QP: More mendacity in the wake of Rota’s resignation

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At long last, and about 27 hours too late, Speaker Anthony Rota announced his intention to resign, but would make it official at the end of the sitting day tomorrow and that he would vacate the chair in the interim, leaving Deputy Speaker Chris d’Entremont to preside in his place.

The prime minister, meanwhile, was on his way to Toronto, as was his deputy, albeit for separate events. Every other leader was present, however.  Pierre Poilievre led off in French, noted f nation, and demanded that Trudeau take responsibility for not vetting all of the guests in the Chamber, which is an outrageous overreach, as PMO has no business doing so. Karina Gould noted that the Speaker is independent and that he took responsibility. Poilievre demanded to know why Justin Trudeau was hiding and not standing up for this, and got warned by the Deputy Speaker. Gould repeated that the Speaker resigned for his actions that he took alone. Poilievre switched to English to claim that the “Liberal Speaker” took the fall, and again claimed that PMO should have engaged in a massive overreach. Gould repeated that the Speaker took responsibility. Poilievre listed all of the things that Trudeau claims he’s not responsible for, like inflation, and claimed he didn’t take responsibility for things he did, to which Gould accused Poilievre of being irresponsible in politicising the issue. Poilievre made another dig at Trudeau’s absence, and demanded he take responsibility for this diplomatic embarrassment. The Deputy Speaker warned Poilievre again about pointing to absences, and Gould tried to turn the tables saying that she has barely heard a word of support for Ukraine from Poilievre, and there was much uproar and cries of shame.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he asked if the prime minster intended to apologise on behalf of Canada for Rota’s incident. Gould repeated that Rota took responsibility for his actions. Blanchet again demanded an apology, including one specifically to president Zelenskyy. Gould recited that as the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, the incident hurt her personally, and that the Speaker did the right thing.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he lambasted the industry minister for summoning food producers to only stabilise and now lower prices (a sign that he doesn’t really know how inflation works), to which François-Philippe Champagne patted himself on the back for summoning those CEOs and those of the grocery oligopolies, and their bill on increasing competition. Singh then worried about people living in a campground in Halifax who can’t get any other housing and winter approaches, and blamed the prime minister. Sean Fraser said that Halifax is currently debating their rules to build more homes, and the government was pleased to work with them on that.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman read an angry script demanding the prime minister take responsibility (Gould: If we had all known, nobody would have stood at the time), Marty Morantz again conflated security and vetting (Gould: You also called for the Speaker’s resignation because he was responsible), and called out her motion to strike the incident from the record (Gould: The Speaker took responsibility), and Pierre Paul-Hus read some international headlines (Gould: The Speaker resigned).

https://twitter.com/SusanDelacourt/status/1706741180573122995

Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné worried that small businesses would close if they don’t get longer CEBA loan forgiveness (Boissonnault: We have provided unprecedented supports to businesses), and Sébastien Lemaire repeated the demand (Boissonnault: Same answer).

Mark Strahl raised the Polish demand for an apology (Gould: The Speaker did apologise; You are spreading misinformation, and the PMO did not vet the Speaker’s list), and Luc Berthold read some French headlines before demanding an apology (Gould: We all called for the Speaker’s resignation and this was his decision alone; You know the facts and should stick to them).

Bonita Zarrillo raised the “whites only” toddler sign from her riding, as though the federal government has some kind of lever here (O’Connell: We too are concerned and will work with local communities to take action), and Heather McPherson worried about Danielle Smith’s plans for the CPP (Boissonnault: We will do everything in our power to keep these in the hands of Canadians).

Round three saw yet more questions on the Friday incident (Gould: You are not being accurate as to what happened; Parliament has struck items from the record before, when one of your MPs read things into the record; Nobody disagrees this was embarrassing, which is why we all called for the resignation of the Speaker, which is why he resigned), not being tough enough on oil companies (Guilbeault: We have been taking action and we have the most ambitious goals and have eliminated subsidies), toxic drug overdoses (Saks: We have been taking responsible and compassionate actions), misdeeds at the Clean Growth agency (Champagne: When we heard about the allegations we investigated, and are waiting for the report).

Overall, it was not exactly a redeeming event in the wake of Rota’s resignation, and once again, Karina Gould was basically forced to take the slings and arrows that should have been meant for Rota, had the Conservatives not continued on their particularly mendacious line that the prime minister was somehow responsible for the Speaker’s actions. Again, they conflated security screening with political vetting, and tried to assert that PMO should have exerted a massive overreach into the Speaker’s office, which should be absolutely outrageous an an assault on the sovereignty of Parliament. But hey, they had points to score. And while Gould did get a little sharper in her calling out some of this misinformation as time went on, particularly in talking about how Rota broke their trust in introducing that veteran the way he did—but she wasn’t very clear in calling out the disinformation about security screening versus political vetting, which needs to be done in a much more frank way than she did.

I will also say that Melissa Lantsman’s very personal attacks against Gould were a little troubling, and while d’Entremont was trying to do his best—and he was already calling out more things that Rota does, albeit somewhat belatedly and with no actual consequences like removal from the list or revocation of questions—this blew up more at the end of QP, when he opted for the “let me check the tape and get back to you” approach, even after Lantsman doubled down. Still, it was a hard day for him to have to take over in the manner he did, but it’s also an audition for him taking over the position permanently, if MPs so desire.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to James Bezan for a dark grey suit over a white shirt with a blue and yellow tie and a yellow pocket square with blue borders (which yes, was a little gimmicky about supporting Ukraine, but I’ll allow it), and to Anita Anand for a black suit over a white collared shirt. Style citations go out to Kristina Michaud for a fuchsia belted shirt-dress with bright red florals, and to Steven Guilbeault for a black jacket over a white shirt, navy tie, and dark beige slacks.