On this new parliamentary day in Ottawa, the Liberals wasted no time in launching hostilities against their Conservative opponents. The battleground: medical exemptions for unvaccinated Conservative MPs.
“It’s unlikely that there are (that many) medical exemptions. […]. It does not make sense, ”suspected Mark Holland, the government House leader, during a press briefing Monday morning.
Even though he ignores the number of medical exemptions obtained by the Conservatives – Chief Erin O’Toole refuses to provide that number – Mr. Holland submits that any number above one would not be credible. To justify his reasoning, he cites the statistics: between one and five people in 100,000 would be entitled to a medical exemption in order not to be vaccinated against COVID-19. And there are only 119 Conservative MPs in Ottawa.
Mr. Holland therefore proposes that the Board of Internal Economy, the committee made up of members who imposed compulsory vaccination for access to parliamentary buildings, specify that only the six or seven medical exemptions recognized by the Ontario health authorities can be invoked.
Doctor’s notes should therefore be cross-checked against this list.
The Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party (NDP) say they agree with the approach proposed by the Liberals. “I have concerns, I have doubts with the Conservatives,” NDP leader Jagmeet Singh explained at his media briefing following Mr. Holland’s.
“It is imperative that the Conservatives be transparent on this subject,” added the parliamentary leader of the Bloc Québécois, Alain Therrien, in a written statement.
Members of all political parties on Parliament Hill are fully immunized, apart from an unknown number of Conservative members. An elected Liberal who had invoked a medical exemption during the election campaign has since received her vaccines. His medical condition would have changed, according to Mr. Holland’s report.
The situation has become particularly complicated for the Conservatives since one of their own, Beauce MP Richard Lehoux, announced that he had contracted COVID-19. Mr. Lehoux participated with his colleagues in two days of caucus meeting last week.
He will not be able to be in the House on Monday. All the deputies and senators by his side Wednesday and last Thursday were to pass a screening test before returning to their occupations. The unvaccinated had, according to health rules, to quarantine.
The Conservative Party of Canada still refuses to say which of its MPs did not get their two doses – for medical reasons.
First parliamentary exercises
The session opens on Monday with the election of a new president. Governor General Mary Simon will read the Speech from the Throne in the Senate on Tuesday.
Liberal MP Anthony Rota, Speaker of the House of Commons throughout the last session, could be re-elected after deftly managing to lead the Commons through the first three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in a new hybrid format that gave MEPs the opportunity to participate virtually in the proceedings.
But presidential elections, in which MPs vote by preferential and secret ballot, can be unpredictable. Mr. Rota faces three Conservative MPs – Marc Dalton, Chris d’Entremont and Joël Godin – as well as another Liberal MP, Alexandra Mendès, and New Democrat Carol Hughes, both of whom were vice-presidents in the last session.
Green MP Elizabeth May is also in the running, but she said in an interview on Sunday that she believes Mr Rota deserves re-election. As a candidate, however, she has the option of delivering a five-minute speech, which she intends to use to draw attention to what she sees as a major mistake made by various presidents over the past 40 years: to allow party whips to dictate who has the right to speak in the Commons.
Only Members who will be in the House will be able to vote for the Speaker.
The House will then have to decide whether or not to resume the hybrid sittings. The Liberals plan to table a motion to that effect as early as this week. They know that the New Democrats and the Greens agree with the return of hybrid mode; the Bloc and the Conservatives are opposed to it.
Liberal priorities
By the holiday break, the Liberals hope to pass four bills: new, more targeted support measures related to COVID-19, criminalization of protests against healthcare workers, implementation of 10 paid sick leave in companies under federal jurisdiction, and the ban on conversion therapy. Mr. Holland says he is counting on the “good faith” of all parties to move forward with these pieces of legislation.
Mr. Singh assured him of his support for three of the four bills. The NDP is wary of the one on the new support measures related to COVID-19, because they put an end to other measures that Mr. Singh wants to see maintained.
The Government House Leader was unable to confirm whether other bills promised in the first 100 days, such as the modernization of the Official Languages Act, will be tabled as promised.