QP: Ignoring the Mass Casualty report

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The prime minister was away in Truro, Nova Scotia, for the release of the Mass Casualty Commission report, while his deputy was on the west coast getting a head start on selling her budget to the public. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he accused the government censoring debate on a bill that would censor what people can watch online—which is a complete fabrication, because closure is not censorship, and Bill C-11 is about making web giants pay into CanCon funds and has nothing to do with censorship—saying that the bill would give “woke” Ottawa control over Quebeckers’ media, called out the Bloc for supporting the bill, and instead that only the Conservatives stand against censorship. Greg Fergus got up and insisted there is a consensus in Quebec that artists deserve to be paid, and only the Conservatives are offside. Poilievre insisted there was no culture without freedom of expansion, accused the government disinformation, said that Margaret Atwood opposes the bill (note: she did not understand what was in it, but was taken in by misinformation), he called the CRTC a “woke agency” (which is risible), said they could use algorithms to censor debate (false), and insisted that Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was not an instruction manual. Fergus insisted that these were just the same talking points of Big Tech, and that the Conservatives won’t stand against them. Poilievre insisted that the bill would shut down any voices they don’t like, and demanded to know why the prime minister was shutting down debate. Fergus insisted that web giants are not paying their fair share, and wondered why the opposition was against that. Poilievre tried to insist this was about free speech, and tried to use a prop before he got warned about it by the Speaker. Mark Holland got up this time, and used his sanctimonious tone to admonish the Conservatives for pretending that anyone in the Chamber doesn’t believe in free speech, and that they have the free speech enough to go around the country spreading misinformation. Poilievre insisted that he would keep beating the government in debate, before switching to the topic of carbon prices, and the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s report on carbon prices and insisting it “proved” the Liberals were wrong (never mind they cherry pick figures and butcher the statistics and distributional effects). Terry Duguid recited the good news talking points about rebate in return. 

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he raised the money for countering foreign interference in the budget, and demanded a public inquiry. Maninder Sidhu read talking points about those line items. Therrien insisted that this was proof that they already had concluded what David Johnston would find and demanded a public inquiry, and this time, Mark Holland got up to sing Johnston’s praise.

Peter Julian rose for the NDP, and he raised the conclusion of Mass Casualty Commission report and demanded immediate funds for victims of domestic violence. Pam Damoff recited that they will examine the report and come back with actions in due course. Alexandre Boulerice took over in French, and demanded the government copy Joe Biden’s green industrial policy. Seamus O’Regan insisted that the projects will be built either by union jobs or paid prevailing union wages, which was proof they were on the right track.

Round two, and Poilievre got back up to selectively quote the PBO on the net costs to households of the carbon price—ignoring the actual distributional effects (Duguid: You’re ignoring the costs of climate change; Your only plan is to invest in crypto), and then raised the appointment of the interim Ethics Commissioner as someone related to a Cabinet minster (Holland: How dare you malign David Johnston, and the interim commissioner has been second-in-command of that office since the Harper era), and Michael Barrett and Luc Berthold took over in even more over-the-top rhetoric (Holland: The Ethics Commissioner hold us all to account, and there is a screen in place).

Louise Chabot worried that EI reform would not be ready if we have another recession (Kusmierczyk: We are working on this complex reform, but thanks to us, more people have a job than ever before; Bendayan: We will deliver on this reform), and Andréanne Larouche complained there was no aid for seniors between 65 and 74 (Khera: The largest seniors organisation in Quebec praised our budget).

John Barlow railed about the carbon price and the price of food (Bibeau: There is a lot of good news in the budget for farmers), Dave Epp recited some conflated numbers for the same complaint (Bibeau: We signed the sustainable cap for farmers), Richard Martel repeated the concern in French (Bibeau: More of the same).

Lori Idlout decried the lack of housing services of the north in the budget (Hajdu: We have made historic investments, and are making investments with Indigenous communities), and Don Davies demanded a public drug manufacturer (Champagne: We did the responsible thing at the time to invest in different families of vaccines).

Round three saw questions on carbon prices (Duguid: Good news about carbon rebates; Hutchings: It frightens me that you don’t believe in climate change because my riding got devastated by a hurricane; We stepped up to ensure that women’s shelters got cash when they need it; Bendayan: We already cut taxes for small businesses; Champagne: Moving go the green economy is the best way to create jobs in the future; Beech: The first thing we did was cut taxes for the middle class; Khera: We have put forward support for seniors; Saks: We lifted millions out of poverty), Quebec demanding a right to withdraw from the dental care programme with compensation (Duclos: People care about dental care), recreation funding for rural and remote Indigenous communities (van Koeverden: We need to get more sports to Indigenous youth), and Toronto not getting a federal bailout (O’Connell: No government has invested more in municipalities than this one).

Overall, it was another day of complete distortion and disinformation, and most of it geared toward three main clip-harvesting functions—the complete and total bullshit surrounding Bill C-11 (where the disinformation around that bill is egregious), the increasing carbon price and the complete distortion of the PBO’s report on it, and some over-the-top clips about the interim Ethics Commissioner (which does look bad for the government, until you realise that the legislation around who can be commissioner is so restrictive that they had little choice in this appointment after the surprise resignation of Mario Dion). It’s tedious, and it’s tiresome, but can the government ever respond in a way that calls this out, or that does something more than just lead to good-news talking points or patting themselves on the back about things? Sadly not.

The big absence in the room, which was palpable, was the lack of any talk about the RCMP, or the finding of the Mass Casualty Commission report. Yes, Peter Julian raised the report as a way of trying to push the government on shelters for victims of domestic violence, but that had nothing to do with the substance of the report. That’s one more major item in the news that gets completely overlooked in favour of more clip-harvesting for shitposts and fundraising pleas. The whole point of QP is supposed to be holding government to account, and the way it’s working is not doing that. This is reflecting poorly on our politics, and it’s giving a very worrying look at what the next election is going to look like.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Peter Fragiskatos for a dark grey three-piece suit over a white shirt with a purple tie and white pocket square, and to Julie Dabrusin for a dark grey short-sleeved dress with a banded collar and a notched neckline. Style citations go out to Patty Hajdu for a black jacket and top over black and white not-quite zebra-patterned slacks, and to Darrell Samson for a dark grey suit with a pale yellow shirt and a dark yellow bow tie. Dishonourable mentions go out to Brenda Shanahan for a yellow poncho over a black turtleneck and slacks, to Sonia Sidhu for a dark yellow jacket over a black scoop-necked top and slacks, and to Martin Shields for a black suit and shirt with a bright yellow tie.