The PM was in town but not present, in advance of his big upcoming trip, while Pierre Poilievre was also absent. Michelle Rempel Garner led off, and claimed that by the end of the year, there will be three million people in the country on expired work permits and demanded a plan. Lina Diab gave some boilerplate about how people can extend their permits and those with expired permits are expected to leave. Rempel Garner ginned up the outrage some more, and Dian listed how intakes are down, and that they have exceeded their francophone targets while the population decreased slightly. Rempel Garner cited a CBC story where Diab’s own caucus colleagues have no confidence in her, and demanded she be replaced. Diab listed measures that the government has taken to reform the immigration system. Rempel Garner pointed out that Diab can’t answer basic questions in committee and again demanded she be replaced. Diab switched to French to repeat her same lines about targets being met. Pierre Paul-Hus took over in French, and he quoted statistics about “fake” asylum seekers and claimed that appropriate security checks aren’t being done, and Steven MacKinnon got up to praise the minister and read the same script about targets being met. Paul-Hus took swipes at Diab, and MacKinnon went on a tear about how the Conservatives have no immigration policy.

Christine Normandin led for the Bloc, and yet again raised the pension software, and apparently Quebec’s National Assembly passed a motion to decry federal waste. (Huh?) MacKinnon got up to deliver the well-worn lines about the scale of the project and that it is within budget. Normandin tried again, and Patty Hajdu insisted that the Bloc are patently wrong, and that they are moving three major systems to the new software. Sébastien Lemire took over to ask the same again, and Hajdu assured him that they are working to resolve all outstanding cases.

Why exactly is the Quebec National Assembly weighing in on federal software transformation? Do they have nothing better to do? #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-25T19:34:35.135Z

Round two, and Melissa Lantsman listed a bunch of absolute bullshit to take more swipes at Diab (Fraser: I will park the factual inaccuracy but let me praise Diab; Miller: We see you pitting Canadians against asylum claimants, deliberately confusing failed with fraudulent claimant, and this isn’t a dog-whistle, it’s a foghorn; Your leader has changed so many ridings he’s Parliament’s own temporary foreign worker), Andrew Scheer raised an issue of a temporary resident facing charges (Anandasangaree: If they are facing charges they can’t make an asylum claim…and you should support lawful access; We are a rule of law country), Carol Anstey brought back up the three million expired permit canard with more Karen energy (Sahota: We have been getting the system under control and we are waiting for the Senate to pass C-12; We are reducing asylum claims under the leadership of our minister).

Scheer: The Liberals keep putting up failed former immigration ministers to defend the current one. Liberals: You’re a failed former leader! #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-25T19:37:28.525Z

Xavier Barsalou-Duval complained that five billion was being cut from transit funding that Quebec didn’t get…and it was the same amount as the supposed cost overrun of the pension software (Robertson: We have a new Building Communities fund that includes public transit and we are in talks with Quebec), and Patrick Bonin asked the same again (Robertson: Same answer).

Tamara Kronis complained that a foreign student spying on housemates didn’t get deported (Sahota: The provinces need to respond to these actions; These are not “our judges” and criminal court hearings happen at the provincial level), and Gabriel Hardy complained about asylum seekers in Quebec straining their systems (MacKinnon: Asylum claims are down by a third under this minister), Eric Lefebvre returns to the question on the pension software (Hajdu: I have told you fifteen times that if you have cases that need addressing to come and see me), and Jacques Gourde took a swipe at Diab (Diab: CBSA does the front-end security screening of all claimants before they are forwarded to the IRB, so everyone gets checked).

Round three saw questions on asylum claimants (Anandasangaree: The CBSA and CSIS check claims; Michel: We are committed to rights and human dignity; Healthcare is provincial jurisdiction and we are working with provinces; Fraser: You are using immigration as a wedge issue instead of using your questions for something constructive), the size of the deficit (Fragiskatos: We are ensuring we can compete on a global level; Conservatives never spell out which programmes they were cut), affordability (van Koeverden: You keep ignoring the experts on how to provide relief to families; Robertson: We are starting to see prices come down; Long: Canadians know you have no credibility in housing), sex traffickers getting “Liberal bail” (Sahota: We talked about these issues with survivors, but you obstructed our bail reform bill), funding for MMIW (Valdez: We are working with communities to protect women, girls and gender-diverse people with our Action Plan).

Cobena: Canadians are tired of political taking points…and then delivers some talking points. The lack of self-awareness is boggling. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-02-25T20:04:46.655Z

Overall, the day was no less gross than it has been all week, but not only was there the still the scapegoating of immigrants and asylum seekers, sometimes to absurd levels, but beyond that was a dog-pile on immigration minister Lina Diab, with repeated calls for her to be fired, many of them citing a CBC story from this morning about how even her own caucus colleagues know that she’s a walking disaster. And I have heard as much, but that doesn’t mean that the dog-pile wasn’t still an awful bit of political theatre. Meanwhile, the pushback on the scapegoating remained tepid, with only Marc Miller actually calling out that this kind of dog-whistling is really more of a foghorn, which was a good line, but disappointing that nobody else could call it out as such.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Melissa Lantsman for a black jacket with a fuchsia windowpane pattern over a black button-up top and slacks, and to Ben Carr for dark blue suit and matching tie with a pink shirt. Style citations go out to Xavier Barsalou-Duval for a pale brown suit over a white shirt and black tie, and to Juanita Nathan for a black jacket over a taupe top with burgundy leaf patterns.