It is again on the theme of the decriminalization of drugs, but with a much calmer tone, that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre marked his return to the House of Commons, in Ottawa, from which he was excluded from the debates the day before .
“Will the Prime Minister impose the same chaos on Montreal that he imposed on British Columbia? “, asked the leader of the opposition, in French, as his first question to the government.
He was referring to the request of the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, to decriminalize the simple possession of drugs in the metropolis, like a pilot project attempted in British Columbia, now called into question.
Mr. Poilievre has already attacked Mayor Plante, called “incompetent” earlier this year, and now attacks this decriminalization project in British Columbia every day, described Tuesday as “crazy politics [de] this crazy prime minister. » (“wacko”, in English). This insult, which he refused to withdraw, caused him to be excluded from the House of Commons for the day. All conservative elected officials left the assembly in solidarity.
The Conservative leader quickly transcribed these words on his social networks on Tuesday, saying he was muzzled. However, he did not repeat them in the House on Wednesday.
For his part, Justin Trudeau referred to the events, asking to “take a moment to reflect” on what had happened. Basically, he indicated that Quebec had not proposed such a drug decriminalization project to him, but that if it did, he would consider it.
Always accusations
Although the questions from the Conservative benches were sent much more calmly than the day before, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not change the content of his answers.
He once again accused his conservative rival of collusion with white supremacist groups, after a visit to the Atlantic to a camp of demonstrators inspired by the Ottawa Freedom Convoy.
“It is once again false, Mr. President,” Pierre Poilievre simply repeated.
All day Wednesday, Liberal MPs and ministers criticized Mr. Poilievre’s bravado against the Speaker’s rules, which led to his expulsion the day before. Many saw it as an affront to democratic institutions.
“Unworthy of leading a democracy,” according to Quebec lieutenant and Minister of Transport Pablo Rodriguez, the conservative leader “must stop acting like a child,” chanted Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly.
“You will have noticed that there is another leader who did this [briser les règles des institutions], who walked out of a court in New York, saying he was muzzled. Mr. Poilievre is coming out with pretty much the same playbook as the extreme populist right everywhere in the world,” chanted Government and House Leader and Member of Parliament for Gatineau, Steven MacKinnon.
More details will follow.