QP: Scoring more points on opioid victims

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The prime minister was in town today but not in QP, though his deputy was. Most of the other leaders were also away, leaving Andrew Scheer to lead off, where he asked for the date at which the prime minister would like make it illegal to smoke crack in a hospital room. Chrystia Freeland said that BC approached the federal government with a pilot project, the government shares their concerns, and they are working then to adapt the programme, but MPs shouldn’t score political points off of this tragedy. Scheer tried a second time, and Freeland gave a paean to working together to solve these problems, and that relayed that she spoke to premier Eby about their cooperation in working on this, while opioid addiction is a tragedy. Scheer then cherry-picked data on BC’s opioid fatalities, and ignored the increasing rates in Alberta and BC. Freeland again said that she has been in touch with the premier on the issue and they are working collaboratively, and not fundraising off of the pain and death of desperate people. Luc Berthold took over in French, and worried about crack use “exploding” in Montreal, and demanded a preemptive no to any similar projects in Montreal. Freeland slowly annunciated that abC has a pilot project and now has concerns that they will be working together to address, and that these tragedies require putting partisanship aside. Bethold tried to implicate the Bloc in any decriminalisation in Quebec, and Freeland repeated this is a tragedy, and said that what is really extremist and radical are white supremacist policies, and wanted Conservatives to denounce them.

Luc Therrien led for the Bloc, and raised a newspaper story about a “rapprochement” between CBC and Radio-Canada and demanded they never be merged. Freeland insisted that they will always support the French broadcaster. Therrien demanded that each half be made fully independent—which would never work because Radio-Canada requires CBC’s infrastructure. Freeland repeated that they will always support French in Canada.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and started shouting about the government’s environmental record, to which Freeland insisted that this government has done more for the environment than any previous government in Canadian history, but they are doing more. Don Davies took credit for the capital gains changes, and wondered why the Liberals are maintaining Conservatives’ “corporate giveaways.” Freeland noted it was great that the NDP supports tax fairness, and that nurses and carpenters should pay the same taxes as CEOs, and noted Conservative silence on this fairness.

Round two, and Frank Caputo read a script on demanding BC ending drug decriminalisation (Saks: BC approached us for a three-year pilot project and we are working together with them; We are working to provide operational clarity for police officers), Tracey Gray read more of the same (Saks: Your leader refuses to meet with experts; You don’t focus on things like harm reduction and safe consumption), and Brad Vis read his own script (Freeland: I have been in touch with the province, and we are working together, but making political hay of the pain and suffering of people is irresponsible; Consorting with white supremacists puts Canadians at risk).

Gabriel Ste-Marie raised a unanimous consent motion in Quebec’s National Assembly about the division of powers (Rodriguez: Going against the Bloc is not going against Quebec, because we are working with the province; The Conservatives and the Bloc ally’s seem to vote together; Duclos: Hooray for dental care).

Melissa Lantsman read an angry script that claims that the government will force drug decriminalisation on Toronto (Saks: Every request is evaluated and Toronto’s doesn’t meet the objectives; Freeland: The opioid crisis is tragedy and no family is untouched, while BC’s pilot project was requested by the province, and there no other projects in Canada), Jamil Jivani read his own angry script (Freeland: Same answer).

Bonita Zarrillo demanded action on corporate greed (Fraser: Here are programmes we have to support vulnerable people), and Lisa Marie Barron appeared by video to demand the same (Champagne: It is disturbing to see the leader of the opposition side with grocery giants rather than encouraging them to sign onto the grocery code of conduct).

Round three saw yet more questions on deficit spending (Freeland: The Governor of the Bank of Canada says the recent progress is reassuring and we are close to the goal; We have a responsible plan, a Aaa credit rating, and you only want austerity; Duclos: Your leader only built six affordable housing units when he was “minister” but we have ensured 240 units built in your riding alone; Champagne: We area government that has ambition for our country). It also saw questions on Trans Mountain expansion opening for operation (Guilbeault: GHG emissions have declined and have never been this low in 25 years; We are the only country in the G20 that has eliminated subsidies and are capping emissions), Boissonnault’s former lobbying firm (MacKinnon: The minister has always follows the ethics rules; You should be very careful in what you’re saying), a strike vote by rail workers (O’Regan: There is a cooling-off period right now and we committed to a negotiated solution), and environmental assessment legislation (Guilbeault: We are making the changes the Supreme Court asked of us).

Overall, it was another fairly quiet day in the Chamber, but there were some periods when MPs started to chafe and heckle, particularly at the end with the libellous questions around Randy Boissonnault, and the Liberals pushing once more on the white supremacists/extremists stuff in backbench suck-up questions, which isn’t as cute as they seem to think it is. Nevertheless, most of the questions remained on the drug decriminalisation pilot project (which is not legalizing hard drugs, in spite of what the Conservatives claim), and both Freeland and Saks stuck to a couple of points—this pilot project was BC’s idea (true), and that it’s really poor form to try and score points off the misery of the people afflicted, but the Conservatives seem to have little regard for that.

As for the Boissonnault allegations, the very news reports already stated that he hasn’t actually done anything wrong, but the Conservatives did amp up the rhetoric on this, including the allegation that he was “on the take.” This is the part where Parliamentary privilege comes into play, where they are protected in the Chamber from any possible libel or slander suits, which is why you heard some calls of “Take this outside,” meaning repeat the allegations into the microphone in the Foyer, and watch a lawsuit magically appear. The Speaker did caution Michael Cooper in particular about being careful with his language, but there’s not a lot he can do (I’m not sure this quite reached the threshold of unparliamentary, but it was right on that line), but I’m curious why the Conservatives went as hard as they did on this at the end, because I’m not sure they can be as liberal in their use of their using clips like this, because they too could be subject to libel or slander suits if disseminated.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Dominique Vien for a navy suit over a white banded-collared shirt, and to Pierre Paul-Hus for a navy suit with a crisp white shirt and a dark purple tie. Style citations go out to Darren Fisher for a light maroon jacket over a pale mint green shirt and darker green tie and taupe slacks, and to Patty Hajdu for a faded black smock top with a butterfly pattern over black slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to John Nater for a black suit with a white shirt and a yellow stripe tie.