“I don't like your jokes. The government should do more to help.”
What they said. What they meant.
Plain-language translations from the House of Commons.
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The House debated the impact on private property of the legal uncertainty created by the Cowichan Tribes v Canada court decision. Conservatives accused the Liberals of failing to swiftly and robustly appeal the ruling, contributing to public anxiety and economic disruption in B.C. Liberals argued they have taken appropriate steps to defend private property rights and accused Conservatives of sowing misinformation. Much of this debate was taken up by efforts to clarify and distinguish the positions of the two main parties on the issue, rather than concretely advancing the topic.
“The government's directive is good. It won't stop us from defending property rights. Show me a case where Canada should make arguments without evidence.”
“Everything the government does is good. Just read the whole directive. I won't list any actual problems.”
“You Liberals can't defend private property. Your own lawyers' hands are tied. Stop blaming us for your failure.”
“I'm glad you said 'viable argument'. See, we only make arguments that can win in court. We're defending property rights the way the Constitution says: in court, with strong arguments. Maybe look at what we actually agreed instead of falsely claiming it was secret.”
“I agree that those Conservatives are being mean and damaging reconciliation. Will you talk more about how bad their ideas are?”
“I don't like the Conservatives. They say mean things about indigenous people. We should work together, but the Conservatives won't.”
“I want everyone to know that this agreement with the Musqueam nation is a good thing. It doesn't give them any new rights. It just says they have rights, and we will keep talking about those rights later. Don't worry, private property is safe. This agreement won't change who owns what. It's just a nice way to say we will work together without fighting in court.”
“What the government calls fearmongering is actually families seeing their home values drop. People in my riding are paying more for mortgages and insurance because of this government.”
“The other party's motion is wrong and will scare people. Our government is doing the right thing. We will protect homes through the courts. But we will not help that other partisan motion spread fear about indigenous agreements. We support reconciliation.”
“I'm asking you to explain why we need to protect home ownership and obey the law at the same time as doing reconciliation. I want you to say both are important and we're doing it right.”
“We want to protect private property. The court said we didn't. So we're appealing. But let's not argue about it here.”
“You say 'all viable arguments'. But you're not using all arguments. The court already said you can't use your main argument. What other arguments will you use?”
“I'm filling time with kind words and saying nothing anyone could pin down later.”
“I want to look smart and lawyerly. I'm filling time with legal jargon that sounds complex and goes nowhere.”
“I don't want to answer that directly. Instead I'll just repeat what the agreements do and say they respect indigenous rights.”
“People in my riding are asking if we will protect their property rights. The government isn't giving clear answers. I want the government to clearly defend property rights and lay out a plan to undo the chaos and uncertainty their inaction has caused. Will the Prime Minister match his nice words about property rights with real action this time?”
“That motion says things I don't like. I want the Conservatives to stop making us look bad by talking about it. I'll say they're scaring people and hurting reconciliation, so maybe you'll all get scared and shut up.”
“You keep saying everything you don't like is misinformation. But this litigation guideline is real. It tells lawyers not to defend property rights. Saying that's misinformation means you're the ones misleading people. The Prime Minister could fix this, but he hasn't. You can't pretend the guideline isn't there just by calling everything you don't like misinformation.”
“The member before me just read talking points someone else wrote. He didn't even answer my question - he just read a scripted answer that ignored it. Now Liberals accuse us of fearmongering. But it's not fearmongering to say their policies made mortgages and insurance worse. They think they can ignore real people's problems by saying we're just scaring people. I think they should talk to the people paying those higher rates and ask how it really affects them.”