QP: Offering succour to the grifters

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In spite of the grifters outside, the House of Commons reconvened for its winter sitting, with a lot more MPs present than I would have guessed. In spite of testing positive for COVID, Justin Trudeau intended to attend virtually from isolation, but Chrystia Freeland was present in person. Erin O’Toole led off, script on his mini-lectern, sending his best wishes to Trudeau and his children for their COVID infections, before launching into a diatribe to give succour to the grifters outside and demanded that Trudeau meet them. Trudeau stated that the way out the pandemic is to get vaccinated, and 90 percent of truckers have already done so. O’Toole railed about “divisions” and demanded to know when life would get back to normal, for which Trudeau sympathised with the frustration but insisted that Canadians have been stepping up and getting vaccinated as a demonstration of unity. O’Toole switched to French to repeat his first question, for which Trudeau repeated that vaccines would be the way out of the pandemic. O’Toole then raised the possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine and demanded we send them arms, for which Trudeau insisted that they have always stood up for Ukraine, and that they have been delivering what they most need. O’Toole repeated the question in French, and got much the same answer.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he railed about the grifters outside, for which Trudeau said that while they support the right to protest, they will be firm in standing against violence and hatred, and assured him that police are there to protect people. Therrien complained that everyone is exhausted but that hatred was not the solution, before demanding concrete actions. Trudeau insisted that they would support Canadians throughout the pandemic.

Jagmeet Singh then appeared by video, to raise the Nazi and Confederate flags seen over the weekend, that O’Toole didn’t denounce it, and asked the Pm what he would do to oppose these people. Trudeau repeated that everyone is frustrated but vaccines was the way out of the pandemic. Singh repeated the question in French, and got much the same response. 

Round two, and Michael Chong repeated the demand for lethal weapons for Ukraine (Joly: When I was in Ukraine, president Zelensky had one ask which was for a sovereign loan and we provided that in three days. Their national guard asked for more training, and we expanded our mission a week later), Gérard Deltell repeated the demand in French (Joly: Russia is the aggressor here and we are engaging at all levels diplomatically; your government made major cuts to missions around the world), and Kerry-Lynne Findlay seemed to want our military trainers in the line of fire and wondered if an invasion was inevitable (Joly: There are two paths to stop Russia, which are diplomacy and deterrence, and we are doing both).

Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay wanted faster global vaccinations (Duclos: We have been one of the most important stakeholders with COVAX; Sajjan: We are committed to supporting the equitable global access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics).

Candice Bergen went to bat for the grifters outside and demanded the PM listen to them (Mendicino: There is a difference between free speech and inciting hatred and violence, and those radical leaders are not interested in free speech by pretending vaccines don’t work), and tried to equate First Nations protesters with those carrying Nazi flags (Mendicino: Those calling for violence to overthrow this government are not interested in free speech or discourse; Holland: I’ve been in opposition too, and I know the rhetoric can get heated).

Rachel Blaney demanded immediate help for struggling Canadians (Freeland: We presented our plan to help seniors affected by clawbacks), and Daniel Blaikie said this help was not coming soon enough (Khera: We have worked hard to help seniors’ income security).

Round three saw questions on the grifters outside (Holland: Stop trying to inflame the situation and have civil discourse instead of jumping on raw nerves), the genocide of Uyghurs in China versus the Olympics (St-Onge: This was a decision by the Olympic Committee and in cooperation with our allies we are not sending a delegation to China; Joly: We have asked the Human Rights Commission at the UN to investigate China), raising CPP premiums (Freeland: It’s rich for you to offer us any advice on small business when you opposed our measures to help them though omicron; Why do you keep talking down the economy?), the red herring about captial gains taxes on primary residences (Hussen: You continue to engage in disinformation), forcing grocery stores to raise wages instead of paying their CEOs (Freeland: We put measures to support these kinds of front-line workers), and calling that the proposed tax credit on carbon capture be scrapped (Guilbeault: We have to look at every possible technology to reduce GHGs, and this is one we may need to employ).

Overall, it was a very trying day where the Conservatives did not cover themselves in glory, and damaged democracy in the process by going to bat for a group, led by far-right extremists, whose stated demand is to overturn democracy. Erin O’Toole was trying to play things too-cute-by-half in denouncing extremism but blaming the prime minister for “creating divisions” and demanding he meet with the very same people who think that he should be executed as a traitor, and who want to overturn democracy, and no, I cannot stress that part enough—not to mention the fact that most of the public health measures these grifters are demanding be removed are under provincial responsibility, so the federal government couldn’t do anything about it. Worse, however, were Candice Bergen and Pierre Poilievre who gave full-throated support for the grifters, calling them “patriots” and insisting that the whole lot shouldn’t be tarred because of “one or two” people with Nazi flags, when the whole aphorism is that a few bad apples spoil the barrel. The fact that other people in this crowd didn’t chase out (or punch) the Nazi flag-bearers says everything you need to know. And Marco Mendicino was very right in stating that people whose goal is to violently overturn the government aren’t interested in free speech or discourse, so why the Conservatives are pretending that these are reasonable people is utterly boggling.

More to the point, the fact that the Conservative ranks were howling and applauding in support of Bergen and Poilievre is extremely dismaying. Government House Leader Mark Holland was trying to appeal to better angels, and waxed about how his rivals are not his enemies and that they need to de-escalate rather than inflame the situation, but it started to come off as sanctimonious the longer it went on. Bergen and Poilievre gave an incredibly sorry display of cravenness when it comes to confronting the extremists, and that they were very happy to repeat America’s lessons, particularly when it comes to treating extremists like “patriots” and shielding them, exactly like they did with that racist woman in Quebec in 2018. “Oh, she was just asking about the budget and Trudeau called her racist!” is the exact same play as “these are just frustrated patriots who want their lives to go back to normal!” as they let Nazi and Confederate flags fly freely among them. The barrel is spoiled. Stop trying to insist the apples are fresh.

Sartorial speaking, snaps go out to Peter Fragiskatos for a dark grey three-piece suit with a light blue shirt and light blueberry tie, and to Arielle Kayabaga for a grey jacket with black trim over a black top. Style citations go out to Karen Vecchio for a purple turtleneck long sweater/smock with short sleeves over a gold-patterned white long-sleeved top and black slacks, and to Mark Gerretsen for a brown windowpane jacket over a white shirt, skinny blue tie and blue jeans. Dishonourable mentions go out to Marie-Hélène Gaudreau for an orange-toned yellow jacket with black squares along it, over a gold and black sweater and black slacks.

3 thoughts on “QP: Offering succour to the grifters”

  1. The barrel is indeed spoiled. And that applies to the Conservative Party itself along with the mob they’re endorsing. They’ve crossed the Rubicon, jumped the shark, whatever euphemism you want to call it, mutating into a full-blown GOP North clone without any possibility of reversing course. They’re not even a legitimate Canadian political party. They’re willfully engaged in the aiding and abetting of domestic terrorism with their rhetoric of normalization. “Parliamentary privilege” shouldn’t exempt them from accountability for it. A full-blown public inquiry is needed, and this party of deplorables needs to be dismantled altogether, placed under sanctions by Elections Canada and its financials thoroughly investigated. I can appreciate Holland’s attempt at rising above the fray with his invocation of Trudeau/Laurier’s “sunny ways,” but that’s so “because it’s 2015.” At this point there’s no excuse for the Kyrsten Sinema style of “bipartisanship.” Disband the Conservative Party of Canada. It is beyond saving.

  2. Any MP or political party that supports those who fly the Canadian flag upside down with a Nazi swastica spray-painted over our flag, or who trample or urinate on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier … our sacred memorial to those who have died defending the freedoms that we enjoy today … and then calls those demonstrators “patriots”!!!???

    These people need to look at some YouTube videos to see exactly what Nazi Germany, under the flag of the Nazi swastika, did to the people of the lands they invaded … then tell me that these same demonstrators are “patriots”. We have to make sure that MPs like that don’t get re-elected. We need to call them out when it comes time for the next election.

  3. Never heard a word from Michael Cooper today. Must be at Tims getting coffee for the hardcore. As for Bergen and Pollievre,Canadians well know these jerks. This whole “demonstration”gives truth that we in Canada have a dirty neonazi fringe aided and abetted as these movements always are by naïfs and stupids. I suspect that the Canadian evangelical god fearing hypocritical whites alike to those in the US look out at brown, black, yellow and red members of society with such fear that they are paralyzed so much that they have lost all sense and reason. Worse yet they are led by a spineless individual that can’t beard the lion. Woe to the Cons. They’ve done it themselves now.

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