Roundup: Setting more dangerous precedents to justify hybrid sittings

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With a vote of 180 to 140, hybrid sittings will be returning to the House of Commons, which is bullshit and absolutely unconscionable, but the Liberals and NDP have managed to convince themselves of a lot of nonsense in order to justify this. For the Liberals, it was weaponizing a lot of nonsense about MPs feeling “unsafe” in the House of Commons with potentially unvaccinated Conservatives in their midst, which may be a theoretical danger at this point, but it’s not outside of what everyone else has to contend with – and in fact, we expect a lot of essential workers to put themselves in a lot more danger on a daily basis than MPs have to by being in the Chamber with nearly everyone double-vaxxed and everyone wearing masks. For the NDP, it was a lot of the usual handwaving about “work-life balance” and parents of small children, but they already have a lot of accommodations being made for them, and that excuse is getting thin.

What is especially egregious is that this debate over hybrid sittings and remote voting has created an artificial standard of perfect attendance which has never existed, and there is no reason why it needs to exist now. One or two votes won’t bring the government down, and being dramatic about it isn’t helping matters. If anything, creating this impossible standard of perfect attendance in order to justify hybrid sittings is irresponsible and downright dangerous, and sets a way worse example to the rest of the country. Allowing this standard to flourish will mean that MPs will never be allowed sick days or necessary leaves of absence in the future because they will be expected to attend virtually or to continue voting remotely, and it will be used as justification to keep hybrid formats going in perpetuity (which is very, very bad for the health of our Parliament). Perpetuating it will encourage MPs to remain in partisan silos because they don’t have to attend in person and interact face-to-face, and the toxic atmosphere of the last session will become the new norm.

There is also the accountability problem, which the Conservatives and Bloc have been absolutely right to highlight. Allowing attendance by Zoom allows ministers to escape accountability, and it allows all ministers and MPs to escape the accountability of the media because they will simply absent themselves from Parliament Hill, where they cannot be button-holed on their way in and out. Accountability is already suffering in this country, and the government has given themselves a free pass to let it slide even further, and their apologists are clutching their pearls about the pandemic still being on. This is no way to run a country.

Good reads:

  • Chrystia Freeland says that Canada is prepared to retaliate against the doubling of softwood lumber tariffs by the Americans.
  • Negotiations haven’t even begun, and provinces are already chafing at the notion of strings being attached to federal mental health transfer funds.
  • Ontario and the federal government are planning a further round of child care funding negotiations later today.
  • The prime minister has formally appointed General Wayne Eyre the permanent Chief of Defence Staff (finally) and Admiral Art McDonald is voluntarily retiring.
  • It seems that Boeing’s Super Hornets has been deemed not to meet the requirements for the new fighter jets, leaving Lockheed Martin and Saab remaining.
  • Nearly 19,000 claims have been filed as part of a class-action lawsuit from Armed Forces and Department of National Defence personnel over sexual misconduct.
  • The Environment Commissioner released several reports yesterday, showing that emissions have risen over thirty years and all targets missed (but that may change).
  • There are concerns that a fifth wave of the pandemic may be approaching as Europe is seeing another rise in case numbers.
  • Erin O’Toole spent $1 million of party funds on the television studio they built for the election, and that price tag could raise the ire of party members.
  • Leslyn Lewis says she will fight “tooth and nail” any attempt to remove the charitable status from so-called crisis pregnancy centres.
  • The Star interviews new Green interim leader Amita Kuttner.
  • Ontario was once leading the country in emissions reductions but now its Auditor General is showing that they will miss even Doug Ford’s weaker targets. Slow clap.
  • Heather Scoffield remarks that climate change is already costing Canadians billions, never mind future costs.
  • Susan Delacourt delves into the Conservatives’ attempt to draw the Liberals into debates about grocery prices as a long tradition of embarrassing political leaders.

Odds and ends:

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4 thoughts on “Roundup: Setting more dangerous precedents to justify hybrid sittings”

  1. Random question, but is there even one anti-abortion crisis centres within Haldimand—Norfolk?

  2. Saab has offered to assemble it remarkable fighter jets in Canada and have a permanent repair facility which will add Canadian long term jobs there as well as ancillary jobs required in other businesses. It is time for Canada to wean itself off of reliance on Americans. How could the US object….Sweden is a Nato member.

  3. I can understand your objections otherwise to hybrid parliament vis-a-vis the interpreters, but I still don’t think it’s the sole cause of the toxicity of the last one. Remember in the first Trudeau term when the cons were chanting “na na na na hey hey goodbye” to Alberta MPs who lost their seats? Or the desk banging “let her speak” amid the SNC brouhaha? Or how they laughed at Sohi’s background as a bus driver (as they rail against Liberals of all people being a party of “elites”)? Or early on, the NDP jumping aboard Elbowgate and howling for weeks that Trudeau had “assaulted a woman” and should resign? There were no zoom calls then. Maybe it’s gotten worse because of the pandemic, but Parliament in the Trudeau-derangement era is toxic because the opposition strives to be toxic. They can’t win on policy so they resort to juvenile mockery and ginning up hate.

    And as for “accountability,” it’s quite clear that neither the opposition nor media approach anyone in this government with critiques or questions in good faith. Starve the beast. There’s no excuse for dozens of nonsense gossip questions about Tofino or Freeland’s unauthorized biography or even policy questions that amount to little more than “gotchas” as though they’d been written by opposition PR flacks. “When did you stop beating your wife” questions will continue until morale improves? Not interested. #CdnMediaFailed.

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