'Tent of Commons' :rofl:
Rex Murphy: We now have two national crises, and Parliament has abdicated its responsibility
Suspending the House of Commons during the COVID-19 pandemic and a horrifying crisis in the care of Canada's elderly is utterly reprehensible
Breaking news: “The Trudeau government announced, following the grim revelations about long-term care in Canada, that Parliament will be recalled in a special emergency session to deal with the scandal of abuse and neglect of its elderly citizens. ‘Parliament must weigh in,’ said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, ‘on the savage neglect of its old people. Thousands of our seniors have been abused, neglected and died. Parliament must explore this national shame.’ ” Except that didn’t happen.
That’s what everyone should have been reading Wednesday morning. What was the headline you were reading? Trudeau and Singh make deal to neuter Parliament till Sept. 21.
First, great thanks to the Canadian military for being swift and direct and effective in declaring what they saw in nursing homes. Thank God they are not “suspended” until September. There is honour left in at least one Canadian institution.
Second, we have the information now on Ontario’s LTC. Quebec’s should come next, and there is no reason to think it won’t have its alarms, too. Third, it will be a real shock if in the rest of the provinces and the territories there is not some variant of this utter scandal in the treatment of the old. Premiers have a massive responsibility. But let us not have the “jurisdictional” question cloud what is a general and national shame.
It may not be the biggest scandal we have seen, but it is surely, in the root sense of the word, the most pathetic. In other words the one that most wounds our hearts. Those who have lived the longest, and by some measure contributed the most, are the most abused. This is a matter for the national conscience.
Therefore, it is really far past time that the gutting and sidelining of Canada’s Parliament, the castration of the House of Commons, during what is now a double crisis — COVID-19, and the care of the elderly — be blasted and condemned for the shameless and cowardly abdication of debate and accountability that it is.
Mr. Trudeau has been indoors in a cottage for 50 plus days. His morning standups under the Tent of Commons have passed the tedious stage, passed dreary, passed repetitive, clichéd and annoying. They are as useless as they are arrogant. And that’s a high bar on both. One person, even a PM, is not a government.
Trudeau is either scared of the House of Commons, or he has no regard for it. Perhaps it’s both.
The prime minister is not acting as a prime minister should, or should be allowed to. He has not the right to end the deliberative and accountability functions of Parliament.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-we-now-have-two-national-crises-and-parliament-has-abdicated-its-responsibility?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1vX0GxSAlaWCBHoJ2RBkdm6FUHZtFagz0um9ID64Nm3aPR5UFj05uBD9w#Echobox=1590601438