OTTAWA (AFP) – The Speaker of Canada’s House of Commons intervened to pause an unprecedented two-month deadlock that saw conservatives filibuster to try to force Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to release documents they hope would embroil him in a conflict-of-interest scandal.
Almost no business has been conducted during the fall session, and little more was expected, with parliament set to break for the holidays in just two weeks.
However, in a rare move, House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus suspended the stalemate for a few days starting tomorrow to allow lawmakers to vote on a key spending measure.
Such a whopping impasse had been previously unheard of in Canada, with observers saying it risked leading to snap elections that polls indicate Trudeau would likely lose.
Prior to the suspension, it was not certain whether lawmakers would pass any bills before their departure or spend any of the billions of dollars they are slated to disburse.
The held-up funding includes money for social services, disaster relief and support for Ukraine.
“This is new ground,” a former Cabinet secretary Wayne Wouters said of the deadlock. “I’ve never seen anything like this: filibustering going on for pretty well the whole fall session.”
Wouters noted that previously, an opposition MP would “get up and speak for two days to try and delay things, and then the government got on with normal business”.
Treasury Board President Anita Anand said departments were headed for a cash crunch if the spending was not approved before the Commons leaves for its six-week winter break.
“We need the House to function,” Anand said. The conflict-of-interest allegations at the centre of it all concern a discredited and mismanaged clean technology fund, which deals a major blow to the Canadian leader who has championed such climate action.
The fund was set up in 2001 to support companies developing environmentally friendly technologies.
