It was a gorgeous spring day in Ottawa, but it was too bad that neither Stephen Harper or Justin Trudeau weren’t around to enjoy it, as they apparently all found better things to do than to attend the grand inquest of the nation. Thomas Mulcair was in attendance, and led off by asking if the Attorney General felt it was his job to ensure that there were never any attempts to intimate the courts of the country. Peter MacKay rejected the premise of the question, and said that after the Chief Justice met with special committee, she called him and he decided that the Prime Minister didn’t need to speak to her, then gave the line about the inappropriateness of discussing cases with judgments. Mulcair carried on, about the separation of powers, to which MacKay carried on with talking points about the legal opinions they received. Mulcair was not impressed and accused MacKay of being a henchman of the PM. MacKay waxed about Justice Rothstein being appointed from the Federal Court, to which Mulcair blasted back about the difference in Quebec law, hence requiring special judicial requirements. MacKay kept on with the justifications of legal opinions and the special committee. Mulcair hammered away at the difference rules, but MacKay tried to play down Mulcair’s own reading of the Supreme Court Act. Stéphane Dion led for the Liberals, and echoed in English by Sean Casey, brought up the anonymous Conservatives who complained to the media and appeared to be leaking confidential information from the special appointment committee, but MacKay shrugged the questions off as “convoluted.” Casey hammered away at the loss of confidence in the selection process, and wondered if the minister would make any changes to restore confidences. MacKay insisted that the process was the most open and inclusive in history, and that even the opposition justice critic had praised Nadon.

Round two, and Jinny Sims and Sadia Groguhé asked about the labour shortage rate plummeting without Kijiji data and tied that in to Temporary Foreign Workers (Kenney: We want to see Canadians get jobs and training), Christine Moore and Jack Harris asked about the soldier with PTSD being denied an extended release after being promised one (MacKay: We are doing everything we can to care for wounded soldiers), the trials of a military family whose son committed suicide (MacKay: The report will be made available to the family once it has been completed), Charmaine Borg asked about the internal review around telecom information being released to government agencies (Calandra: Selectively quoted the Privacy Commissioner), Charlie Angus asked about provisions in the digital privacy bill (Calandra: Personal information protected by the Charter requires a warrant), and Peter Julian brought up the allegations of an employer abusing temporary foreign workers (Blaney: Why not strike the balance between public safety and respecting privacy?) Scott Brison brought up the inflated job vacancy rate being used to justify expanding the temporary foreign workers programme (Kenney: There are skills gaps in various regions), and John McCallum brought up the mismanagement of the TFW programme (Kenney: You wanted more workers and say it’s a good programme). Megan Leslie and Nycole Turmel asked about long-term expats winning a court challenge about voting (Poilievre: You want people to vote without ID), Turmel carried on asking about the lack of receipts needed for elections reimbursements for parties (Poilievre: Parties already provide receipts after elections), and Craig Scott decried that half of their amendments to the elections bill were not even allowed to be debated (Poilievre: Your amendments were not common sense).

Round three saw questions on the FATCA provisions in the budget bill, the use of Kijiji in job data, that soldier being denied extended release, the National Day of Honour as a photo-op for the Prime Minister, the lack of harmonized sanctions against Russia, the management of Sydney Harbour, cuts at CBC/Radio-Canada, repainting the Quebec City CN bridge, Quebec airport improvement funding in 2014/15, the overly complicated tax code, and one final question on the telecom data being given to government agencies.

Overall, the first exchange between Mulcair and MacKay was really quite good, especially as they wandered away from their scripts and Mulcair hammered away at MacKay’s non-answers. It’s almost as though the quality of debate improved the moment they got away from the scripts, and the interplay between French and English in questions and answers was actually organic and not repetitive to provide news clips. And yes, those repetitive questions in both official languages unfortunately dominated the remainder of QP, providing more contrast to how stilted the interplay is.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Gerald Keddy for a dark three three-piece suit with a pink shirt and light blue tie, and to Lisa Raitt for a well tailored black suit and top. Style citations go out to Linda Duncan for a light long jacket with a pastel Hawaiian beach landscape printed across it, and to Jonathan Tremblay for a slightly metallic brown suit with a mustard shirt and brown striped tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Leona Aglukkaq for a black suit with a bright yellow top.