QP: Insisting there is a cover-up on the Emergencies Act

Posted on by

While the PM and his deputy were in Poland for meetings following their visit to Kyiv yesterday, Candice Bergen was back on the job after her bout of COVID, though as a colleague who has been tracking her absence noted, it had not been five days since her office said that she tested positive and that she was isolating. For what it’s worth. Bergen led off, script on her mini-lectern, and she asked about flood measures are being undertaken in Manitoba, to which Bill Blair read that they are engaged with the province and affected communities, and that they have offered every assistance they could provide, though the province has stated that they are currently within provincial capabilities. Bergen then pivoted to the invocation of the Emergencies Act, going to bat for the occupiers and calling them innocent, and insisted there was a cover-up underway. Marco Mendicino insisted that they have been transparent and that they will cooperate with the inquiry. Bergen ramped up the insistence that there was a cover-up, and Mendicino pointed out that Bergen was trying to shift culpability away from herself and her caucus who we encouraging the occupiers. Luc Berthold took over in French, and he railed about high gas prices, and demanded that people be given “a break,” but did not specify what kind of break. Randy Boissonnault appeared by video and accused the Conservatives of playing petty politics. Berthold was incensed, and assured the government of simply hoarding taxes, and Boissonnault wanted a discussion on facts, pointing out the global situation, while the Conservatives keep voting against their affordability measures.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and she accused the government of violating the principle of taxation without representation, complaining about the budget implantation bill. Mark Holland pointed out that the Conservatives have been delaying legislation including Bill C-8. Normandin was not mollified and insisted the government was abusing the process, and Holland repeated that they have been trying to have reasonable debate but the Conservatives are obstructing. 

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and in French, he decried the rising cost of housing because of the “financialisation of housing,” to which Ahmed Hussen stood up to recite his well-worn talking points about the programmes the government is deploying for renters. Jenny Kwan took over in English, and made the same points, to which Hussen stated that he agreed with her, and repeated the supports for new rental housing.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman got up to decry the cost of housing (Hussen: I can’t take this member and her misinformation seriously), Michael Barrett, Adam Chambers, Eric Melillo, Brad Vis and Joël Godin repeated the same accusation (Hussen: Same answer, over and over).

Claude DeBellefeuille demanded that the federal government adopt Quebec’s French language charter (Petitpas Taylor: We are modernising the Official Languages Act because we recognise that French is in decline), and Mario Beaulieu and he decried that bilingualism is displaying a French in Quebec (Petitpas Taylor: You haven’t read the bill).

Kerry-Lynne Findlay insisted that the federal government used the Special Forces surveillance plan was gathering intelligence on the Occupation, and insisted there must have been other surveillance on the ground (Anand: This training flight was booked ahead of the occupation hand had nothing to do with the occupation), and Pierre Paul-Hus repeated the accusation in French (Anand: Same answer).

Leah Gazan decried the fact that the $45 sexual and reproductive health fund has not been disbursed (Duclos: We will be making further announcements soon), and Daniel Blaikie gripes about oil companies making profits while they get government money (Wilkinson: We have been phasing out the subsidies, and we are working with them and other sectors to achieve emissions reduction targets).

Round three saw questions on passport delays, insisting that they were because civil servants were not all back at the office (Gould: All passport offices are open, people are back at work and they are working overtime), gun violence in Montreal and a Hell’s Angel party (Mendicino: We have invested significant amounts to fight smuggling and we want to work with partners to address it), the ArriveCan app (Mendicino: We work with the CBSA to ensure that it is smooth and efficient), mandated nitrogen fertiliser reductions (Bibeau: We are looking to help farmers with higher costs), a VIA Rail route that has not been restored (Alghabra: We are investing in VIA to supporting rail), protecting Atlantic salmon (Murray: Our goal is the conservation of stocks, and we will work more with Indigenous guardians to do this important work), relocating Kasheshewan (Blair: We have made arrangements to evacuate the community), increasing anti-Asian racism (Hussen: We stand in solidarity with Asian Canadians, and we have invested in community initiatives).

Overall, it was a quieter day in comparison to last week, but it was also hugely repetitive, as whole blocks of the same question were being asked, first on housing and then with passports, because Conservatives needed to get as many clips for their social media channels as possible. On the one hand, it made for easier recapping because it was just the same thing over and over, but on the other hand, it’s really frustrating to watch because it’s just the same thing over and over again, as though there were no flow between questions. This is a complete perversion of that QP should be about.

I am more concerned about the fact that Kerry-Lynne Findlay continues to try and build a conspiracy theory around the training flight of that Special Forces surveillance plane, and that she has folded in the Public Health Agency’s use of publicly available anonymised mobile data to “prove” that the government is spying on people. It’s two unrelated pieces of information and torqued to be seen in the worst possible light, and no matter how many times Findlay and others have been told this was a pre-arranged training flight, they insist that this was some nefarious and possibly unauthorised action either by the government or the military on its own, and that there must have been other surveillance on the ground. It’s unserious nonsense, but Findlay has a habit of picking up conspiracy theories and running with them (remember when she got concerned that Chrystia Freeland once interviewed George Soros when she was a journalist?) and the fact that her party lets her continue with this is alarming, but also the fact that the legacy media won’t touch this and call it out either is as much if not more of a problem.

Sartorial speaking, snaps go out to Yasir Naqvi for a tailored dark grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a navy tie with red patterns, and to Pascal St-Onge for a white jacket and top over black slacks. Style citations go out to Marie-France Lalonde for a bizarre sweater with a leopard print front panel and red and black striped shoulders and cuffs, and to Damien Kurek for a dark grey jacket with a red plaid shirt with light blue and brown stripes, and an indigo patterned tie, a purple-ish pocket square, and blue jeans. Dishonourable mention goes out to Marie-Hélène Gaudreau for a bright yellow jacket over a black top with green and white foliage patterns.

2 thoughts on “QP: Insisting there is a cover-up on the Emergencies Act”

  1. The “legacy media” in Canada is afflicted with the same bothsiderism disease as the US media. Besides their C-suite’s partisan sympathies colouring their coverage, they must figure that Pigeon Trump would be bigly terrific for ratings, so have decided to turn a blind eye to the reality-averse toxicity of his party (all the while they artificially amplify Liberal nontroversies as five-alarm fires, as the Hillaryization of Justin Trudeau continues apace and would only bleed over to a hypothetical leader Freeland). Though I can’t figure out which of Findlay or Gallant is Greene or Boebert, it’s quite obvious that the CPC has fully crossed into GOP North territory, and there’s no turning back from the QAnonification of this party no matter how much wishcasting the “politically homeless” centrists do. Bitcoin has crashed, so perhaps Poilievre should be touting tinfoil futures instead.

  2. Let forget just a moment that Canadians elect idiots to sit in their legislatures, it is hilarious to witness the stupidity of the right wing party members who dutifully stand in the HOC and decry the gas prices in our country. Like the press in BC who today pestered the Minister about why the BC government wasn’t doing anything to reduce the price of gas. OK! while we are pretending, suppose the provincial government, any provincial government were to take their taxes off the per liter cost of fuel. This would mean no revenue to pay for social services which would see howls of outrage from the Cons, which is ironic because they couldn’t care less about social programs. So where would the money come from you ask? Perhaps some form of income tax? Wow! not higher taxes you say. Well there would be a big shortfall! Then of course, the fuel levy would go, including all the federal excise tax along with the totally misunderstood so called, “gas tax”. What then?…no more off setting rebate checks or tax benefits, Oh! Oh! You can’t do that! There would be so much apoplexy that the chamber would be filled with the gas of outrage all emanating from the gas pumps better known as the official opposition.

Comments are closed.