The prime minister was away on a Wednesday, which is unusual, as he was in Quebec touring areas affected by the wildfires. His deputy was also in town and had addressed the media earlier, but she was also absent, and with that absence, the Bloc leader also opted not to show up. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and declared that an entire generation of women will need to relive the trauma of Paul Bernardo with news that he has been transferred to a medium-security facility, and that Marco Mendicino was aware for three months, insisting that what he said was false and demanded his resignation. Mendicino said he was shocked by the news because he wasn’t informed until the day after the transfer, that it was a mistake within his office and he will take tangible action and that they always stand up for victims’ rights. Poilievre repeated his over-the-top accusation in English, and Mendicino repeated his same response, noting that there is an review process underway at Corrections. Poilievre accused him of throwing his staff under the bus, but because nobody got fired, he must be lying and needs to resign. Mendicino invited him to repeat the accusation outside of the House, and the Speaker how to call order among the yells that he already did, and when calm was restored, Mendicino accused Poilievre of misleading the House in his assertions. Poilievre insisted that Mendicino was trying to say that his staff forgot to walk down the hall to inform him and claimed he has the authority to designate all mass murders go to maximum security. Mendicino insisted that this question was a prescription for political interference, and that he was going to be issuing new ministerial directives to the Correctional Service. Poilievre again insisted that Mendicino has the power to designate prisoners, and demanded Mendicino be fired. Mendicino repeated that he is issuing new directives to the Service.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and demanded a public inquiry be launched before the House rises for the summer, and demanded clarity and not talk of a “public process.” Dominic LeBlanc insisted that he shares the desire to get to the right process, and that a public inquiry is an option provided they could find the right way to do so. Therrien insisted that they must declare it be an inquiry, and LeBlanc repeated that it could be an inquiry if it can be done the right way.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and returned to the Bernardo question, saying that Mendicino can’t keep his house in order and told him to stop waiting by the fax machine and check his emails. Mendicino said that he corrected the matter in his office. Singh switched to French to point to the testimony about Blair being meant to read the briefing about Chong, and told him to check his emails again. This time Bill Blair stood up to clarify that ministers and their offices don’t have access to the top secret network and that he was not briefed by the CSIS director. 

Round two, and Dominique Vien returns to the Bernardo question again and demanded Mendicino resign (Mendicino: I was informed on May 30th and took immediate corrective action in my office), Melissa Lantsman accused Mendicino of throwing his staff under the bus (Mendicino: I stood with the families because I have great care for them, and it’s why I’m issuing new directives; Holland: Correctional Services acts independently), and Racquel Dancho cried that Mendicino can’t be trusted (Holland: We are unified in our horror of those crimes, and the right approach is to have a victim-centred approach; Mendicino: The RCMP have stated repeatedly that they took disruptive action on those “police stations”).

René Villemure once again demanded a public inquiry (LeBlanc: I look forward to working with opposition parties), and Marie-Hélène Gaudreau made the same demand (LeBlanc: Hopefully opposition parties will come to an agreement by next week).

Shannon Stubbs gave her own performance of the Bernardo question (Holland: Same answer as before; Mendicino: I have dealt with my staff matter internally), and Kerry-Lynne Findlay got her own clip (Holland: Same answer again).

If you can’t make an impassioned demand without haltingly reading your script, you should probably take a different tactic. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 14, 2023

Singh got back up to shout some nonsense about “greed-flation” (Boissonnault: Look at the things we’ve done to make the wealthy paid their fair share), and Lisa Marie Barron demanded electoral reform (LeBlanc: We are focused on working on making voting more accessible).

Round three saw yet more questions on Bernardo (Holland: It isn’t a constructive or useful approach to pretend no one cares; We are getting into extremely partisan territory; Mendicino: All members should empathise with the families of victims and we should do all we can to put their rights at the centre of decisions; Errors in my office have been corrected and I have issued new directives from Correctional Services), notification from CSIS (Mendicino: The former minister was not notified and we are publishing new directives for CSIS; LeBlanc: We have ensured that this kind of information must be shared), Poilievre got back up to worry about the Asian Infrastructure Bank resignation and demanded the money be clawed back (Boisonnault: The Deputy Prime Minister announced we have ceased all actions and are discussing next steps with allies), wildfires affecting people in a riding who rely on food banks (Blair: I will reach out to your province to see if they need more supports), and carbon capture technology (Wilkinson: Your technical assessment is simply broad, and thoughtful policy means engaging with industry).

Rempel Garner says that the only minister Trudeau fired was JWR.
Not actually true. She resigned, and other ministers have been dropped from Cabinet with no explanation. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 14, 2023

Overall, it was the standard repetitive playbook for there being a minister’s blood in the water—making a hyperbolic assertion (a generation of women being re-traumatised? Really?) followed by repeated demands for his resignation. It was also a choice that right up until the very end, Poilievre only put up the women in his caucus to make the demand (though one of his former prosecutors and one of his francophone men got in at the end, in part because they only have one francophone woman in caucus). Even Michelle Rempel Garner, in exile in the far corner as she is, got a question because they only wanted women asking, even though her own assertions were completely wrong and baseless in her desire to try and paint this as some kind of a gendered issue. But on and on it went, so they can get those clips and blanket their socials with them. The only good response that Mendicino had was that Poilievre is trying to promise political interference, but otherwise both he and Mark Holland were doing the damage control thing fairly poorly. (And frankly, Mendicino is being shuffled out of his portfolio in a couple of weeks and everyone knows it, so this is just even more theatre).

And the rest of it—public inquiry demands, the return of “greed-flation” (which is not a thing), and electoral reform? Same old, same old. MPs need to go home for the summer as soon as possible, because this is beyond tiresome.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Eric Melillo for a tailored dark grey suit with a crisp white shirt and a dark blue tie, and to Tracy Gray for a white dress with a black jacket. Style citations go out to Mona Fortier for a shapeless black dress with faded florals and sheer half-sleeves, and to Arif Virani for a tan jacket over a white shirt, black slacks and a navy tie and pocket square. Dishonourable mention goes out to Filomena Tassi for a bright yellow jacket over a black dress with off-white piping, and to Ginette Petitpas Taylor for a mustard yellow jacket over a white top and black slacks.