Photo: Sean Kilpatrick The Canadian Press Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre upon his return to the House of Commons on May 1, the day after his expulsion from the debates by Speaker Greg Fergus
It is again on the theme of the decriminalization of drugs, but with a much calmer tone, on Wednesday, that the Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, marked his return to the House of Commons, from which he had been excluded from the debates the day before.
“Is the Prime Minister going to impose the same chaos on Montreal that he imposed on British Columbia?” asked the Leader of the Opposition, in French, as the first question of the session.
He was referring to the request from the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, to decriminalize the simple possession of drugs in the metropolis, like a pilot project attempted in British Columbia. This province is now reversing course and wants to stop tolerating drug use in public.
Mr. Poilievre, who once called Mayor Plante “incompetent,” now attacks every day the idea that drug decriminalization could reduce the number of fatal overdoses. He called it Tuesday “the crazy policy of this crazy prime minister” (“wacko”, in English). This insult, which he refused to withdraw in the House, caused him to be excluded from the debates for the day. All the conservative elected officials then left the assembly in solidarity.
The Conservative leader quickly transcribed these words on his social networks on Tuesday, saying he was muzzled. However, he did not repeat them in the House on Wednesday.
For his part, Justin Trudeau referred to the events, asking us to “take a moment to think” about this that had happened. Basically, he indicated that Quebec had not proposed such a project to decriminalize drugs, but that, if it did, he would consider it.
Always accusations
Although the questions from the Conservative benches were sent much more calmly than the day before, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not did not change the content of his responses on Wednesday, still as accusatory regarding the association with his conservative rival.
He again denounced on multiple occasions Mr. Poilievre's meeting with demonstrators inspired by the Freedom Convoy installed near the border between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The Liberals spent the week demanding that he dissociate himself from the anti-government, far-right group Diagolon, whose symbols decorated the encampment visited impromptu last week.
This time, three Liberal backbenchers spoke outright during “planted questions” written to give the head of their own government the opportunity to comment on the embarrassing visit. The Speaker of the House of Commons, Greg Fergus, warned them that their questions should relate to government business.
Not resolved for as much
Despite the relative return to calm during the question period on Wednesday, the Liberals and Conservatives had not yet buried the hatchet.
The elected representatives of the official opposition have relaunched their call for the resignation of the Speaker of the Commons, Liberal MP Greg Fergus, whom they accuse of remaining partisan even though he occupies the throne of arbiter of parliamentary debates.
For their part, Liberal MPs and ministers spent the day criticizing Mr. Poilievre's bravado against Mr. Fergus's authority, prompting his expulsion on Tuesday. They decried what they consider to be an affront to democratic institutions.
The Conservative leader is “unworthy of leading a democracy,” said the Quebec lieutenant and minister of Transport, Pablo Rodriguez, and “must stop acting like a child”, ordered the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly.
“You will have noticed that there is another leader who did this [breaking the rules of institutions], who came out of a court in New York. Mr. Poilievre comes out with pretty much the same playbook as the extreme populist right everywhere in the world,” finally compared the government House leader and MP for Gatineau, Steven MacKinnon.
Wednesday is usually the day when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responds to the opposition during question period.