Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff held a scrum after the closing of the party’s winter caucus this morning. After questions on their position on bringing in more Haitian refugees to Canada by adjusting the rules around “family” definitions in immigration regulations (and if Jason Kenney doesn’t have the power, then recall Parliament to give him that power), and Ignatieff talking about how the Conservatives aren’t being honest about increasing payroll taxes in 2011, jobs and post-secondary education, Xtra got a question in.
Q: On the issue of prorogation with the bills being wiped off the Order Paper, are there any that you’re particularly happy to see the backs of?
A: Well, quite a few to be frank, and look there’s an issue here that we’re going to have to confront. This is a government that ran a law-and-order agenda and said oh, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up! Every time the Senate set out to do its job, properly scrutinising these bills, the government said ‘hurry up, hurry up, you’re holding up, urgent, urgent, urgent,’ and then boom – they prorogued for six weeks. Come on, let’s get serious here. They play these games with us, and if they want to reboot this legislation, they’re going to have to come and talk to us – they haven’t done so, and so I’ve got nothing to say about it until I hear what they’ve got to say. But the one thing that’s clear to me is that they’ve been playing games with the justice agenda. All the autumn, it’s hurry up, hurry up – all winter it’s slow down, who cares? Canadians will make their own judgement just about how sincere they are on the criminal justice file.
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