French-speaking troops of the Régiment de la Chaudière push inland from Juno Beach toward Bény-sur-Mer on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Below, Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney, Bloc MP Louis Plamondon.Why did Stephen Harper’s Conservatives refuse to allow Members of Parliament from the Bloc Quebecois and Green Party to pay tribute to Canada’s war dead in the House of Commons?
On Nov. 2, Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney rose in the House of Commons
to mark the start of Veterans Week, leading up to Remembrance Day. The Conservative MP for Lévis-Bellechasse gave a good speech in French and English that remarked on how Canada’s two founding nations were once enemies on the Plains of Abraham and later “united to fight for the common cause of peace and freedom.”
The francophone minister closed by asking his colleagues how they would remember Canada’s war dead, and thanking them for doing so.
Mr. Blaney’s generous remarks were followed in order of Parliamentary precedence by short speeches by Peter Stoffer, the NDP MP for Sackville-Eastern Shore, and Sean Casey, the Liberal MP for Charlottetown.
At this point, the Interim Bloc Leader Louis Plamondon, MP for Bas Richelieu-Nicolet-Becancour, rose and told the Speaker, “on behalf of the Bloc Québécois and all of its members, I would also like to pay tribute to our veterans. …”
Alas, this was the moment that the members of our majority government demonstrated the disgraceful pettiness and inexcusable divisiveness that characterizes Mr. Harper’s so-called Conservative Party.
Unfortunately in this particular circumstance, the Standing Orders of the House do not permit MPs who are not a member of an official party to speak on such occasions without the unanimous consent of all the MPs present. With four seats and just one seat in the House respectively, both the Bloc and Green caucuses are too small to be officially designated parties.
So went the debate, according to Hansard:
The Speaker: Does the House give unanimous consent?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
Some hon. members: No.
The Speaker: There is no consent.
I commend the rest of this short passage from Hansard to you, dear readers, because it illustrates so clearly how our great country is slipping off the tracks now that this small-minded Conservative majority has their hands on the throttle of the locomotive in Ottawa. Have we really come to a place where any Member of Parliament can’t give a heartfelt tribute to the Canadians who gave their lives 
in the service of their country? With Mr. Harper in charge, the answer is clearly yes.
Reading between the lines, one can hear the genuine shock at this pointless slight in Mr. Plamondon’s subsequent remarks. Yet, given the opportunity to grow up and act with a little decency, the Conservatives refused again.
This is another drip in what is starting to seem like a torrent of petty and not so petty slaps at Quebeckers and their representatives by this government, which loudly asserts a very American style of fake patriotism yet is incapable of putting genuine patriotism ahead of partisan gamesmanship even on the most non-partisan of occasions.
Naturally, our tame and cowardly English Canadian media didn’t bother to report this insult at all.
A couple of days ago, I asked my Conservative MP in writing if he could explain this. I also asked Edmonton-Centre MP Laurie Hawn, who seems to be the party’s main spokesman in this region nowadays. To me, it would have been useful to know even that these elected Alberta representatives disapproved of the calls of their caucus colleagues – after all, there is not much you can do to silence someone in a house of debate, and no one knows who shouted “No” beyond the fact they were “some hon. members.” Alas, neither Conservative MP has responded.
As long as his colleagues hold a majority in the House of Commons, I see little reason to hope that the openness of spirit Mr. Blaney showed in his speech can prevail. If it doesn’t, we should all fear for the future of our country.
I suggested in this space the other day that these Conservatives apparently see Quebec versus the rest of Canada as the biggest and most glorious wedge issue they’ve ever stumbled upon.
It almost seems, as other patriotic Canadians are coming to fear too, that these Tories would be happy to split Canada any which way to gain a partisan advantage.
This is no way to honour the men and women who sacrificed their lives for Canada, whether they spoke to one another in French or English.
This post also appears on Rabble.ca.
Unanimous consent must be just that, unanimous. It only takes one voice, whether it be a Minister of the Crown or the most remotely-seated backbencher, to deny that consent. If the rules of the House of Commons require unanimous consent for an MP who is not a member of a "recognized party" in the House to speak in response to a Minister's statement, then there is little that can be done.
It is regrettable that an exception was not made in this instance, but the rules are the rules.
Perhaps this would be petty, but my first instinct would have been to deny unanimous consent for the moment of silence. If R-Day has become too political to allow small members to make a speech (that, let's face it, no-one will remember tomorrow), then perhaps we should just move on to further business.
While the role of the Bloc has been greatly diminished in Ottawa, if there comes a day when the Parti Quebecois can get an inspirational leader in Quebec, then Canada under Harper will face a potential struggle in another battle on Quebec separation from Canada.
That was a painful read from Hansard. That excerpt shows a nasty partisan use of Remembrance Day. I want a government all Canadians can rely on for basic manners, whether they have voted for them or not.
This is just the regular bully Conservative atittude and I would not expect anything different.
We just have to remember that this is the choice of 39% of our citizens. I am sure the other 61% do not approve this disgusting atittude. In the meantime Peter McKay makes these patriotic speeches in Afghanistan to all of our dead soldiers blah blah blah.
Furthermore veterans have to fight to get medical help once they come back with mental trauma with dire consequences for themselves and their families.
Our great minister of defence would be an invalid for the rest of his life if he was there in a real combat zone for a day never mind years.
The usual pathetic display of mental absurdity that we have been brain washed to accept.
David, are you saying that the rules of the house are to be ignored?
What next, the rule of law? it's a slipperly slope
Of course you COULD start a party, fund it with forced union membership dues and try to change the rules
BTW, thought this was an "Alberta Diary"