The Magic Elbow

I thought, given all the bafflegab swirling around, I'd summarize what happened, in as short a manner as possible.

Information: Click here for the video.

BACKGROUND:

1- One of the big themes of the last parliament was the opposition (IE the Liberals and NDP) saying the Tories (then government) were abusing parliamentary power to force though bills.

2 - The supreme court ruled that our laws about euthanasia were unconstitutional and that the government had a year to change them. We received a 4 month extension on this, which ends on June 6th of this year.

RECENTLY:

3 - A government bill on air-Canada was nearly defeated when the opposition requested a vote at a time when they thought they had a majority of members inside the actual chamber.

4 - Likely as a response, the government announced it would change how the timetable of legislation is done (and hence, prevent #3 from happening again) but these methods would disempower the opposition in ways never seen before in Canada. This caused great anger among opposition parties, and, if I may inject my own opinion here, rightfully so.

YESTERDAY:

5 - Debate on euthanasia.

6 - The NDP, in what many think was an attempt to stall and delay (as protest against #4) milled about in front of their desks rather than getting to their desks in time for debate and voting.

7 - The Conservative Whip, Mr. Brown, entered the house of commons, and walked towards his desk, but was seemingly prevented from doing so by the gaggle of NDP MPs milling about.

THE INCIDENT:

8 - This went on for some seconds.

9 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saw this. He got up out of his seat, and as the video clearly shows, walked very forcefully towards the incident described in #7

10 - Trudeau grabs Mr. Brown by the arm

11 - Trudeau attempts to pull Mr. Brown out of the gaggle with a jerking motion

12 - The jerking motion caused Trudeau's elbow to come into contact with NDP MP Brousseau's chest.

13 - Brousseau can be seen on the video pulling back in some shock.

14 - Mr. Brown later says he told Trudeau to let him go

15 - Trudeau is seen walking back to his desk

16 - Not all members witnessed exactly what happened, and information began to disperse. MPs are seeing doing various things (including Brousseau talking to NDP leader Mulcair)

17 - After some seconds, Trudeau again approaches the area

18 - Trudeau very shortly gets into a shouting match with Mulcair. The two men (video) appear visibly angered, and some say they worried things would come to blows.

19 - MPs from all parties spill on to the floor and approach the area

20 - Speaker rises and calls for order

AFTER (in no particular order)

21 - Trudeau apologizes to the house for getting out of his seat.

22 - Brousseau claims she was assaulted by Trudeau,

23 - Some NDP MPs claim that Trudeau's apology is equal to the apologies given by domestic abusers. [citation]

24 - Opposition MPs take to social media to discuss what they saw; conclude is Trudeau was in the wrong.

25 - Huge incident, breaking news, and all that. (this is where we are now)




REVIEW

I want to look at where things went wrong, what went wrong, and what was wrong. This is why I've broken things down into numbered steps, to ensure that one thing and another do not get muddied up in one another.

First off, the worst part of all of this, the one thing that is most unforgivable, in my opinion, is the following:

4 - Likely as a response, the government announced it would change how the timetable of legislation is done (and hence, prevent #3 from happening again) but these methods would disempower the opposition in ways never seen before in Canada. This caused great anger among opposition parties, and, if I may inject my own opinion here, rightfully so. 

This is really a clear over-reaction to events, and is the single key event that sparked off everything. This is the event that made me decide to let my membership lapse. This is not sunny ways.

The next and most important thing is this:

9 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saw this. He got up out of his seat, and as the video clearly shows, walked very forcefully towards the incident described in #7

Trudeau was mad.
Trudeau was angry and acted out of anger.
And because of that anger, he did this:

12 - The jerking motion caused Trudeau's elbow to come into contact with NDP MP Brousseau's chest. 

Without knowing, or, at the time, caring.

When in the house of commons, (if you are an elected member) you are at work. At work (IE in public) you can not allow your anger to become so great that you - literally - accidentally assault  someone.

And let me be clear, this was an accidental assault. The video is extraordinarily clear on the matter, Trudeau did not storm over there intending to assault Brousseau. It happened because he got angry and careless.

There are a few things that I take away from this, and that I consider important in judging how others react.

A - Liberals need to accept Trudeau did wrong, and more important, the Liberal Party did wrong by trying to stifle debate. These are truly draconian steps being proposed, and these steps are what caused this whole kerfuffle in the first place. Failure to accept that the party is in the wrong on matter #4 can be explained by no logic except pure partisanship.

B - Tories need to accept that it is because of their erosion of the powers of parliament - which I accept may have been continuing a trend that started with the previous government, and the one before that, and the one before that etc - is what allowed #4 to even be considered. The party just spent a decade in government eroding the power of Parliament, for them to suddenly be it's defenders is preposterous. Again, there is no logic to explain such a point of view except pure partisanship.

C - New Democrats need to accept that the assault was not intentional. It happened, yes, but for anyone to claim it was Trudeau's intent to elbow another MP in the chest (frankly a bizarre thing to do for someone known for punching a senator in the face) is again, without logical foundation, and again, pure partisanship.

D - Your party can do wrong, and the other parties can do right. Beyond the damage done to Parliament and the physical and emotional damage to Brosseau, the worst thing to come out of this is the flare up of such partisanship. Excuse me for using this 'soap box' to 'rant' on this issue, but if you honestly think your party can do no wrong and the other parties can do no right, you have no business being here. I write this blog for people who are actually interested in politics, and who care about this country, and the world. I do not write this blog for people who are willingly blind to reality so that they can feel comfortable in the little ideological box they've created for themselves.



Lastly. Lets hope this kind of nonsense never happens again. Too many things went wrong to lead us to here, and each of them was easy enough to avoid, that none of this should have happened.