The Conservatives took a swipe at the Bloc Québécois on Tuesday, accusing them of being “lazy” people who refuse to do the opposition’s main job of holding the government to account “when it starts to get hot and then the sun comes out.”
“Let them sign letters and let the meetings happen! As they say: if you don’t want to help, at least don’t harm,” scolded Conservative deputy House leader Luc Berthold during a speech in the Commons foyer that he devoted mainly to this attack.
Mr. Berthold said he has sent the Bloc “at least ten requests for emergency meetings” for the health, finance, justice, national defence, ethics, public safety and natural resources committees since the parliamentary recess.
“Each time, the Bloc has preferred vacations to defending the interests of Canadians, and particularly Quebecers,” he added.
The meetings the Conservatives are trying to hold on a host of issues would be done under House rule 106(4), which requires a letter to be signed by four members of the committee from at least two political parties.
During question period, Mr. Berthold refused to explain why his leader, Pierre Poilievre, is ignoring repeated requests from his Bloc counterpart, Yves-François Blanchet, to debate.
And, four times rather than once, he sidestepped a question about whether he would accept the proposal for a debate.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet noted on X that the Conservatives “continue their denigration devoid of any content by multiplying the procedures”, that it must be deduced that any Conservative who takes a vacation is therefore lazy, and that Mr. Poilievre “takes refuge behind a wall of slogans and well-packed mud to escape me”.
“I doubt that the vast majority of Quebecers are naive enough to buy this nonsense,” he added, not without specifying that he is not on vacation and that he holds meetings “every day” on regional and national issues.
The Conservatives have maintained a large lead of about twenty points over the Liberals in voting intentions at the national level for over a year. However, they are struggling to make gains in Quebec, where they generally come in third behind the Bloc and the Liberals.
Polling aggregator Canada338 projects that Pierre Poilievre’s party would gain about three additional seats if an election is called.
The Conservatives hold nine seats in Quebec, while the Bloc holds 32. The Liberals have 34 and the New Democratic Party has only one. Independent MP Alain Rayes left the Conservative Party following the election of Pierre Poilievre. One seat also remains vacant, that of LaSalle — Émard — Verdun, where a by-election will be held on September 16.
Terrorism
On Tuesday, the Conservatives called for a meeting for the public safety committee to look into the case of a man with ties to a foreign terrorist group who managed to evade Canada’s selection process to immigrate to Canada and become a citizen.
Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, and his son, Mostafa Eldidi, 26, were arrested in Richmond Hill, Ont., on July 28 and face nine separate terrorism charges, including conspiracy to commit murder on behalf of the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Most of the charges relate to activities that allegedly took place in Canada, but the elder Eldidi is also charged with one count of aggravated assault outside Canada.
In court last week, both men denied the charges, but neither formally filed a response to the indictment.
Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer said the government’s silence on how two people with ties to a terrorist group managed to immigrate to Canada is “unacceptable” and demonstrates “a monumental failure” by the Trudeau government.
“Canadians have a right to know what happened. How this individual was able to enter Canada and obtain Canadian citizenship. Canadians also have a right to know whether […] “Other people in Canada with similar backgrounds have been allowed to enter our country,” he said.
In his speech, Mr. Berthold again referred to the Bloc Québécois. “This time, they cannot claim that it is not an emergency when the lives of Canadians are at stake,” he said.
The federal government has so far said very little about the matter.
Conservative MP and public safety critic Frank Caputo has written to Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc asking him to make public all details of the alleged terrorist plot, Scheer said.
He indicated that Mr. LeBlanc would be the first witness he wanted to call before the committee.