QP: An appalling display of revisionist history

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The prime minister had not planned on attending QP today, having just returned from the Summit of the Americas, but announced this morning that he had tested positive for COVID for the second time in six months, so we may not see him in the Chamber again before the Commons rises for the summer. None of the other leaders were present either, but the deputy prime minister was, for what it’s worth. Luc Berthold led off, and in French, he raised ministerial accountability, and asked whether the prime minister still believes that it applies to him and his Cabinet. Mark Holland replied with a simple “yes.” Berthold then raised the supposed confusion around what Marco Mendicino said about police “requesting” the use of the Emergencies Act (which he has never claimed), and whether that was still true. Mendicino stated that they invoked the Act to protect Canadians’ safety and that the RCMP Commissioner said it gave police the tools they needed, and that the government decided to invoke it after they consulted with police. Berthold, thinking he was clever, tried to claim that the prime minister’s story was “hanging by a thread,” as no police force had asked for it. (And they wouldn’t, because that would be highly inappropriate). Bertold asked whether the prime minister or his staff asked for the Act to be invoked, and Mendicino repeated that it was necessary, and wondered when the Conservatives would understand about the expenses associated with the illegal blockades. James Bezan took over in English, accused Mendicino of talking lessons in revisionist history from Vladimir Putin, and accused the government of declaring “martial law” on the occupation, which did not happen. (Just who is revising history here?) Mendicino took exception to this, and denounced Bezan’s comparison. Bezan railed that the government didn’t need to invoke the Act and that the minster’s story kept changing. Mendicino pointed out that Candice Bergen egged on the occupiers, which was a problem.

https://twitter.com/journo_dale/status/1536413940875415552

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and declared that French is the only official language in North America under threat from English, and demanded that the federal government adopt Quebec’s amendments to the official languages bill. Ginette Petitpas Taylor stated that they recognise the decline, which is why they brought forward their bill. Therrien decried that this was about official bilingualism, which is killing French, and Petitpas Taylor praised her bill and hoped it would royal assent soon.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, in person today, and he decried that the government was cutting EI and child benefits for Canadians (which is stretching the truth). Chrystia Freeland recited her talking points about raising taxes on banks and insurance companies to help pay for the recovery. Jenny Kwan took over in English to repeat the question frame in English and demanded that the government enrich the Canada Child Benefit and double the GST credit. Freeland listed measures that they have taken this year.

Round two, and Dane Lloyd was confused by what Mendicino was saying versus the RCMP Commissioner (Mendicino: This is a prime example of cherry-picking quotes, and your leader egged on the blockades), Kerry-Lynne Findlay brought up the “special forces’ spy flight” over the occupation site (Mendicino: Here are what the occupiers did to downtown Ottawa; May: The flight in question was a training exercise planned long before the blockade), and Michael Chong insisted that the threshold for invoking the Emergencies Act was not met (Mendicino: Here are more quotes from law enforcement; When will your party accept responsibility for egging on these occupiers?)

Rhéal Fortin decried that the federal government had not locked the border down about guns (Mendicino: We are working with the Government of Quebec and the Akwasasne First Nation to stop these guns; We have transferred $46 million to the government of Quebec; We are adding more resources at the border for CBSA and RCMP).

Pierre Paul-Hus called Mendicino “Pinocchio” and the Speaker let him finish his question before warning him rather than cutting him off (Mendicino: We needed the Act for public safety and I won’t apologise) and accused Mendicino of being a puppet for Trudeau (Mendicino: The RCMP commissioner confirmed that they needed it, and your party needs to apologise to the citizens of Ottawa for encouraging the occupation).

Heather McPherson raised the bureaucrat who attended a party at the Russian Embassy (Joly: I am as mad as her because this should never have happened and it will not happen again, and we need to suffocate Putin’s regime)m and Randall Garrison wanted a clear path to safety for LGBTQ Afghans by means of Rainbow Railroad (Lalanode: We work closely with groups like Rainbow Railroad, and are partnering with service organisations).

Round three saw questions on the Emergencies Act (Mendicino: The Act was needed; Your interim leader trie to make this a political problem), passport delays (Gould: We are adding resources and they should not be charging additional fees), the economic costs of labour shortages and tried to equate it to people fired for not getting vaccinated (Virani: We have been supporting small businesses throughout the pandemic and we have more measures in the budget), ending public health measures for travel (van Koeverden: Testing is temporarily suspended for vaccinated travellers), and called out van Koeverden for telling a constituent to “eff off” (van Koeverden: I responded in an inappropriately way to a message on social media and I apologise), the bureaucrat who attended a Russian Embassy party (Joly: The buck does stop with me, but we can be proud of supporting Ukraine), the Indo-Pacific strategy (Joly: We need to assert ourselves more a Pacific nation and to respond to a more assertive China), a small airline that was willing to fly relief missions to Ukraine but is running into red tape (Lalonde: We have made it easier and faster for Ukrainians to come), steelhead salmon stocks (Murray: Conservation of stocks is a high priority for me, and we make our decisions based on science), disability measures (Qualtrough:We are taking action with our legislation and I encourage members to support it).

Overall, it was a very bad day, partially for the tone, and in large part because the Speaker is not putting his foot down on anything, particularly in not cutting off questions when there is a clear breach of parliamentary language taking place. A gentle chiding reminder after the question has been allowed to finish is not going to cut it. And it kept happening, whether it was with the “lessons from Putin,” or “Pinocchio,” or with the “eff off,” each time was a clear breach and Rota refused to actually put his foot down, signalling that he is willing to let them off the hook again and again, and that they’ll take the hint if he’s gentle about it. No, they won’t.

The rest of the day was not only an exercise in gathering more clips for shitposts, it was an appalling display of revisionist history from the Conservatives, and a renewed round of going to bat for the far-right extremists, grifters, conspiracy theorists, and grievance tourists who made up the occupation, calling it “legitimate democratic dissent,” and that the invocation of the Act was “martial law” and “suspending civil liberties” when it did no such thing. The whole gods damned point of the Emergencies Act is to protect Charter rights. That’s entirely the reason why it replaced the War Measures Act. Nobody was detained without charge, nobody was taken to some kind of police black site, nobody was tortured into giving confessions—none of the things you see with actual suspensions of civil liberties in other countries, or even in our own history. I get that they’re trying to make Marco Mendicino look bad because he did give a false impression of events by using bromides instead of frank responses about invoking the Act, and that is a problem. But it’s not a problem you solve by rewriting what happened and pretending that the occupiers were saints, or that Justin Trudeau is some kind of dictator who is out to crush people who disagree with him. And for Kerry-Lynne Findlay, who is a gods damned Queen’s Counsel lawyer, to both lie about who the occupiers were, and once again spin a conspiracy theory about the Special Forces training flight, is an absolute indictment of the kind of partisan group think that this caucus suffers from.

Sartorial speaking, snaps go out to Kirsty Duncan for a light blue jacket over a black top, and to Terry Beech for a tailored navy suit with a white shirt and a lighter red tie and pocket square. Style citations go out to David Lametti for a blue and grey windowpane jacket with a white shirt and a blue and beige patterned tie, and to Shelby Kramp-Neuman for a black short-sleeved top with a long cream skirt with black polka dots.

One thought on “QP: An appalling display of revisionist history”

  1. Findlay also spread that QAnonsense about Freeland and Soros that who else but Poilievre then picked up and retweeted. The CPC has devolved into the Conspiracy Propagandists of Canada, and with Poilievre’s “leadership” all but a formality at this point, I don’t think there’s any signs of it getting better anytime soon. Yes, to say that the Liberals have had difficulties with their communications strategy might be the understatement of the decade, but in fairness, no one as yet seems to have been able to come up with an effective counterstrategy to the infamous Gish Gallop and “firehose of BS” tactics employed by the likes of Bannon, his second-level boss Trump, and his bigger boss Putin.

    Besides, they know that if they were to adopt the cons’ tactics, they’d be eviscerated for it in a way that the cons keep getting a free pass for, most likely because of the low expectations for integrity they’ve managed to engender among an already cynical populace. In the U.S., this double standard is known as the “IOKIYAR” rule, for It’s OK If You’re a Republican. It seems Canada has something similar applied to the present iteration of the CPC, the letters standing for It’s OK If You’re a Reeeefoooorrrmer.

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