Question period in the House of Commons was extraordinarily calm on May 1, contrasting with the previous day’s heated exchanges that led to Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre being expelled by the House speaker.
There was no cheering or yelling, as is customary, and even clapping before and after a party leader spoke was extremely muted or non-existent.
Mr. Poilievre started by asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about possible drug decriminalization in Montreal after the city’s health director suggested adopting the same policy currently in place in British Columbia.
Rather than directly answering the question, Mr. Trudeau brought up the previous day’s war of words.
“Mr. Speaker, let’s take a moment here to reflect on what occurred yesterday,” he said. “You had to censor the leader of the Opposition because he refused to withdraw his unparliamentary language. He was engaging in political attacks about a huge human tragedy in British Columbia.”
Mr. Poilievre pushed the prime minister on the number of deadly drug overdoses in B.C., which he estimated to be at least six per day, and called on Mr. Trudeau to reverse the legalization of hard drugs in the province, to hushed tones as Tory MPs did not jeer, cheer, or clap for their leader.
Mr. Trudeau avoided jumping into attacks for an extended period, as opposed to the previous day when from his second answer he started accusing Mr. Poilievre of courting extremists. As Mr. Poilievre kept pressing about whether the prime minister would end decriminalization in B.C., he reverted to attacks.
After around 13 minutes into question period, Mr. Trudeau repeated accusations he made the previous day that connected Mr. Poilievre to white nationalists and called for the Tory leader to denounce the group Diagolon.
“I wonder if he might take this opportunity to reassure Canadians that he does not support extremist white nationalist organizations like Diagolon nor wants their votes,” Mr. Trudeau said.
While the questions largely remained on the same themes and topics of the previous day’s question period, the tone of Mr. Poilievre, in particular, was far more calm and methodical in his questions, simply dismissing Mr. Trudeau’s accusations regarding white nationalists.
Mr. Trudeau replied by accusing Mr. Poilievre of consorting with white nationalists, listing the group Diagolon in particular, and called for the Conservative leader to denounce the group’s support.
“He shakes the hands of the leader of a white nationalist group that goes to actively court the support of the group’s members and thinks he can get away with it,” the prime minister said.
Mr. Poilievre said he “always condemn extremism and racism, including from the guy who spent the first half of his adult life as a practising racist, dressing up in hideous racist costumes so many times.”
Diagolon’s founder Jeremy MacKenzie released a statement saying that Mr. Poilievre had already denounced him over comments made about Mr. Poilievre’s wife and that the two were “not mutual friends.” Diagolon is the name of a fake country invented by Mr. MacKenzie, who broadcasts anti-government rhetoric through a podcast.
