That incident is back.
You know the one, the prime ministerial smash and grab, or as I prefer, the five o’clock follies.
Remember how it consumed the political conversation, how it prompted Conservative and NDP MPs to sputter and shake their heads in horror, and how only a referral to the Procedure and House Affairs committee could deliver the punishment that was so deserved?
Well, the committee met this week, and before it was this thunderous statement from NDP member Ruth Ellen Brosseau, the “elbowee”:
“It left many members stunned and raised important questions about the conduct of the prime minister.”
So what did the committee do about this apparent affront to democracy?
Absolutely nothing, which was the appropriate response to one of the great overreaches of parliamentary theatre.
By whatever name, it is now officially gone, never to be spoken of again, best forgotten.
In the same way that alcohol-fuelled passions fade in the cold light of day, the members dispatched this as quickly as they could, saying as little as they could.
If they could have agreed on one collective action, it probably would have been to shift uncomfortably in their chairs and look at their shoes. Everyone realized this had gone a little too far.
What was such an outrage only two weeks ago was, by the end of the committee meeting, no biggie.
Gone was the grave concern of Conservative MP Mel Arnold about Justin Trudeau’s facial expressions. Arnold apparently was aghast about the raised prime ministerial eyebrow, his occasional blink and what that could do to safety and decorum in the House of Commons, not to mention democracy itself.
Cast aside were the thundering accusations of NDP MP Nikki Ashton, that the incident was an attack on women in general, and that no longer could any female MP feel safe from the violent misogyny of the prime minister.
And what of the “victim statements” that another Conservative thought was necessary to fully understand this nightmare of random wild-eyed violence. It too was cruelly overlooked by the committee.
NDP member David Christopherson simply said that apologies, three of them, have been made by Justin Trudeau, and now it’s time to move on and study this no more. That would be the same Christopherson who summoned his inner 14-year-old to join a fun game of Red Rover on the floor of the House that precipitated everything that followed.
He and fellow cool kids Tom Mulcair and Ruth Ellen Brosseau formed a human blockade to prevent the Conservative whip Gord Brown from walking up the aisle to begin a vote.
No wonder he doesn’t want it studied anymore. He and his gang might be implicated in a breach of parliamentary privilege.
But that would only encourage the story to continue.
Chances are good that this whole affair has qualified for the top ten list of political embarrassments for everyone, from the prime minister to the opposition, and right on down to the committee that was going to set things right in the world again.
You’re darn right none of them want to revisit it.
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