QP: An ejection stunt among the scripts

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The prime minister was present, but would only be for the leaders’ round today instead of his usual Wednesday practice of taking all questions, as he needed to head to the École Polytechnique vigil in Montreal. His deputy was absent, as was Jagmeet Singh, who has not been seen in person for over a week now. Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and he noted the day for remembrance of École Polytechnique before pivoting this to questions of children who are asking Santa Claus for food, and asked if the prime minister “ordered his senators” to vote against Bill C-234. Trudeau read a statement about Polytechnique and gender-based violence. Poilievre then raised a question in the Senate asked of the president of CHMC, who said there wasn’t a plan to add 40,000 housing units and then plugged his “documentary.” Trudeau dismissed the chasing of clicks and praised their housing strategy. Poilievre returned to English to repeat the same question, but called the CMHC the “prime minister’s housing agency,” which is risible. Trudeau read a script that Poilievre chases clicks, and uses homeless people as props. Poilievre blamed Trudeau for causing homelessness, and accused him of attempting to “manipulate and intimidate” senators to vote against Bill C-234. Trudeau quipped that the only farming Poilievre cares about is rage-farming. Poilievre pilloried him for reading talking points from junior staffers, and repeated his same accusation. Trudeau, with a script in his hand, says that Poilievre is so ideologically opposed to climate action that he wants to take parliament hostage, and accused Poilievre of only being fuelled by the sound of his own voice.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he railed about Catherine Tait’s leadership at CBC/Radio-Canada and the cuts being made. Trudeau read some scripts about cancelling Harper cuts and their work on the Online News Act. Blanchet hoped that they would not conclude that Liberal cuts were better than Conservative ones and took another swipe at Tait. Trudeau reminded him that they will look at the protection of French as part of CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate.

Lindsay Mathyssen rose for the NDP, and read statistics on gender-based violence before accusing the government of cutting funds to women’s shelters (which is not actually the case). Trudeau read a script about supporting shelters and working with provinces and territories on strategies to eliminate gender based violence. Lori Idlout accused the government of deliberately keeping Indigenous women in violent situations by not adequately funding housing. Trudeau read a script about co-developing housing strategies and solutions, while they have already helped build and renovate 30,000 housing units for Indigenous communities. 

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman read some of the slogans and talking points about Bill C-234 (van Koeverden: The only senators that sit in a caucus are Conservatives and a third of them didn’t vote on this bill yesterday), Marilyn Gladu read her own script on C-234 (Gould: Your senators were found to have breached privilege by intimidating other senators; You should ask your own senators why they didn’t show up to vote), and Gérard Deltell made the same accusations in French (Gould: The only party trying to take money from the poor are Conservatives because cancelling the carbon price will make most people worse off).

Mario Simard raised the 2000 meetings with oil and gas lobbyists over the past two years (Wilkinson: We meet with everyone including green groups to have important conversations), Monique Pauzé read the same question (Wilkinson: Same answer, plus the reminder of methane regulations).

Chris Warkentin read another script on Bill C-234 (van Koeverden: There are no Liberal senators and Conservative senators didn’t vote, and hey, economics show that 94 percent of households receive more back than they pay; Farmers are on the front line of climate change, and wheat yields are down because of yields), Damien Kurek read his own script (MacAulay: You don’t have a climate plan). Kurek then called the prime minister a liar, and was expelled from the Chamber for the day.

Bonita Zarrillo worried about people with disabilities and demanded the Disability Benefit be released immediately (Khera: We need to make sure we get this right, so I want more people to participate in consultations), and Heather McPherson accused the government of being cowardly for not calling for a ceasefire in Gaza (Joly: The cycle of violence will not ensure Israel’s long-term security and the price of justice cannot be the lives of innocent Palestinians).

Round three saw yet more scripts being read about Bill C-234 (Gould: There are no Liberal senators and your senators didn’t show up to vote; Rodriguez: The federal carbon price doesn’t apply in Quebec; We don’t have any senators and yours didn’t show up to vote; Duclos: Our system puts more money into the pockets of Canadians, and your leader voted against the 9000 families in your riding who get the Canada Child Benefit; van  Koeverden: Crop yields were down because of climate change; MacAulay: Farmers always ask me why you guys don’t have a plan; Virani: Some nondescript pabulum;  Wilkinson: You should stop misleading people and read the University of Calgary economics report on the real impact of the carbon price on families). There were also questions on the Afghanistan war monument (Petitpas Taylor: Those surveyed preferred this version), more spending for climate mitigation for First Nations (Sajjan: I meet these communities and we are going to get this right), and Sudanese families looking to expand family definitions for immigration purposes (Miller: We are looking at options). 

Overall, I would say that Poilievre’s ten-second mention of École Polytechnique at the very beginning, but using that to preface some more of his slogans and talking points was a bit disrespectful to the day. And most of the day was just more of the same clip-gathering, with the exception of Damien Kurek’s premeditated stunt of calling the prime minister a liar about the independence of the Senate, which was deliberately designed to get him kicked out of the Chamber (though I note that the Deputy Speaker, Chris d’Entrement, only named him for the day and didn’t say he would’t be recognised until he apologised and withdrew the remarks, which is important). It was clearly a stunt—it was clipped and on his socials within thirty minutes of it happening, but this is what the current crop of MPs has debased Parliament to being—just a clip factory, whether in the Chamber or in committee. Our democracy is in serious trouble, but they’re just going to keep rage-farming while it burns. Note that I’m also not unconvinced that part of Kurek’s stunt was to show that d’Entrement can be tough with Conservatives for when they hope they can get him to run again for the job, in the event that Fergus is removed from the post.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Peter Fragiskatos for his tailored dark grey three-piece suit over a crisp white shirt with a matching pocket square and a light purple tie, and to Anita Anand for a pink blazer and collared shirt over black slacks. Style citations go out to Ginette Petitpas Taylor for a belted dark denim shirt-dress, and to Darren Fisher for his powder blue jacket over a dark blue pebble-patterned shirt and black slacks with no tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Anna Roberts for a mustard sweater/jacket with tasseled fringes over a dark blue top and black slacks.