The appointment of an independent special rapporteur by the Trudeau government to look into Chinese interference did not calm the ardor of the opposition, giving rise to a real uproar during question period on Tuesday.
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Always first to speak during the exercise, the leader of the official opposition, Pierre Poilievre, accused Justin Trudeau of “hiding” Chinese interference for ten years and relying on a “secret” committee rather to launch a public inquiry.
“It follows the rules of [Las] Vegas: what happens in committee stays in committee,” he lamented.
Mr. Poilievre was repeatedly interrupted by House Speaker Anthony Rota, who sometimes looked like a day camp counselor trying to calm the kids down.
Predictably, Mr. Poilievre’s outings sparked howls in the Liberal benches.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc was careful to point out that the Conservatives had “done nothing” about Chinese interference when they were in power.
Government House Leader Mark Holland countered that his Conservative opponent was making Chinese interference a partisan issue.
“One of the things that we have as a tradition in this country is that when it comes to national security, we do not fall into political partisanship to trade blows,” he said.
Bloc member Alain Therrien dismissed this criticism out of hand.
“What liberals don’t understand is that this has nothing to do with opposing the government. This is not a story of one party versus another party. It is the public’s confidence in their electoral system that is at stake. What is at issue is that the dice should not be loaded in advance,” he said, saying in passing that Canada was considered a “banana republic, with all due respect for bananas” .
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh lashed out at both Liberals and Conservatives, accusing the former of wanting to avoid a public inquiry and the latter of wanting to make political points “on something as serious as our democracy. “.