Recall Remembrance Day, when party leaders traditionally make short statements in the House of Commons to pay their respects?
The Harper Conservatives weren’t having any of that nonsense:
Conservative MPs have blocked efforts to allow Bloc Quebecois and Green Party MPs a chance to recognize the contribution of Canada’s veterans.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May tweeted this afternoon that the NDP had tried again to allow the independent MPs a chance to speak but were squashed.
Thursday, the Tories refused to give the Bloc and May the right to speak because hey didn’t have official party status.
Unanimous consent of the House would have permitted this common courtesy. It was refused on both occasions. The cowards who blocked those efforts, however, remain anonymous: not one of them had the courage or decency to place his or her name on the record.
Today it happened again. Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, rose to speak to the memory of Vaclav Havel, leader of Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, who died this past December.
Anonymous sitting Conservatives refused unanimous consent.
Some early Tweets:
Justin Trudeau:
Conservatives just refused to let party leader @ElizabethMay rise to pay tribute to Vaclav Havel. He was a champion of free speech. #irony
Journalist Susan Delacourt:
Commons just denied @ElizabethMay unanimous consent to speak about Vaclav Havel. sorry, that’s pathetic. #cdnpoli 15 minutes ago
Then journo Kady O’Malley weighs in:
Seriously, did someone in the House just object to @ElizabethMay giving a statement on Vaclav Havel? #hw
May responds:
@kady Yes they did. It only take one person and at least one or 2 CPC said no. Quite a tribute Havel’s memory. #hw
O’Malley:
I WANT NAMES. Seriously. Who said no? Show yourself, and explain your reasoning, please, anonymous MP(s) #QP
Elizabeth May replies:
.@kady #QP I wish I knew. I heard the voices and know they came from the CPC benches.
Pettiness, spitefulness, cowardice: this is what the House of Commons has descended into under the rule of Stephen Harper and his mob of uncultured, pitchfork-wielding yokels.
Need I point out that there will be at least three more years of this churlish behaviour by a governing party that nearly two-thirds of the voters rejected last May?
