QP: The trauma of vaccine mandates

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It was unusual but happened nevertheless—that Justin Trudeau was present for a third QP in a row. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen this, and one is forced to wonder if this is to put down the notion that he has been absent or in hiding because of the grifter occupation outside. Candice Bergen led off with her script in front of her, lamenting that the occupation has been there for two weeks, and requested a meeting with Trudeau to “end the impasse.” Trudeau called her out for encouraging the blockades and their fundraising, and said that they will see an end to the blockades, and called on the Conservatives to get on side. Bergen blamed the prime minister for the situation, and demanded their support for their Supply Day motion to capitulate to the occupiers and end all vaccine mandates, to which Trudeau expounded on the virtues of vaccines. Bergen gave some wounded faux confusion, and wondered if the prime minster wouldn’t lift mandates until there was 100 percent vaccination. Trudeau reminded her that vaccines are the way out of the pandemic. Luc Berthold took over in French to ask again if the prime minister wanted 100 percent vaccination rates, and Trudeau repeated his lines about the Conservatives going to bat for the occupiers. Berthold demanded a re-opening plan by all levels of government, and Trudeau said he was happy to hear the Conservatives calling for the occupiers to go home, and he hoped that the Conservatives would stop encouraging the other blockades.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he too demanded a meeting with the prime minster and all party leaders, for which Trudeau reminded him that he is in contact with all levels of government but he could arrange a briefing if Blanchet wanted. Blanchet said he wanted to hear from all of the leaders, before raising the other tactics the occupiers were engaged in, and Trudeau said they were working with other governments to minimise the impact of the illegal blockades. 

Jagmeet Singh appeared by video, and whinged that the prime minister was “hiding behind jurisdiction” and demanded he fix the mess—for which the Conservatives applauded. Trudeau noted that they have been furnishing resources to the municipalities affected, which is why they called on the Conservatives to call for the blockades to end instead of cheering them on. Singh repeated his question in French, and got the same answer.

Round two, and Stephanie Kusie demanded vaccine mandates be lifted (Duclos: Vaccination is not a punishment, it is protection), Melissa Lantsman demanded an end to vaccine mandate for travel (Alghabra: We are still in a pandemic), and Chris Lewis demanded that the prime minster fly to Windsor and then Washington to “give Canadians their lives back” (Alghabra: You have spent the last two weeks absolving the responsibility of lawbreakers), and Lianne Rood demanded capitulation (Alghabra: You must condemn the blockades and call on them to go home).

Blanchet got back up, and demanded once again a meeting with the party leaders (Holland: We have meetings every day and the Conservatives are out supporting the illegal protests), and Kristina Michaud raised the other blockades to demand the prime minister “show leadership” (Mendicino: The police at these locations have been given added resources and these blockades need to leave).

Michael Chong demanded that Canada started exporting LNG to Europe (Joly: We are working with our European allies), James Bezan demanded more action on Ukraine (Joly: We gave Ukraine what they asked for), Marty Morantz demanded more sanctions on Russia (Joly: We are ready to deploy them with our allies).

Rachel Blaney demanded faster help for seniors who faced GIS clawbacks (Khera: We will deliver a one-time payment to fully compensate everyone), and Heather McPherson worried that media were being targeted by protesters (Mendicino: I hope all of our colleagues will denounce the harassment and intimidation of media).

Round three saw questions on possible caps on nitrate fertilisers (Bibeau: We are in touch with farmers, and farmers are onboard because they care for the environment), the labour shortage in food processing (Bibeau: We are working to bring in temporary foreign workers), fishers facing pandemic benefit clawbacks (Murray: The terms of the program were for self-employed commercial harvesters because they could not get CERB), they clawbacks on GIS (Khera: We will send a one-time payment and have a bill to prevent future clawbacks), the expiration of contracts for temporary workers at Veterans Affairs (MacAulay: We re-hired the same case workers your party fired, and we will continue to decrease the backlog), the privacy breach a the company handling the military sexual assault class action claims (Anand: This was an independent court-appointed company, and DND and the Canadian Forces were not involved in the disclosure), the evacuation from Kabul (Anand: Our Forces did everything we asked of them and they worked in extremely difficult circumstances), allegations of CERB going to people overseas (Qualtrough: Verifications are ongoing and anyone found to have received it improperly will be required to repay it), making billionaires pay their taxes (Freeland: Our government is focused on fighting tax fraud, and we raised taxes on the top one percent), and fast-tracking the disability benefit (Qualtrough: We are working on it).

https://twitter.com/ChrisGNardi/status/1491874472185503753

Overall, to an extent, Trudeau got a bit of a do-over from yesterday, and he did manage to sharpen his rhetoric when it comes to calling out the Conservatives’ support for these grifters, extremists and conspiracy theorists, and his punches landed a little better today. That said, he could have done a better job of calling out the Conservatives for counselling capitulation to the will of the mob, and the kind of precedent that this sets up for all future protest actions. (And seriously, what it is with the Conservatives putting on a tough guy façade and then immediately counselling capitulation, whether it’s to US sanctions or these grifters?) And in response to some of the frankly risible notions the Conservatives were putting forward, like that vaccine mandates are “traumatizing,” I will give props to Jean-Yves Duclos for his line that vaccines are not punishments, they’re protection.

I also have to give an obligatory eyeroll to Jagmeet Singh once again trying to insist that hand-wavey “leadership” somehow overcomes the delineation of jurisdiction, or that he should be invoking some kinds of emergency powers to assert control. That’s not how this works. This constant tactic of trying to drive cynicism in the hopes that he can capitalise on it is just so tiresome.

Sartorial speaking, snaps go out to Chrystia Freeland for her short-sleeved black dress, and to Peter Fragistakos for a dark grey three-piece suit with a white shirt and pocket square and a purple tie. Style citations go out to Kevin Waugh for a brown jacket with a navy shirt, blue and red striped tie and black slacks, and to Laila Goodridge for a white snow leopard print jacket over a back too and leather trousers.

One thought on “QP: The trauma of vaccine mandates”

  1. Cons applaud Jagmeet Singh for attacking Trudeau using their talking points, and running interference for the “Resistance” premiers in the process. NDP tryhards get really angry when Liberals correctly point out what a stooge for the enemy their preferred party and its narcissistic “influencer” leader really are. But the facts, and the “optics,” speak for themselves. They should, in the words of the covidiots, “do their own research.”

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