QP: Speaker Fergus walks into the trap set for him

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The PM was wrapping up at the G20, while his deputy was also elsewhere, as were most of the other leaders. Andrew Scheer was there to lead off, and he listed a bunch of specious allegations around Randy Boissonnault, and Boissonnault responded that he had nothing to do with the person in question. Scheer tried again, listing more salacious allegations, and this time Jean-Yves Duclos responded with the usual lines about Pierre Poilievre not getting his security clearance. Scheer then cited a tweet from Jody Wilson-Raybould that took a swipe at Boissonnault and then got into a back-and-forth with Speaker Fergus about which words he used weren’t parliamentary. Karina Gould got up to to decry the disrespect the Conservatives have been showing the Chamber, and had to start over after a lengthy intervention by the Speaker, who was pretty much exasperated by this point. Fergus then threatened to start taking questions away, before Luc Berthold got up to give the same talking points about Boissonnault in French, and Gould again got up to say that Boissonnault has answered, and it was time to stop the partisan games. Berthold tried one more time, got warned about the use of a first name, and Gould again got up to moralise about how the Conservatives are making a joke of this place.

Fergus has pretty much lost the entire Chamber. This is utterly ridiculous. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-19T19:32:20.904Z

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and railed about their fraud perpetrated against the CRA and the hunt for the whistleblowers. Marie-Claude Bibeau insisted that this was false and that they took it seriously, and that the Privacy Commissioner was involved. Therrien went on a tear about CRA trying to protect their own backsides, and Bibeau replied that they have not hidden anything and that that they have taken action.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and demand the government adopt the NDP’s economically illiterate GST cut plan. François-Philippe Champagne agreed with the framing device that the Conservatives would only cut, while the government is investing in Canadians. Leila Dance made the same demand in English, and Jenna Sudds also agreed that the Conservatives will cut before praising the school food programme.

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman returned to the Boissonnault allegations (Duclos: It’s unfortunate to hear so many falsehoods in so little time, and your leader needs his clearance; Gould: That’s false and why won’t your leader let his MPs advocate for their communities), Michael Cooper gave the same allegations (Duclos: You are combined a number of falsehoods, and your leader needs his security clearance; Champagne: Security clearance), and Pierre Paul-Hus gave the same in French, and got warned by the Speaker several times (Duclos: We are building 8000 housing units in Quebec, dozens in your own riding, and your leader should go and see them).

Kristina Michaud worried about a news story about a passport being issued to a human smuggler (Miller: If this is true, I will do verifications with Service Canada and report back), Julie Vignola worried about what this meant for border safety (Miller: I will come back to the House after I check into this; LeBlanc: We re-invested in CBSA and the RCMP to protect the border).

Michael Barrett spun yet more slanderous allegations about Boissonnault, and he too got a warning (Gould: We have yet to hear a question from the Conservatives on this being the 1000th day of Russia’s invasion of a Ukraine, and the Conservatives’ support seems to be wavering), Jamie Schmale did the same (Hajdu: You only want to talk about reconciling when it’s an allegation and not when it is about housing because it record is shameful), and at Garnett Genuis called her out about Boissonnault (Hajdu: Your party is trying to undermine the study of the water bill at committee).

Laurel Collins demanded an excess profit tax on oil and gas companies (Wilkinson: We have put in a plan to cut emissions, while you guys started collaborating with the Conservatives), and Matthew Green demanded the government adopt their GST plan (Sudds: I have talked to people at food banks about the importance of the Canada Child Benefit and moving forward with the school food programme).

Round three saw several overwrought questions on child killers in the same correctional facilities that have a mother-child living unit (LeBlanc: There are safety measures, and there have been no problems in the 24 years this programme has existed), a possible migrant surge at the border (LeBlanc: We have invested significantly to ensure the border is safe; We have harmonised hours of operation with our US counterparts), falsehoods about the carbon levy (Guilbeault: You never talk about the costs of climate change, and this year we have seen record damages and the year isn’t even over yet; MacAulay: You slashed have a billion dollars from agriculture when you were in government), the SDTC documents (Gould: The levels of disrespect that Conservatives are showing you is unconscionable), housing funds (Fraser: Every time Conservatives take an interest in housing, they manipulate statistics to suit their narrative), a Canadian in the custody of the Taliban (Joly: I can’t speak about it other than to say we will take every measure to bring him home), mental health care (Saks: Mental health is health, and it was part of agreements with the provinces), veterans (Blair: It was shameful that the Conservatives gave a deliberate falsehood about banning prayer—and he too got a warning). 

Frank Caputo is outright lying about what C-83 was. It was about solitary confinement, not prison sentencing levels. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-19T20:10:29.713Z

Overall, it was another absolutely shameless day, where the Conservatives decided to play the game of pushing the Speaker to his absolute limit, and Fergus was frankly ill-equipped to actually deal with it. The tactic by the Conservatives was to use various means to call Boissonnault a “fake,” a “fraud,” and “corrupt,” and when Fergus would warn them and ask them to withdraw the use, they started saying “I withdraw and substitute [another pejorative].” Fergus kept letting this happen, and kept giving ever-longer warnings so that QP stretched on at least a good ten minutes overtime, while his authority was continually undermined the longer it went on. After QP, Fergus went back and called on those Conservatives to withdraw those remarks and when they didn’t, they were expelled for the remainder of the day for not respecting his authority—but by that point, they had their clips, they had their supplemental questions, and they all but spat in his face throughout. He has been far too tolerant, and far too gentle, and not only has decorum largely collapsed, but he no longer has any authority in the Chamber. He should have given one warning, then started naming MPs and expelling them the first time they started to get cute with withdrawing words they know they’re not supposed to use, and if successive MPs kept using those words quite deliberately, they too should have received a single warning then expulsion, and questions being withdrawn for all of the wasted time. He’s not going to be Speaker again after this Parliament, so it’s time to stop walking on eggshells and just start cracking heads.

Went back and checked—post, #QP, Fergus named one expelled (for the day) Rempel Garner, Barrett and Perkins.This was a tactic by the Conservatives, Fergus fell into the trap, and you can bet that they are making hay about this over social media and in fundraising. #HoC

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-19T21:43:25.313Z

There were also a series of completely inappropriate questions on the correctional facilities with mother-child units and the fact that a particular child killer is in a facility that has these units. This was not a real issue, but just ginned-up outrage porn for the sake of their social media clips, and the fact that they had three different MPs give these same bullshit questions in both languages points to the fact that this was just a ghoulish social media campaign that did nothing for the victims of said killer.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Laurel Collins for a tailored medium-blue shot-sleeved dress with a cut that looked like a jacket but was a single piece, and to Charles Sousa for a light grey suit with a white shirt and a lilac tie. Style citations go out to Alexandre Boulerice for a maroon jacket over a white shirt, bright yellow tie, and blue jeans, and to Marci Ien for a beige vest with white piping over a black top with red and white stripes.