Parliament up all night after Tory filibuster
Bergen says it's clear Liberals have something to hide
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/03/2018 (2196 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA — Manitoba MPs chowed down on fast food, slept on couches and practised their French during a 20-hour filibuster that kept the House of Commons sitting through all of Thursday night.
The Conservatives ended their marathon voting session Friday afternoon, after forcing members of Parliament to answer hundreds of roll calls in the House to force testimony from Justin Trudeau’s national security adviser over the prime minister’s recent trip to India.
Tory House Leader Candice Bergen, who represents Portage-Lisgar, launched the procedural trick that split budget-related spending into more than 250 confidence votes — each of which would trigger an election if the federal Liberals didn’t have enough votes to outweigh the opposition.
On Friday morning, an “exhausted” Bergen said her fellow Conservatives were running on pizza and doughnuts, while “the adrenalin keeps you going.”
“I was really hoping for KFC, but when I thought of it, they’d closed down, just past 10:30 p.m. Not that KFC is any healthier, but it was just going to, you know, give me that protein.”
The votes were retaliation for the Liberal government’s refusal to support a Conservative demand that national security adviser Daniel Jean be called to testify before a Commons committee, about a briefing he gave journalists during the prime minister’s ill-fated visit to India.
Jean suggested to reporters covering Trudeau’s trip this past month that rogue factions in the Indian government had sabotaged the visit. Since then, Opposition MPs demanded Jean explain his reasoning on how one-time Canadian Sikh separatist and convicted attempted murderer Jaspal Atwal was invited to a Trudeau event in India.
“It’s clear that they have something to hide; and the longer we go with this, I think the more that’s evident,” Bergen said, asking Jean brief a committee and share the information he gave journalists with the public. “It’s what Canadians deserve.”
The votes came roughly every seven minutes, and MPs have to be in the Commons both to hear each motion and then stand and be recognized, leaving them virtually no time to slip out of the chamber.
MPs took shifts, getting an hour-long break every six or seven hours to nap or eat, because only water can be consumed inside the Commons. Though men must wear suit jackets and ties, some unbuttoned their collars, while other MPs donned jumpsuits or sweatpants and used pillows.
On Friday morning, NDP MP Niki Ashton’s partner, Bruce Moncur, held one of their five-month-old twins in the Commons lobby, as Ashton took the other into the House. (The two are already used to operating on minimal sleep, Moncur quipped.)
Ashton’s NDP colleague, Daniel Blaikie, said he also got used to sleeping odd hours during 10-hour electrician shifts.
“I don’t have techniques I’d qualify as healthy; a lot of refined sugars and caffeine,” the Transcona-Elmwood MP said. Blaikie had been in the chamber 16 hours before capping it off with a 5:45 a.m. breakfast and nap.
He said it was worth trying to bring about transparency in the Atwal affair. “It’s perfectly legitimate for opposition parties to use the leverage they have in order to compel the government to do something.”
Winnipeg Centre Liberal MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette compared the late-night camaraderie to exercises during his military days.
“It’s actually quite fun,” said Ouellette, who had not eaten by hour 17 of the voting, in order to stay alert.
He claimed the votes were “very dangerous” because they could accidentally trigger an election.
He defended voting down a motion to have Jean testify about the Atwal incident.
“I’m not sure what they’re going to learn at committee; obviously, it’s highly partisan.”
Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said a “delicious” 4:30 a.m. cheeseburger with fries helped him get through the night, as did a half-hour of shuteye.
“A strategic nap can be very helpful,” the MP for Winnipeg South Centre said.
Upstairs, the Centre Block cafeteria staff rotated shifts, with the most sleep-deprived workers steering clear of the grill and instead manning the cash register.
It’s unclear how much the whole exercise cost taxpayers.
When the NDP pulled a 58-hour filibuster in 2011 against the then-Harper government, Bergen had claimed it cost roughly $50,000 an hour to keep the Commons running.
But she said Friday she wasn’t sure how much taxpayers would be on the hook for security guards, interpreters and changes to travel plans, as many MPs fly home Thursday evenings.
When Bergen ended the filibuster shortly before 3 p.m., the House calendar on the clerk’s desk finally flipped over to Friday, and the sitting wrapped up.
Kildonan-area MP MaryAnn Mihychuk emerged with a spring in her step, fuelled by chocolate-covered coffee beans. “I’m looking pretty good for 63 and no sleep,” she said.
“I think it showed determination, and that the Liberals have the strength to stick together, even when it seems pointless and a waste of time for professional people and a waste of taxpayer’s money,” Mihychuk said.
That was the exact criticism levelled by Brandon-Souris Tory MP Larry Maguire.
“The government’s got a cover-up here, there’s no debate about it,” he said, adding the “farmers’ hours” strengthened his caucus’ resolve.
Liberal MP Terry Duguid left the Commons toting a bag of Bits and Bites and said he was “tanked up on coffee,” as he practised his French.
But he was upset the filibuster had cancelled the health minister’s Friday visit to Winnipeg, where she was set to talk about opioids and tour the city’s microbiology lab.
“Our community was frankly disrespected,” Duguid said.
— with files from The Canadian Press
dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca