Shelly Glover, Canada’s Most Intellectually Bankrupt MP, is at it again, this time saying that Michael Ignatieff thinks it’s okay for young people to smoke pot, because he supported the decriminalization of small amounts. Except that’s entirely out of context: he said he doesn’t support full legalization, and I seem to recall some anecdotes in there about how he felt pot did harm to some people he knows, and he absolutely doesn’t want students smoking pot. Not that Glover will let context (or facts) get in the way of a talking point. She also used her member’s statement yesterday to repeat the false and disproven assertion that Ignatieff made racist remarks in Winnipeg last weekend, because she’s klassy like that.
Question period was without the PM or Ignatieff, so Ralph Goodale got things started by asking about Peter MacKay’s comments about the UAE situation, to which John Baird assured him that the proposed deal was not in Canada’s benefit. Dominic LeBlanc followed up with questions on the F-35 costs, not that Tony Clement really answered. Gilles Duceppe and Paule Brunelle were concerned that federal money would be going to help the new Lower Churchill project, while Christian Paradis and Ted Menzies tried to assure them that Public-Private Partnerships Inc is a crown corporation and therefore arm’s length. And Jack Layton asked about MacKay’s UAE comments before accusing the Conservatives of having a secret deal with Bob Rae about the Afghan mission extension.
Round two began with Maria Minna and Mark Holland asking about the OPP costs for the G20 – accusing the Conservatives of hiding them while Julian Fantino runs in the Vaughan by-election – and the G8 funds for Huntsville. Bernard Bigras asked about the plans for the Cancun conference, and Claude Bachand was trying to ask something about the NATO meeting going on in Lisbon. Ruby Dhalla and Raymonde Folco asked about government ads turning up on NSFW websites, and Frank Valeriote asked about veterans’ funding.
A Conservative suck-up question led to the latest stunt of proposing the House unilaterally pass the Senate term-limit bill, which was some backhanded attempt to try to capitalize on the false moral indignation of the death of Bill C-311. Because you know, nothing is more democratic than passing an unconstitutional bill without debate or proper study. (The attempt to pass that was soundly defeated after QP.)
The remainder of QP saw questions on the aforementioned Bill C-311, the Quebec City arena, Nortel pensioners, a new poverty report, the closure of Vale operations in Thompson, Manitoba, visitor visas, the Bloc’s Bill C-343, concussions in hockey and cigarette labels.
Sartorially speaking, snaps go to Judy Foote for a very well cut chocolate-brown dress that was a welcome antidote to the terrible jacket she wore the day before. Also in chocolate brown – but deserving of a style citation – was Mark Warawa, who paired a chocolate-brown suit with a bright teal shirt and a spotted toffee-coloured tie that did not work at all. The Megan Leslie outfit watch reports a very lovely grey jacket with three-quarter sleeves over a black top and trousers, with what I believe were eggplant heels.
Oh nos! The Ontario Superior Court decision on sex work will turn Ontario into a sex-trade hub, and with it will come “more drug trafficking, violence, garbage, noise and traffic from johns patrolling Ontario communities in their cars,” says a legal brief from the Department of Justice. Seriously? And was this drafted explicitly on the orders of Rob Nicholson, I wonder?
Conservative Senator Bob Runciman is trying to broker a plan to get people with mental illnesses out of prisons and into dedicated therapeutic, secure hospital facilities where their issues can be treated. Good luck to him if he can get it to happen.
And Senator Grant Mitchell gives a more in-depth explanation of what happened with the C-311 vote in the Senate.
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