MP for Battle River-Crowfoot Damien Kurek made waves in the House of Commons by accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of being a liar and then being ejected by the Deputy Speaker.
The exchange took place on Wednesday, December 6, and erupted when debating Conservative Bill C-234 that would create an exemption for farmers on the Carbon Tax. The Senate was voting on an amendment that would remove the exemption, and the discussion got heated. Kurek accused the Prime Minister of attempting to sway the Senate.
“We know he bullied his Senators. The PM himself, was on the phone over the weekend telling them they had to gut Bill C-234. The Prime Minister lied ,and his minions continue to lie…” he said before his microphone was cut off.
Deputy Speaker of the House Chris D’ Entremont called for Order and twice asked Kurek to retract using the word “Liar” in his statement and apologize. He did not and was asked to leave for the remainder of the sitting day.
“When I said what I said, I knew I wasn’t going to back down, and I resolved to myself that I was simply going to say what I believe. Especially on an issue that is so important to the people I represent and frankly all Canadians,” he tells the Mail on Monday, December 11.
His frustration comes from not only feeling passionate about the bill and how it affects farmers and food prices but also the dynamics of the Senate. The bill in question was passed with support from all parties before it went to the Senate for debate. He said there was a good discussion in the Senate.
“When we started hearing from Senators that the Prime Minster and Environment Minister were reaching out to Senators directly saying this is against the intent of what the carbon tax was supposed to be,” he said
“It became very obvious that the government was applying a huge amount of pressure on the Senate to defeat this bill. When they saw that it couldn’t be defeated, they decided to gut it and take out all of the mechanism that would have made it beneficial for Canadians.”
He explains that for years, there has been advocacy for making the Senate independent, and in Alberta, the provincial government holds senatorial elections for the appointments. There have been attempts to make the Senate less partisan by the government, including no longer having a liberal caucus. Despite this, Kurek says there are still partisan lines.
“We talk about it being reformed, we talk about it as being all of those things, but we simply see that is not how it is acting,” said Kurek. “They talk a good game, they continue to talk a good game but that is simply not the reality.”
Kurek’s absence was short-lived as he was back in the house on Thursday, December 9 as the Conservatives forced the delay of business leading up to the holiday recess.
“… the Conservatives said we want this carbon tax carve out. If they are unwilling to negotiate with us, we’ll stop the clock,” he said. “There were 135 non-confidence votes, we voted for about 36 hours straight into Friday evening.”
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