QP: Two ejections and a walkout

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Tuesday, and both the prime minister and his deputy were present, which is a nice change. All of the other leaders were present as well, and Pierre Poilievre led off in French, and blamed the federal government’s “radical drug policies” (which aren’t federal) for tripling overdose deaths and claimed Bloc support, and cited newspaper reports about safe consumption sites near schools in Montreal. Trudeau insisted that they need solutions grounded in compassion, healthcare and science to fix the problem. Poilievre switched to English to repeat that the “radical” drug policy has resulted in even more deaths, and demanded the prime minister listen to the NDP to re-criminalise these drugs, which is not the demand—the demand is to re-criminalise public use only. Trudeau said that he already answered this and called out Poilievre consorting with white nationalists. Poilievre said that he denounces extremists and racists including the guy who spent the first half of his adult life dressing up in racist costumes, meaning the prime minister, and after he was cautioned by the Speaker, Poilievre changed his denunciation of the prime minister for funding Laith Marouf and not condemning the IRGC. Trudeau got up and pointed out that Poilievre was spineless, and in the ensuring uproar, Rachael Thomas wound up being named and kicked out for the day. Fergus warned Trudeau, and he re-started his response, saying Poilievre is courting radicals and gave a denunciation of Diagolon. Poilievre got back to calling Trudeau a “radical” for not banning drugs, and Trudeau retorted that Poilievre is still not denouncing groups like Diagolon, Poilievre accused Trudeau of killing 25,000 British Columbians by way of his “extremist” policies, and called him a “whacko prime minister.” Fergus again got up to ask Poilievre to withdraw the term, and Poilievre said he withdraws “whacko” and replaces it with “extremist,” which did not satisfy Fergus. Poilievre said he would replace with “radical,” and Fergus said that wasn’t the request. Poilievre still didn’t withdraw the remark, and after consultant with the Clerk, Fergus asked one last time to withdraw the comment. Poilievre pushed again, did not withdraw, and Fergus named him too, and Poilievre left the Chamber to great  applause on his side, followed by most of his caucus, who started screaming at the Speaker on their way out. After everything settled down, Trudeau started his last response, again calling out Diagolon, during which Michael Barrett screamed that Trudeau was endorsed by Hamas, and after yet another disruption, Trudeau finished by saying Poilievre’s plan to overturn Charter rights is dangerous, and by this time, every Conservative had left the Chamber.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, congratulated the Speaker for his good sense, and then decried government management and told them to stay out of Quebec’s jurisdiction. Trudeau said that his responsibility is to take care of Quebeckers everywhere. Blachet raised the premiers’ letter about staying out of their jurisdiction (but still giving them money), Trudeau dismissed this as the Bloc just picking fights.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and he raised the report that 25 percent of Quebecker are in poverty but tied this to Big Oil, somehow. Trudeau noted that they have prioritised creating equal opportunities for all generations in the budget. Heather McPherson railed against Danielle Smith’s attack on pensions and demanded support for her private member’s bill on protecting pensions. Trudeau thanked her for supporting them in standing up for Canadians but did not commit to supporting the bill.

Round two, and with no Conservatives in the Chamber, Blanchet got back up to carry on his demand that Ottawa butt out of provincial jurisdiction (Rodriguez: You keep saying housing is important, but you vote against it; You are becoming the separatist wing of the Conservative Party), Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe wanted Quebec to have more control over foreign workers, particularly around French language requirements (Miller: We support French language training and have invested in it).

Jenny Kwan worried about processing time for Hong Kongers migrating to Canada (Miller: We are working on processing times), and Charlie Angus appeared by video to demand funding for a hospital in Northern Ontario (Hajdu: We are working with the province and the chiefs in the region).

Round three saw yet more questions on redistributing asylum seekers from Quebec (Miller: Quebec is doing more, but we need to work together). It also saw questions on the design of a surplus goods programme (LeBlanc: We don’t support this kind of waste and I will speak to CBSA about other options), not providing data to justify fishing closures (Kelloway: I will have a conversation with you on this later), not going after corporations (Freeland: We have a budget designed for generational fairness).

Fergus then allowed more questions to fill the time, in roughly the same proportion as usual, including questions on the gun buyback programme (LeBlanc: I don’t share your pessimism and we are working to get this started this year), CBSA pensions (Anand: We are waiting around a decision of the negotiating body), the inadequacy of the Disability Benefit in the budget (Khera: This is just a first step).

Overall, that was a hell of a day, the likes of which I haven’t witnessed before in 15 years covering Question Period. Poilievre blaming Trudeau for BC’s drug decriminalisation experiment is of course not true, but he wants to deliver this false narrative that Trudeau is some kind of radical extremist who wants drugs and crime in the streets (which is of course obvious nonsense, but people believe it). Trudeau has been itching to push Poilievre on the far-right encampment with Diagolon links, and so he went ahead and did that in the first opportunity (in English), and Poilievre proved that he’s eager enough to engage because he can call Trudeau a racist in the process. The real issue here was not that Poilievre called Trudeau a “whacko prime minister,” but it was that he very deliberately refused to withdraw the comment after being give four opportunities to do so, thus undermining the authority of the Chair. At that point, it was a deliberate provocation, and he walked out of the Chamber to cheers from his side, before they all followed him out. It was nothing but a stunt, and Poilievre then set about tweeting that he was being “censored” by the “Liberal Speaker”—another unparliamentary provocation—but curiously avoided the media outside the Chamber rather than rushing to the cameras and crying for them. I knows his audience plays more to social media than television, and so that’s where he went for sympathy.

The rest of the day was very different—the Chamber was fairly quiet, questions were asked and responded to without any real interruption and it was a very different vibe without the Conservatives present. I’m not going to say that it’s great, because you want some boisterous energy (within reason), and you want sharp questions for the sake of accountability (which is the stated purpose of QP), but it was certainly different without the Conservatives present.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Anita Anand for a navy suit over a cream-coloured top with a wide collar and cuffs, and to Sean Fraser for a tailored navy suit with a white shirt and a dark pink tie. Style citations go out to Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay for a dark grey jacket, a light grey waistcoat, a blue p grey shirt with a comically large navy tie and black slacks, and to Mona Fortier for a blue-grey jacket over a lighter blue-grey top with daisies across it and black slacks. Dishonourable mention goes out to Kerry-Lynne Findlay for a dark yellow top under a black jacket and slacks.

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