Convoy of Truckers | A stormy parliamentary return

(Ottawa) The federal deputies made their parliamentary return on Monday, and they seemed to want to compete with the level of decibels generated by the concert of horns of the convoy installed for four days in front of the parliament. Acerbic exchanges marked the first question period of the year in the House, which Justin Trudeau attended virtually, as he tested positive for COVID-19.

Melanie Marquis
The Press

The table was set for an extraordinary return to Parliament Hill in Ottawa. MPs had been warned by the Sergeant-at-Arms that “safety plans” were in place for those returning to work in person after the holiday break. From early morning on Wellington Street, the horns roared and the smell of diesel wafted through the air.

The Prime Minister, who they are angry with, returned the favor when he addressed Canadians. He did so from his second home on Lac Mousseau, in Gatineau Park, where he had been sent on the weekend for security reasons – and where he will remain isolated for a while, having received, like two of his three children, a positive test result for COVID-19.

“Canadians were shocked and frankly disgusted by the behavior of some people who demonstrated in our national capital,” he said at the microphone.

“We will not give in to those who fly racist flags, we will not give in to those who commit vandalism or dishonor the memory of our veterans,” hammered Justin Trudeau, saying that it is “not grumbling » as does « a marginalized minority » that we will end this pandemic, but well « by getting vaccinated ».

With this full-throttle charge, the Prime Minister wanted to condemn the use of hate symbols, such as the swastika, the desecration of the National War Memorial, as well as the fact that protesters stole meals intended for people without fixed address by knocking on the door of the Shepherds of Hope.

Acrimonious debates in the House

The Conservatives saw it as a divisive tactic, and they responded to it during question period.

From the beginning to the end of the exercise, the exchanges were stormy.

“I would ask the Prime Minister, who, may I remind the House, wore the blackface more times than he can remember, to apologize to the peaceful, patriotic Canadians out there who are just waiting to be heard? Will he talk to them? “, for example, launched the deputy leader of the Conservative Party, Candice Bergen.

Before her, her leader Erin O’Toole had also urged Justin Trudeau to listen to truckers.

Rather than undertake to do such a thing, his interlocutor asked the members of the convoy to pack up. “What we need is for people to go home. Their message got through,” suggested the Prime Minister.

In the Liberal benches, the Conservatives were invited to make the same call, but to no avail.

New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh also believes that the “freedom convoy”, whose pilots are “obviously far right people”, must stop paralyzing downtown Ottawa. They have sufficiently “exploited people’s frustration”, he decided Monday morning at a press conference on the platform Zoom.

The presence of this procession of vehicles forced the closure of many businesses, some of which were to reopen their doors on Monday under the relaxations announced by the provincial government of Doug Ford. The latter has not yet said if he wants the truckers to leave, but his Ottawa-area MP, Lisa MacLeod, has asked the protesters to “go home”.

In the federal capital, parliamentary work must continue on Tuesday, despite the presence of demonstrators, whose fate is unclear. On Monday, elected officials were present in large numbers, in person, in the House of Commons. No incidents were reported.