(Ottawa) Is the possibility of a public inquiry into foreign interference evaporating? Justin Trudeau on Wednesday accused the Conservatives of “blocking” the process at the negotiating table — which Conservative Andrew Scheer denied, saying the Liberals were no longer answering calls and emails.
It has now been about three weeks since the parties began talks on this. The negotiations, which Minister Dominic LeBlanc is leading on the government side, are taking place behind closed doors, and little information is leaking out.
According to the most recent echoes, the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Québécois had no dissatisfaction to communicate. And since the House of Commons adjourned for the summer season, there has been frequent talk of the imminent intervention of an agreement.
However, on Wednesday, Justin Trudeau seemed to send a discordant signal. “I hope so,” replied the Prime Minister when a journalist asked him if an announcement was to be expected in the coming weeks.
And after insisting last week on the need to obtain a consensus between all parties before kicking off any form of public process, this time he clearly alluded to a conservative blockage.
We could not make serious progress if the Conservative Party still refuses to participate or to accept the process we are putting forward. We are having very good conversations with the Bloc Québécois and the NDP, we are moving towards a consensus.
Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada at a press briefing in Saint-Hyacinthe
“But for the moment, it is the conservatives who continue to block the process,” he continued.
“So I hope to be able to announce the next steps soon, but it depends on establishing a consensus on the way forward for everyone, because otherwise we have seen that the Conservatives just want to destroy everything. […] and they will have to choose if they will continue to block, ”concluded the Prime Minister.
“The words are false”
PHOTO JUSTIN TANG, THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Conservative Party Parliamentary Leader Andrew Scheer
The parliamentary leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, Andrew Scheer, maintained that the Prime Minister’s comments were “unequivocally false”, and that in his camp, we were working “in good faith” and that an agreement “on conditions” loomed on the horizon.
He then returned the spotlight to the Liberals. “It was the Liberal government that consistently pushed back on our proposals and it was the Liberal government that stopped answering phones and emails this week,” he said in a written statement.
“It’s time for the Liberals to come back to the negotiating table and launch this investigation,” added the former leader of the Conservative Party, accusing the Prime Minister of “seeking[r] to blame everyone but himself”.
All opposition parties in Ottawa have been calling for a public inquiry for several weeks. The government had tried to calm things down by giving former Governor General David Johnston the mandate to make recommendations on the way forward, but it was a failure.