QP: Saving our forestry sector from the Americans

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For a Monday in the shadow of the discovery of that mass grace of Indigenous children in Kamloops, and there was once again but a single Liberal in the Chamber, and yes, it was once again Mark Gerretsen. Candice Bergen led off in person for the Conservatives, and she raised the discovery of the mass graves, and wanted an update on plans to find the identities of those children. Gary Anandasangaree responded after a delay, citing the funding commitments already made and made mention of work done with Indigenous leaders. Gérard Deltell repeated the question in French, and this time Marc Miller responded, saying that they are standing with the communities and will deliver the support they need. Bergen was back up, and she accused the government of being silent on American predations in the forestry sector, for which Seamus O’Regan expressed his disappointment in American actions, and his desire for a negotiated solution. Bergen derided the government’s actions on this as well as pipelines, for which O’Regan assured her they were looking out for all workers, including energy workers. Deltell then repeated the lament about softwood lumber in French, and O’Regan repeated his earlier response.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he demanded that federal workplaces in Quebec make French the language of work — and being very particular about it — and Pablo Rodriguez gave the flattering falsehood about French supposedly declining in Quebec (it hasn’t), and stated their commitment to protecting the French language. Therrien railed that the federal government simply wanted to extend bilingualism, which Rodriguez reassured him that they have worked to strengthen French across the country.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and in a somber tone, raised the mass grave in Kamloops and demanded the government drop their lawsuits against Indigenous children and survivors, and Marc Miller assured him they have committed to compensation, and that they are committed to continuing the search for truth and devoting resources for doing so. Singh repeated the question in French, and Miller repeated his response in French.

Round two, and Pierre Poilievre raised the CRTC’s decision around wholesale Internet pricing, and wanted the government to introduce more competition in the system (Champagne: We have been relentless in increasing competition, and will continue to make connectivity more affordable), Alain Rayes tried to again muddy the waters around net neutrality when it comes to C-10 (Dabrusin: The bill doesn’t deal with ISP, but merely asks web giants to contribute to Canadian content), and Rachael Harder accused Bill C-10 of attacking diversity by determining what is and is not Canadian (Dabrusin: The Act hasn’t been updated in 30 years and web giants have stepped into the void without contributing).

Rhéal Fortin raised the possible appointment of someone who donated to the Liberals as a judge (Rodriguez: All of the rules were followed; Virani: The Ethics Commission stated that a donation does not equal a friendship).

Michael Chong worried about shipments of virus samples from the National Microbiology Lab to the Wuhan lab (Hajdu: This is a secure facility and we take all threats seriously, and there are strict protocols), tried to tie the resignation of two senior PHAC officials with this (Hajdu: I can’t comment on the firing of the two scientists, and we have strict policies), and Pierre Paul-Hus demanded to know if anyone with ties to Communist China was working in the Lab (Hajdu: There are strict security protocols).

Leah Gazan returned to the discovery of the mass grave and wanted further investments in locating other such sites (Anandasangaree: We have been working with the National Truth and Reconciliation centre), and Mumilaaq Qaqqaq accused the government of being at a standstill on implementing Calls to Action from the TRC report (Anandasangaree: We have been working to implement all calls to action, and have allocated funding).

Round three saw questions on judicial appointments (Virani: There is an independent process in place), whether any shipments to Canada have been stopped because of forced labour of Uyghurs (Ng: We are working to “operationalise” the ban), repealing the Indian Act (Miller: This is an unacceptable Act, but we can’t just repeal it overnight from Ottawa, and newer treaties are showing that progress can be made), and funding future searches of similar graves (Miller: This is up to communities and we will fund them if they request it), the National Housing strategy (Hussen: We are focused on the residential housing stock is used for housing and not being left unused, which is why we have a vacancy tax), fish stocks in BC (Jordan: DFO takes the best available science in making decisions, and we work with Indigenous partners), delays in bringing in temporary foreign workers (Kusmierczyk: We have worked to facilitate the safe arrival of workers), PMPRB accusing their critics of disinformation (Hajdu: We are always willing to listen to patient groups, but PMPRB has undertaken important work to understanding drug prices so that we can lower them), not allowing people from Windsor to get vaccines from Detroit (Anand: We have delivered 26.2 million doses so far), scrapping quarantine hotels (Hajdu: Travel volumes are down 95 percent, and the report from the panel is imported to determining next steps with the provinces), the Human Rights Tribunal lawsuit — which is about the Tribunal overreaching their statutory authority and not the compensation (Anandasangaree: Same answer as before), and banks raising fees (Freeland: Everyone needs to pay their fair share, and we have committed to reducing credit card interchange fees).

Overall, the day was a bit meh, and there wasn’t much new – just a couple of greatest hits coming back out again, in particular the moral panic about judicial appointments, which is just that – a moral panic. The CBC reporting over the weekend was irresponsible, but that won’t stop opposition parties from using it to the fullest extent, no matter how much it makes some of them – the Conservatives in particular – look like hypocrites given their own record on the file. We got the same attempts by the Conservatives to confuse what is being meant by “net neutrality,” and more attempts to feed conspiracy theories about the National Microbiology Lab, but that’s quickly becoming par for the course these days. Otherwise, there were a number of points in the day where responses were delayed or the House Leader had to answer because the minister or parliamentary secretary was having Zoom issues, and these “hybrid” sittings remain as terrible as ever, and we can’t return to in-person sittings fast enough.

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