Rex Murphy: Trudeau Liberals taking House speaker to court another arrogant attack on Parliament
Rex Murphy #RexMurphy
A prime minister does not take the Speaker of the House of Commons to Court!
Those words ought to be yelled from any and all rooftops.
The Justin Trudeau government is very full of itself, on too many occasions morbidly so. Their attitude towards the nation’s highest assembly is atrocious, undignified and cavalier.
During the last year or so Parliament has been far more frequently empty than full. When it has been Zoom-opened, attendance is minimal, and during some speeches we have been informed there is not a single Liberal member present.
The greatest issues and the most pressing crises should always be debated in the House of Commons. Even if there have to be some protocols established in times of medical emergency. The remark heard everywhere at the beginning of these strange times — that if grocery clerks (may every citizen give them a smile and a thank-you) are essential and show up to word every day, then surely the rather better paid members of parliament and the even better paid Cabinet can make it to the solemn halls of Parliament — still stands and then some.
However, they showed up but sporadically, and prorogued when they felt like it. The PM’s whim, his various moods or tactical reasons, defined when its venerable doors would be opened and when, on edict from the PMO, they must be shut.
The greatest indignity to our Parliament was Trudeau opening and operating his own private outdoor chamber, the Tent of Commons. Most of the business of the nation this year, and the outflow of billions of dollars were announced from Trudeau’s own private Westminster: a canvas tent at the bottom of the steps to his own cottage on the grounds of the (now vacant) office of the Governor General.
Trudeau had several hissy fits over Parliament this week. Far more than his usual quota. Putting the speaker in the dock was undoubtedly the climax, the apogee, the ne plus ultra, and the dear-Lord-what-is-in-that-fellow’s-yogurt? moment, of his consistent disregard amounting to disrespect of the House of Commons.
But there was a preceding moment, overshadowed by the outrage perpetrated on the speaker and his office. That was when he (Trudeau) accused the Opposition Leader (Erin O’Toole) and his party of “obstructionism and toxicity” rendering Parliament dysfunctional.
These remarks, it must be appreciated, were made, not in Parliament, but at the bottom of the steps of his cottage, where, just back from England, Trudeau remains in quarantine. Any claim that Parliament is disrespected or obstructionist comes cold and strange from the lips of a prime minister who has virtually eliminated Parliament, and eviscerated its functioning over the last year.
There’s a giant mess coming down the road when the accountants and the House are finally allowed to see the books, whenever that might be.
Obstructionism in this Parliament? Trudeau should evaporate in shame for even pronouncing the phrase. After all who has been the Obstructionist in Chief of this Parliament, if not the prime minister himself?
But now let us turn to the highest outrage.
Trudeau doesn’t like a ruling of the Speaker of the House of Commons. Well, tough mittens and monochromatic socks to you bucko.
Some observations: The speaker is the chief officer and highest authority of the House of Commons.
The speaker is not Trudeau’s personal butler.
Ottawa is not Hong Kong.
Admiration for China’s “basic dictatorship” should not lead to imitation.
As for that “disrespect” for Parliament Trudeau accuses the opposition of, I ask here, what greater disrespect for the House of Commons can there be for a government leader in a minority Parliament calling up the Federal Court to annul a ruling of its speaker?
What’s next for the Trudeau authoritarians? Putting the sergeant-at-arms in handcuffs?
Chasing his first (and best) justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, out of that portfolio, harassing her when she was in it, was one of the most stupid and arrogant actions Trudeau has ever performed. To this point.
Just think, Wilson-Raybould, in the context of the so-sombre news of this past week — if still in Cabinet — would perhaps be the only person with the competence and judgement to oversee and direct the right response to the findings of so many unmarked graves. The one person who could command respect from Indigenous peoples and the public for whatever judgements and recommendations she would eventually make.
But she is not in the cabinet. She was, as some have put it, driven out for taking the role of Justice Minister very seriously. She is now a single independent. An atrocious waste of talent.
Not to mention the best person to have overseen the COVID disaster, Jane Philpott, also gone from the Trudeau Cabinet is toiling in other (related) fields. The two best are gone.
The whole House of Commons should convene and order Trudeau to withdraw his arrogant assault on the speaker. The speaker represents them, all of them. And Speaker Anthony Rota himself should adamantly continue his defiance of this tawdry, careless, unprecedented and ignorant attack on his status and office. And if the prime minister can remember that even in politics graceful conduct is not a sin, he would call it off immediately.
National Post
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