The House of Commons' first week back after a break seems to be going well.
Just a day after the the Liberals faced a raucous question period filled with calls for the defence minister's resignation, a Conservative MP is calling "bullshit" on the Grits for shutting down a committee meeting.
The Hill Times reports the Procedure and House Affairs Committee's meeting ended abruptly on Tuesday after its chair, Liberal Larry Bagnell, effectively shut down a filibuster the NDP and Conservatives started in March in protest over proposed changes to Parliamentary rules.
Tory MP Scott Reid raised a point of order to interrupt Bagnell, according to the outlet, but the Liberal chair ignored him and walked out.
“I said ‘point of order’ before you pulled that shit,” Reid told Bagnell, the National Post reports.
“We are not adjourned or suspended. That’s bullshit, Mr. Chair. That is bullshit.”
Footage of Reid following Bagnell outside the room was taped on House cameras, complete with beautiful classical music.
The NDP and Tories' tag-team filibuster was started as an attempt to to prevent the Liberals from passing a motion that would impose a deadline on their study of proposed changes to the way the House conducts its business.
Shortly after Tuesday's drama, Reid put on notice a motion inviting Government House Leader Bardish Chagger discuss her party's proposed changes to Parliament's rules before the committee.
On Monday, the Liberals said they were abandoning some of the more contentious changes they had suggested in a "discussion paper" released in March, but they are still going ahead with others — including having the prime minister deliver all the responses in one question period each week.
"We will continue to move ahead with the specific commitments from our campaign platform, all of which will make the government more accountable, not less," Chagger said Monday.
The Tories say the government is seeking "licence" so that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has to show up for question period only "one hour, one day a week.”
With files from The Canadian Press
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