus, but Trudeau denied wanting an election while they were delivering for Canadians, and the Bloc are the ones who want an election by voting against a confidence motion. Blanchet repeated his invitation for a meeting to come to a consensus — which seems to be the opposite of an open legislative process — and Trudeau reminded him that all parties can reflect on the bill at committee, and repeated that he didn’t want an election.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and in English, demanded “concrete action” on long-term care, for which Trudeau reminded him that there were $3 billion in the budget, and the government has been investing to create standards and to make permanent changes, but they need to work with provinces. Singh demanded more of the same, and Trudeau declared that the situation is deplorable, but they have stepped up as a federal government to assist the provinces, whose jurisdiction this is.

Round two, and Gérard Deltell recited the false notion that the government was “late” with vaccines because of the CanSino conspiracy theory (Trudeau: We have enough doses for people to get their first doses this summer, so they can get a second one by September), and Raquel Dancho demanded to know the date enough vaccines would arrive for everyone to get a second dose (Trudeau: We have always said by September, but it could be sooner because vaccines are arriving faster), and worried about people who had a first doses of AstraZenca (Trudeau: Scientists are leaning in on recommendations for next steps; Politicians shouldn’t be delivering health advice), 

Andréanne Larouche wanted to know what assurances the prime minister sought on the General Vance allegations (Trudeau, with script: Everyone testified at committee that they had no details, and PCO investigated as far as possible), and she demanded Harjit Sajjan’s resignation for his failure to address sexual misconduct in the military (Trudeau, with script: We have further investments in the budget to implement a long-term strategy, and we appointed former justice Arbour).

Michelle Rempel Garner demanded to know what Trudeau’s second dose would be (Trudeau: My doctor recommended that I get a second dose of AstraZeneca when my turn comes up, but there are no recommendations yet on mixing and matching doses; My job is not to make health recommendations, and people need to talk to their doctors).

Singh was back up, and he wondered if the prime minister was aware of rising housing costs (Trudeau: We increased our investments in the budget, and we are partnering with provinces and municipalities), and in French, he listed stats on rent and house price increases and demanded an “excess wealth tax” to pay for housing (Trudeau: We are delivering for the housing sector, and we have increased taxes on the wealthy, and the NDP voted against it).

Round three saw questions on Steven Guilbeault’s tweet about “misinformation” about Bill C-10 (Trudeau: Canadians want us to support our artists, and they are concerned about the increasing power of web giants, and hey, the National Assembly of Quebec supports this bill; I know you’re in a tough situation because Quebeckers remember the Harper government attacking Quebec artists and they aren’t supporting them now; Legislation that applies to web giants would not apply to Canadian users; The Conservatives are misleading Canadians), as many as a third of returning international travellers being exempt from hotel quarantine (Trudeau: We closed the borders to almost all travellers over a year ago, and it has largely worked, we continue to ensure Canadians are safe), and problems with the company contracted to conduct quarantine tests not being able to operate in French or remote areas (Trudeau: We recognise there are issues, and we are working with the company and looking for other suppliers), managing the border (Trudeau: This is the same rhetoric we get from Doug Ford, and when I asked which passengers he wanted to limit, he won’t say), insisting there would be an “Internet Czar” to moderate all content (Trudeau: This is misinformation), and violence in East Jerusalem by Israeli forces (Trudeau: We are following the situation with grave concern, and call on all parties to de-escalate, and we support a two-state solution).

Overall, I find myself having lost all patience with today’s exercise because the Conservatives decided to go full-bore on outright fiction to try and score cheap points for their social media channels, and pretty much nothing they accused the government of has any basis in reality. For example, the conspiracy theory that the government put “all of its eggs” into the CanSino basket has been disproven several times, most especially by testimony from the vaccine task force, and in no way were we behind in signing contracts with other manufacturers – in fact, we were among the first to sign with Moderna. Michelle Rempel Garner invented a reporting relationship with Health Canada and NACI that doesn’t exist, and then they not only false stated that somehow the CRTC would be moderating tweets for “Liberal-approved” content, which is grossly untrue, they also invented out of whole cloth the fantasy that somehow Bill C-10 would create an “Internet Czar” to moderate all online content, which again, is false and inflammatory. And when the prime minister called out misinformation or stated that the Conservatives are deliberately misleading – and they are – they whined to the Speaker that you’re not allowed to call people liars in the Commons. It’s infuriating, because it’s abusing the privileges of the Chamber to lie and mislead, and hope that they don’t get called on it, as they distribute those lies and misinformation on their social media channels. And no, you can’t count on the media to fact-check them or to try and at least frame things in a way that shows that this is in fact misinformation, because they will simply both-sides it, and the Conservatives know that, which is why they know they can lie with impunity. And I don’t know how we, as a country, do anything about this.

Otherwise, we saw another instance of Jagmeet Singh taking all of his party’s slots, once again defeating the point of these proto-PMQs of letting any MP ask a question to the PM (not that he will necessarily promise an answer), and I found Yves-François Blanchet’s insistence on a closed-door meeting between party leaders on the elections bill rather than an open legislative process to be baffling and even a bit suspicious, but there you go. I also note that only the Bloc asked about the General Vance allegations today, and are still calling for Harjit Sajjan’s resignation (as they should!).

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

One thought on “QP: Inventing an “Internet Czar” out of whole cloth”

  1. Jean Chrétien famously said (I believe in response to Rummy’s “known-unknowns” cryptic word salad about WMDs and the fog of war) that “a proof is a proof and when you have a good proof, that means its proven.” He also, in response to a particularly vicious PC ad mocking his speech disability, said that at least he’s not a Conservative who talks out both sides of their mouths. In some twenty-plus years, that “proof” about Cons hasn’t changed one bit.

    The Canadian GQP are marching in lockstep with their American kissing cousins in promoting not just one Big Lie but a bombardment of BS. All the more reason to bring in emergency legislation to combat the pandemic of LIES being circulated by the disease-carrying conservatives. Even if the government was able to wrangle the Internet, legacy MSM would continue to be a problem, and Hillary Clinton called out their noxious gaslighting whereby false objectivity is the core of access journalism (and toeing the line of corporate ownership).

    I’m shaking my head that Susan Delacourt’s latest column puts C-10 to the “Trump test” of fence-sitting unreality, and simply declares it “problematic” — for the Liberals and Guilbeault, but not for the Cons and their academic acolytes lying about it (or lying on the Internet and lying in the media more generally). How many podcasts and news programs has lobster boy Geist made appearances on to complain that he’s being censored? And now he’s going to the committee to complain yet again about his freeze peach?

    It’s terrifying to think that we live in a post-reality world simply because standing by facts has gotten to be “partisan.” There’s an old saying, only the jester dare tell the truth — but Stephen Colbert said it best when he said, reality has a Liberal bias.

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