QP: A focus on Islamophobia

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While the prime minister was in town, meeting with the President of Chile, he did not venture to the Chamber for QP, though his deputy was present. Most of the other leaders were absent as well. Luc Berthold led off, worrying about rising prices, and wondered why the government was doing nothing about it. Chrystia Freeland responded with her prepared talking points about affordability measures like dental care. Berthold was incensed and roared that this was not good enough, especially with food banks under pressure. Freeland assured him that federal benefits like the Canada Child Benefit were indexed to inflation. Berthold was still incredulous, decried people being unable to eat enough, and demanded more from the government. Freeland shrugged off the yelling, stated that she took no lessons from the Conservatives, and noted the poverty reduction since her government had come to power. Dan Albas took over in English decry gasoline prices and demanded a tax break on them, and Jonathan Wilkinson reminded him that world oil prices were being affected by Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Albas went on a tangent that cast the prime minister as some kind of scripted actor before repeating his demand, and Wilkinson noted that the country was increasing production and supply, and that the carbon rebates put money back in people’s pockets.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he decried the rise in 911 calls to report gunfire and demanded action from the federal government. Marco Mendicino gave his assurances that he too was worried and they were taking measures to deal with the problem. Therrien demanded a registry of criminal organisations, and Mendicino insisted that the gun control bill does have measures to tackle organised crime.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he marked the anniversary of the Islamophobic attack that killed a family in London, Ontario, and demanded more federal action to combat the problem. Mendicino insisted that they were taking concrete steps, and that needs to start with every member of the Chamber condemning Islamophobia. Singh repeated the question in French, and got assurances in English from Ahmed Hussen, who listed some of the actions the government has taken.

Round two, and Adam Chambers accused the government of not taking inflation seriously enough (Freeland: In all of the countries you mention their rates of inflation are far higher; Your party should have a little humility given that a leadership candidate for your party is attacking the central bank), Kerry-Lynne Findlay tried to tie inflation and carbon prices to people’s mental health (Wilkinson: We are trying to address the supply issue to stabilise energy prices; Freeland: Inflation is global and we have affordability measures), and Jake Stewart called the carbon price a failure (Guilbeault: Most households get more money back, and emissions are going down; Gould: We have been there for Canadians since 2015).

Monique Pauzé worried about the output of the Bay du Nord project (Guilbeault: The environmental assessment project is independent and the project will be net-zero by 2050 and have to be under the GHG emission cap), and took a shot at Guilbeault personally (Guilbeault: We turned down an oil sand projects with ten times the emissions profile and we have an emissions cap), and Kristina Michaud quoted environmental groups denouncing the project (Guilbeault: We are attacking pollution).

Larry Brock raised the anniversary of the Islamophobic attack and decried the lack of action from the federal government and wanted assurances the murderer would get a serious sentence (Lametti: We are increasing penalties in serious cases while attacking discrimination in the justice system), and he decried the gun control bill versus the bill to eliminate other mandatory minimums (Mendicino: I would encourage you to read the gun control bill more carefully), Dane Lloyd railed that the government didn’t spend enough to target gang prevention (Mendicino: Your party’s agenda has been repeatedly struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada).

Alistair MacGregor worried about Chinese wire-transfers laundering money through real estate (Mendicino: We need to put resources into law enforcement to crack down on this kind of activity), and Rachel Blaney decried record profits at grocery chains and wanted a doubling of the GST credit and Canada Child Benefit (Freeland: Benefits are indexed to inflation).

Round three saw questions on unvaccinated travellers on federally-regulated ferries (van Koeverden: I will get back to you on that, but people need to get vaccinated), delays at airports because of public health measures (Alghabra: There are delays around the world, and we have increased resources to fix delays), passport delays (Gould: We have increased resources), resources for the official languages bill (Petitpas Taylor: The Act is still before parliament and it is important to move forward with it; once the bill is passed we can deal with implementation), the hiring of a PR firm run by a friendly Liberal (Ng: This was proactively disclosed two years ago, I was not involved in the decision, and followed all of the rules), the third anniversary of the MMIW report and funding a 24/7 low-barrier safe space in Winnipeg (Miller: We are addressing this report on an ongoing basis), and the emerging global food crisis (Sajjan: We have stepped up around the world with $70 million in new funding).

Overall, it was not a remarkable day in any sense of the word, and in spite of a few outbursts, was not too raucous either. The shitpost clip-gathering of the day was also fairly standard when it comes to inflation and tough-on-crime issues, but there was a particular attention paid to a non-story of demanding answers on a two-year-old contract that Mary Ng’s office gave to a Liberal-friendly PR firm. The Ethics Commissioner is looking into it, though it has been stated by both sides that the minister had no involvement in the contract due to personal ties, and there was a process that was followed, but that didn’t stop the numerous questions and accusations that will be used to fuel even more shitposts. It’s really, really tiresome.

Sartorial speaking, snaps go out to Karina Gould for a grey windowpane jacket over a white top and dark grey slacks, and to Maninder Sidhu for a tailored navy due with a crisp white shirt and a purple-hued tie. Style citations go out to Darren Fisher for his brown corduroy jacket Whitaker light blue shirt and no tie, and to Kamal Khera for a brown and pink top with a tight floral patterns and black slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Claude DeBellefeuille for a black and yellow frilled top over yellow slacks.

2 thoughts on “QP: A focus on Islamophobia”

  1. “…the three-year anniversary….”
    I think you mean “the third anniversary.”

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