Roundup: Parliament is summoned, a Speaker elected

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The 44th Parliament has been summoned, and nearly all MPs were back in the House of Commons yesterday – the exceptions being the one Conservative MP who tested positive for COVID and a BC MP or two who stayed in their ridings owing to the flood situation, but otherwise, they are back, and all in the Chamber for the first time in nearly two years. The government is trying their best, mind you, to do away with this – Government House Leader Mark Holland is trying to use the black box of unknown “medical exemptions” by some Conservative MPs to bring back hybrid sittings (the motion for that is on the Order Paper), scrupulously ignoring the injuries suffered by interpretation staff as a result of the Zoom format. The Conservatives and the Bloc are opposing the return to hybrid sittings for good reason – it allows the government to escape accountability, both because they can’t be seen face-to-face in the Chamber, and they can’t be questioned by journalists when they leave, and while I’m sure that the government finds this to be a feature and not a bug, it’s an intolerable situation.

Holland also laid out the government’s four legislative priorities that they want passed before the House rises in three or four weeks, which is going to mean cutting corners as there’s no way that standing committees will be up and running by then. The four were new pandemic benefits for businesses and workers affected by lockdowns, ensuring ten paid sick days for workers in federally-regulated sectors, criminalising anti-vax protesters who harass healthcare workers or hospitals, and the conversion therapy ban. While the new benefits could be rolled into a budget implementation bill for the fall economic update (which they would have to bully through without any committees in place), as could the legislation on paid sick days, but I fail to see the need for new criminal measures for anti-vax protesters. Simply enforcing existing laws against criminal harassment and trespassing should be enough, and a specific bill would be mere theatrics. The conversion therapy bill, while important, has been promised to be “tougher,” which will slow down progress because it means it won’t be the same bill that they can claim already passed once – a new bill would demand new scrutiny, and with no committees in place, it’s a much more fraught notion to ram it through.

The Speaker election also took place, and Anthony Rota remained in the position, which is a little disappointing because he wasn’t the best Speaker, particularly as he allowed a lot of the problems with the hybrid format to carry on by gently chiding MPs when they did things that cause injuries to interpreters rather than laying down the law with them. I suspect that part of the calculation on the part of the Conservatives was some mistaken notions around what happened with the demands for those Winnipeg Lab documents – Rota’s name was on the court challenge because he was the Speaker, as a function of his office rather than any personal conviction, but he was lionized for it nevertheless (much like the Attorney General’s name was on the court challenge as a largely automatic function that was triggered under provisions in the Canada Evidence Act rather than a partisan effort – remember that the government did provide documents to NSICOP). Rota also made mention of “fine-tuning” decorum, which he has shown precious little interest in actually enforcing, again relying on gentle chiding, so I’m not sure why he was to be believed, but here we are.

Good reads:

  • Official languages minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor says her job is to both promote French, and ensure that Indigenous languages are protected.
  • Mark Miller says he is very concerned that protests around the RCMP storming a Wet’suwet’en blockade will spread across the country.
  • The journalist and filmmaker arrested at the Wet’suwet’en protest site were finally released from custody, three days later, raising questions about RCMP conduct.
  • A working group has been set up by the government to determine if more than just sexual misconduct cases in the military need to be transferred to civilian courts.
  • The Conservatives and NDP are calling for an emergency debate on the BC flood situation, because what is really needed are a bunch of canned speeches.
  • Nova Scotia premier Tim Houston visited Ottawa for the first time ever, and met with Trudeau, saying he got an “enthusiastic response” from the PM.
  • Katie Lewis compares Washington state’s emergency response to the flooding to BC’s lack of response, and it raises questions as to the competence of the province.
  • Susan Delacourt previews the government’s plans to combat online hate and disinformation, which the rise of anti-vaxxers has highlighted.

Odds and ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take calls out Erin O’Toole for weaponizing the (garbage) Reform Act to insulate his leadership from his dissenters.

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One thought on “Roundup: Parliament is summoned, a Speaker elected”

  1. The problem is that what the Conservatives subject the government, and particularly the PM, to isn’t “accountability,” but lies and personal abuse. “Parliamentary privilege” shouldn’t be a cover to shield the opposition from accountability, especially when they go so far as to haul private citizens before a star chamber to be viciously berated with outlandish accusations, or when they damage national security with conspiracy theories. The “interface” of Parliament, whether analog or virtual, doesn’t make a difference. This low behaviour is just SOP of being a Con.

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