While the prime minister was present today, his deputy was off to Washington DC, but the other party leaders were all present today, so a show was to be had. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, railed that it had been two years since the allegation about threats to Michael Chong’s family, demanded to know when he knew, and why the diplomat in the story was not yet expelled. Justin Trudeau took exception to the characterisation, said that the information he received after yesterday’s story was that measures were taken to protect measures when they are in the spotlight of foreign actors, and that he reached out to Michael Chong directly. Poilievre switched to English to repeat the same allegations, and Trudeau reiterated his same response. Poilievre repeated the key elements of the story more slowly, and demanded that the diplomat in question be expelled. Trudeau again took exception to the characterisation of what happened, said that those kinds of accusations were unworthy of members of this House. Poilievre insisted that the government knew about the threats to years ago—with no proof that this made its way up the chain—and Trudeau repeated that this wasn’t true, and that where is action to take, it is taken. Poilievre insisted that Trudeau was only interested in his political reputation, and demanded the diplomatic immunity of that “agent” be taken away. Trudeau once again said this wasn’t true, and that nobody would simply sit on a threat to a colleague.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, said he didn’t see anything false in the Conservatives’ questions, and tried to turn this into a question on the Trudeau Foundation, and Trudeau insisted that political interference is not allowed and legal processes will go forward as necessary. Blanchet tried again to wedge on the Foundation, and Trudeau recited that he hasn’t had any involvement for a decade.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he too accused the prime minister of doing nothing on the alleged Chong briefing for two years, and demanded to know why Chong wasn’t informed at the time. Trudeau said it would be outrageous if someone sat on a threat for two years, and that is not what happened. Singh switched to French, and railed that the prime minister should have known at the time, and demanded a public inquiry. Trudeau insisted that they did act starting in 2015 with a G7 mechanism with allies to fight interference, plus the election monitoring panel, and the creation of NSICOP and NSIRA.

Round two, and Michael Chong cited a directive from the public safety minister to CSIS about being informed on certain actions and wondered when he learned the allegations (Mendicino: I stand in solidarity with you, and here are some measures we put into place; This is not a partisan issue and we need to work together), Melissa Lantsman called the answer “gutless” and demanded when he knew (Mendicino: Non-partisan public servants make the determination when to go public; We raised the bar on transparency through NSICOP and NSIRA), and Luc Berthold repeated Chong’s question in French (Mendicino: Same answer).

René Villemure said the prime minister crossed a line by preferring secrecy over security and demanded a public inquiry (Mendicino: That is a scandalous accusation), tried to spin this into a Trudeau Foundation conspiracy theory (Mendicino: We introduced laws and measures to protect our institutions), and Marie-Hélène Gaudreau accused the Liberals of preferring secrecy (LeBlanc: We have taken the question of threats seriously from the beginning).

Jasraj Hallan tried to address a question to the “gutless minister” and got warned, before demanding to know when the minister was informed (Mendicino: Same question, same answer), Gérard Deltell tried again in French, (Mendicino: Decision about what gets shared is determined by public servants).

Leah Gazan demanded action on MMIW by declaring it a Canada-wide emergency (Miller: Yes, and we have been investing in measures to save lives), and Charlie Angus raised Doug Ford’s recent changes around clean-up funds (Wilkinson: We can get good projects built is by doing it the right way and working with Indigenous communities).

Round three, and Poilievre got back up to adopt a tone of faux-gravitas to demand to know when the minister saw this or any briefing note about the threats to Chong’s family (Mendicino: Decisions regarding national security and intelligence should not be politicised, but you yourself said that when you were minister of democratic reform, you saw interference and didn’t do anything about it because it wasn’t in your party’s interest to do so; It’s outrageous to suggest we didn’t have any consideration for Chong). It also saw questions on the coronation (Rodriguez: You are obsessed with the monarchy, and looking for fights), drug decriminalisation in BC (Bennett: The overdose crisis is taking a huge toll and we are using all tools to address the issue, and this measure is an important step), the Chinese “police stations” allegedly still in operation (Mendicino: The RCMP are engaged, and there is money in the budget to fight interference), reports of a likely downturn in housing starts (Hussen: I wish you would speak to your colleagues who voted against the housing accelerator funds after praising it in committee; Your leader attacking mayors won’t build any housing), the carbon price (Guilbeault: You were against carbon price, then in favour, then against, then in favour, and now against again, so in another year or so, you should be back in favour again), an Indigenous treaty not being upheld in BC (Miller: I have met down with their leadership, and we are close on a resolution), and matching US investments in cleaning the Great Lakes (Guilbeault: We have made record investments are in the process of creating a Canada Water Agency to address freshwater issues).

Overall, we were back to a tried-and-true formula of Conservatives repeatedly asking the same question (when did the minister know?), getting a non-answer, and repeating over and over again, rinse repeat, rinse repeat. By the time we got to round three and Poilievre stood back up, he repeated the same questions but this time with an added faux gravitas that differs from the snide, mocking tone he usually uses to play to his backbenches, but this largely derives from what I term his Matlock shtick, where he thinks he’s going to get some kind of witness box confession that will solve the case before the credits roll. This having been said, I am once again boggled by the government’s refusal to just come clean and say that they never received that briefing at the time, and commit to putting more measures in place to pushing intelligence up the chain (because that is sorely lacking in Canada). It could have cut the head off of this nonsense at the start, leaving the Conservatives flat-footed and looking like fools for keeping up with the same scripted questions, but they refuse, time and again. I do not understand this constant desire for self-harm on the Liberals’ part.

And then there’s Conservative MP Jasraj Hallan, whose tone has become increasingly belligerent and insulting with every passing week, and what does the Speaker do? Gently chide him about name-calling and delivering an empty threat about taking questions away. What he should have done was taken the question away immediately, stated that he wasn’t going to be recognised to speak in the Chamber for the remainder of the day, and if that failed, name him and have him marched out. If he goes out to the Foyer to cry into the microphones that the Speaker was mean to him, he has only himself to blame, but Rota has been actively letting the tone in this Chamber deteriorate, and it’s time that MPs do something about it.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Karina Gould for a navy suit with a blue striped collared shirt, and to Maninder Sidhu for a dark grey suit over a crisp white shirt and a pink tie. Style citations go out to Darren Fisher for a light brown suede jacket over a blue shirt and dark blue jeans with no tie, and to Marie-Hélène Gaudreau for an orange jacket over a black top with orange florals. Dishonourable mention goes out to Denis Trudel for a dark grey jacket over a black shirt and bright yellow tie.