No excuse for parliamentary pause By: Editorial Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Jun. 10, 2020

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/06/2020 (1696 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is, by any standard one might be inclined to apply, an unexpected and unsettling turn of events.

Last fall, Canadians went to the polls and delivered a federal election result that told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in no uncertain terms that they were unhappy with his first-term performance and were putting his government on a very short leash for its second mandate.

Voters’ anger wasn’t sufficiently heated to reject the Liberals outright by installing an Andrew Scheer-led Conservative government, but the message was nonetheless clear: a minority Parliament, in which a duly chastened Mr. Trudeau would have to govern with a greater sense of collaboration and a much less imperious demeanour.

And Canada’s 43rd Parliament did — as all minority Parliaments will — begin on a much more cautious footing than had been the case with Mr. Trudeau’s previous majority government. And then … COVID-19.

When the pandemic arrived on Canadian soil, government functions necessarily paused, along with virtually all familiar economic, social and recreational activity, as health authorities scrambled to put in place measures aimed at mitigating the spread and impact of the novel coronavirus.

That such a cessation was necessary is beyond dispute. But what has happened more recently, in terms of the Liberal government’s apparent exploitation of the pandemic as a means to limit parliamentary debate and institutional oversight of its decisions, should be cause for alarm for all Canadians.

An analysis this week by the Globe and Mail pointed out that in what amounts to very nearly a year, Parliament has sat for a total of 38 days. Thirty-eight. Days. That includes three full weeks of Monday-to-Friday sessions last June, followed by the traditional summer recess that stretches well into autumn, followed by the necessary pre-election shutdown.

The Trudeau government was handed its humbling minority mandate on Oct. 21; Parliament’s next sitting took place on Dec. 5 and lasted seven working days before the holiday recess. Business in the House of Commons resumed in late January and proceeded normally through February and early March.

Since COVID-19 became the singular issue driving government decision-making, however, sittings have been limited to occasional, mostly virtual encounters with handfuls of physically distanced members from each party in the House while others participated online. And for most Canadians, the work of the federal government has been reduced to almost-daily sightings of the prime minister as he ventures briefly outside his residence to deliver a short sombre monologue before retreating to closed-doors solitude.

After receiving the necessary (albeit inexplicable) support of the NDP, on May 26 the Liberals — against the objections of the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois — suspended Parliament until Sept. 21, except for a session on June 17 to attend to government spending approval and four sitting days spread throughout the summer.

It isn’t enough. Parliamentary governance requires vigorous debate, full opposition engagement and a requirement for the government in power to explain and defend the legislative measures it is imposing on Canadians. The moment at which Mr. Trudeau could use the pandemic as convenient cover for his avoidance of parliamentary obligations has passed.

“I think it’s becoming more and more clear that the reason it’s been such an abnormal amount of days, with so little days, is because the government is trying to run from accountability,” said Conservative House Leader Candice Bergen.

It’s a predictable political-spin response from a member of the Opposition. But it’s also very hard, in the current context, to dispute her assertion.