As the fall sitting winds down, things aren’t necessarily getting any chummier on the Hill. The bitter acrimony over those ten percenters calling the Liberals anti-Semites boiled over in a committee hearing yesterday morning, pitting Irwin Cotler against Pierre Poilievre – and it was not pretty.
Later in the day, Michael Ignatieff led off Question Period with questions about the rebuke for the government by those twenty-three former diplomats. John Baird assured the House that when credible allegations are made they are acted upon. Ignatieff carried the theme forward to the government not listening to the military either. Dosanjh picked up the line by bringing up the report uncovered yesterday by The Canadian Press on the government preparing media lines in 2006 rather than crafting policy. Peter MacKay simply obfuscated.
Gilles Duceppe was on the topic of climate change, taking shots at Christian Paradis while he was at it. Paradis responded by calling Duceppe “Pauline Marois’ spokesperson.” Jack Layton was also on the same file, quoting the lines from the White House.
The Liberals kept up on the detainee issue with Judy Foote and Dominic LeBlanc asking questions, picked up by the Bloc. The Liberals didn’t pick up on the climate change file until their third round, with Kirsty Duncan and Justin Trudeau asking. Duncan, I might remind you, was part of the group of scientists that won the Nobel Prize on climate change work. The NDP later called for Peter MacKay’s resignation for his actions on the detainee file. And MacKay? Not resigning.
Sartorial snaps go out to Alexandra Mendes for her mottled blue top under a dark jacket. Honourary drag queen Hedy Fry wore a leopard print outfit that only she can pull off, and snaps go to her for that as well. Style citations go out to Judy Foote for that yellow jacket with a black top, which was not so good. The Megan Leslie outfit watch reports that horrible, horrible mustard yellow sweater over a ruffled wrap-top grey dress. *sighs*
Elsewhere, the CRTC continues to hear from broadcasters about their ongoing fight over fee-for-carriage, and a very exasperated chairman has basically said a pox on both your houses – as well he should.
Also, Access to Information documents obtained by Martha Hall Findlay show that the Privy Council Office is asking for another $1.7 million for communications costs, which largely seem to include archiving video of the Prime Minister – part of their public relations campaign to feed media the images they want, rather than providing access for journalists to do their jobs.
On the topic of ten percenters, I got another one last week from my local NDP MP who wants me to know that he’s working for me on climate change – by sending out flyers on heavy cardstock paper, thus cutting down trees that would have absorbed carbon from the atmosphere, and generating a carbon footprint with all the mail trucks that need to transport said flyers to the sorting plants and then out for distribution. Oh, no wait – he says he’s helping by trying to pass Bill C-311. I’m also given a single reply option of “Yes, Paul! I want Canada to be a leader in fighting climate change,” along with the usual means of filling in my contact information so that they can mine the data for their electoral database. Alrighty then.
And in Mexico, Her Excellency made a speech before the Mexican Senate, discussing the special place that Mexico holds in the hearts of Canadians.
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