QP: Declarations of guilt versus more flailing and backpatting

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In the wake of MP Han Dong’s exit from the Liberal caucus following anonymous allegations in the media, and in advance of US president Joe Biden’s arrival, Question Period got underway without either the prime minister or his deputy present. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he started immediately with the ordeal of the two Michaels, and raised the allegations made against Dong and his allegedly advising the Chinese government to not release them as doing so would some how benefit the Conservatives (and no, none of these allegations make any actual sense). Poilievre demanded to know when the PMO knew of these allegations, and Mélanie Joly insisted that the release of the Michaels was the priority of the government and everyone in the House. Poilievre repeated the same again in English, and Joly repeated that releasing the Michaels was everyone’s priority, and thinking otherwise was false. Poilievre again demanded to know a third time when the prime minister was made aware of these allegations, and Joly praised the date that the Michaels were returned to Canada, and that their priority was always to stand up against arbitrary detention. Poilievre insisted the non-answer was “troubling,” and re-asked a fourth time. This time, Joly praised the friends and allies who helped to advocate the case of the Michaels. Poilievre insisted that the prime minister must have known that Dong was working to keep the Michaels in China, and Joly again insisted that the prime minster ensured that everyone was standing up to China to get the Michaels home.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and took a swipe at a David Johnston before demanding an public inquiry immediately, and Dominic LeBlanc insisted that Johnston’s appointment was part of the suite of measures to strengthen the response to foreign interference. Therrien took up the concern about the report about Dong, and Joly got back up to praise the efforts to bring the two Michaels home.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he too insisted that the prime minister must have known about the allegations about Dong, and demanded the government vote for their motion on a public inquiry, and LeBlanc said that while he appreciates the concerns about not stigmatising communities, they have been taking foreign interference seriously. Singh repeated the demand in French, and LeBlanc repeated his same response.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman took a turn at demanding to know when the allegations against Dong were known by PMO (Mendicino: We worked 24/7 to bring the Michaels home), Larry Brock, Jake Stewart, Michael Cooper, and Michael Chong got their own clips of the same question (Mendicino: Hooray NSICOP and NSIRA and it’s great we’ve appointed David Johnston; LeBlanc: While you want a partisan circus, we want to reassure Canadians we are combatting foreign interference; Joly: Accusing anyone of not looking to get the Michaels back is false).

René Villemure worried that provinces were also being warned of foreign interference (LeBlanc: The targeting goes to provincial levels and we have offered provincial governments access to officials so they can take their own measures), and the allegations around Vancouver election (LeBlanc: Same answer).

Pierre Paul-Hus, and Luc Berhold each took their own turns to get a clip of the same question (Joly: It was our priority to get the two Michaels home, and saying otherwise is totally false; LeBlanc: We will follow Johnston’s recommendations).

Richard Cannings worried about the American tariffs on softwood lumber (Ng: We will stand up for the forestry sector, and we are ready to negotiate when the Americans are, but we won’t take just any deal), and Lori Idlout worried about climate change and hoped for American cooperation to help the Canadian Rangers—which doesn’t make sense (May: We have streamlined the process for Rangers to get compensation).

Round three saw yet clips gathered about the Dong allegations (Mendicino: We set up the transparent mechanisms to protect elections and David Johnston will advise on next steps; How dare you say you’re not being partisan; LeBlanc: What erodes confidence is the attempt to score partisan points on a serious national security issue; Hooray NSICOP; Holland: After recommendations were made by two justices about people renditioned for false allegations, the Conservatives didn’t act on them but we did; How we engage in these conversations is important, which is why we have NSICOP and Johnston), as well as questions on residential school compensation for one particular community (Miller: I have sat down with them, but this is under the jurisdiction of the government of Saskatchewan, who refuse to come to the table), and the lack of follow-up on tax problems facing a local business (LeBouthillier: I will work with you on your question).

Overall, it was a bit of a stomach-churning day in that the opposition had pretty much all declared Dong’s guilt based on the media reports of anonymous allegations (and the fact that it came from two sources is worthless because they could have been reading from the same document, and intelligence is not evidence), and they knew the Liberals were going to flail in replying. The Conservatives not only had the strategy of getting as many MPs to ask the same question as possible, but they had even scripted the number of times that they didn’t get an answer from the Liberals because they knew they wouldn’t get an answer. If that isn’t a sign of just how debased the level of discourse in this Parliament has become, I’m not sure what else is. And less than an hour after QP ended, the shitposts using those clips were already circulating on Twitter, because that’s the point of Question Period right now. This is a problem for our democracy.

And the Liberals? Completely useless. It was another day of flailing in the face of allegations on foreign interference, and just pointing out that you brought in NSICOP and NSIRA is not an answer, nor is praise for David Johnston, and back-patting about getting the two Michaels home is also not an answer (because they were only released when the Americans dropped their charges against Meng Wanzhou and she was released because the extradition request was withdrawn). And once again they walked right into the trap the Conservatives set for them, because they are utterly inept at crisis communications. Meanwhile, that same Global story intimated that CSIS was tracking or tapping a sitting MP’s phone, but it wasn’t clear but raised enough questions that you think MPs would be concerned. But did any single one of them raise that question? Of course not. And the decline of our Parliament into complete unseriousness continues apace. Well done, everyone.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Arielle Kayabaga for a grey lapel-less jacket over a black top and slacks, and to Greg Fergus for a dark grey suit over a white shirt with a matching pocket square and a red and purple bow tie. Style citations go out to Steven Guilbeault for a grey jacket over a white shirt, teal tie and bile yellow slacks, and to Michelle Ferreri for a tan brown suit over a black turtleneck. Dishonourable mention goes out to Ginette Petitpas Taylor for a mustard yellow jacket over a white top and black slacks.

3 thoughts on “QP: Declarations of guilt versus more flailing and backpatting”

  1. I cannot understand why you constantly wail about the Liberals lack of communications skills. No matter what they say they are attacked either for being too aggressive or not aggressive enough. That is why IMO they try to be as non-inflammatory as possible and another reason I believe is that they are not more aggressive in their answers is that this PM does not believe in the pit bull style of political discourse.

    • There is a vast ocean of difference between being a pit bull, and of actually being frank in your responses and not burying answers under a mountain of feel-good pabulum which obscures and deflects. They need to be frank.

  2. If anyone has red my posts over the years here, they know that my point about the spineless Liberal responses to the opposition leader just leads Canadians to believe they have something to hide on every file.There used to be some fire in the Liberals but not these days. Perhaps it is because Trudeau is old school and polite. but then his father took no guff from anybody in QP and he put s’ disturbers like Pollyboy in their place.

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