Liberals filibuster, then cancel, finance committee hearings on WE scandal

October 16, 2020

The cancellation comes one day after Liberal MPs filibustered the Finance Committee hearings for over 11 hours, much to the dismay of opposition MPs. NDP MP Alistair MacGregor commented “the longer this goes on, the more it looks like there is something to hide.”

Another NDP MP, Peter Julien, noted that “it is outrageous that over a thousand pages of documents that we asked for where wholly or substantially redacted, in other words censored, so that a committee in a democratic Parliament has actually been denied access to information that the committee has requested," according to Blacklock's Reporter.

The investigation by the Finance Committee began in July, but was ground to a halt when Justin Trudeau made an agreement with Governor General Julie Payette, who was facing her own scandal in regard to her treatment of employees, to prorogue parliament. The prorogation was criticized by opposition MPs, who suggested that the Trudeau government was trying to cover up the full extent of the WE scandal.

This is not the first time that the Liberals have abruptly cancelled hearings on the WE scandal. On October 8, the Liberal Finance Committee chair suspended a meeting when MP Poilievre put forward a motion related to the censorship of large portions of documents related to the WE scandal.

October 8, 2020

Such behaviour by Liberal MPs has not been limited to the Finance Committee, however. Conservative MPs seeking to have Liberal MPs testify before the Procedures and House Affairs Committee also saw their meetings abruptly cancelled.