Canada's Parliamentary Democracy Revised

"There's been no justification from the very beginning for shutting down Parliament completely."

"What the Liberals have been doing with regards to essentially derailing Parliament goes against everything they promised in the 2015 election campaign about open, honest and accountable government."

"The New Democratic Party forgot the middle part of their name in rolling over and supporting the Liberals in this undemocratic move."

Duff Conacher, co-founder, Democracy Watch

"Four hours [given under the Liberals new closed Parliament to debate the massive debt incurred by the public aid package] for that amount of money [roughly estimated at $260 billion] is virtually nothing." 

"It's a bit surprising given all the measures the government has been introducing."

Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks and is projected onto large screens as he takes part in the COVID-19 Pandemic Committee in the House of Commons on May 27, 2020. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

 At a time when the entire nation is caught up in the grips of a global pandemic, where a highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19 has resulted in a nationwide lockdown, huge unemployment, a devastated economy and massive borrowing, the country's prime minister, Justin Trudeau has seen fit to sequester himself for months, appearing only before reporters for a daily press conference outside the front steps of the temporary official residence to give updates mostly focusing on how his government has generously decided to sprinkle money at affected groups.

Where some demographics have been identified as in dire financial straits due to job loss and loss of opportunities for working students to pay for tuition, and temporary foreign workers awaiting the results of refugee claims, and seniors struggling with higher lockdown costs have been given relief funding. There has been no oversight, those who make application for the weekly deposits to their bank accounts need give no proof of need and even those on social assistance can apply for CERB [Canada Emergency Relief Benefit].

An estimated total of $150 billion in emergency funding, most of it representing borrowed finances that will add massively to Canada's deficit represents a government response to the emergency situation Canada finds itself in resulting from the overall lockdown of industry, business, trade and any commercial transactions in the initial effort to control the runaway viral outbreak. Because of the outbreak, Parliament's regular sittings were suspended, but for skeleton sittings. The Liberal government has been shielded from questions by the opposition.

In very fact the Liberal government of Canada, re-elected as a minority government, has been governing as though there is no opposition, in a manner that is more akin to a dictatorship than a parliamentary democracy. In effect, Justin Trudeau has succeeded in undermining parliamentary accountability by suspending Parliament until mid-September. An action supported by the NDP opposition and opposed by the official opposition party, the Conservative Party of Canada.

In a little traditional game of quid pro quo, the NDP extracted a price for its support, as part of its socialist platform the Liberals were only too happy to accede to, to gain the votes it needed to pass the suspension of Parliament but for a few special hearings on COVID-19. The prime minister who speculated once on his admiration for Beijing and the Communist Party of China to turn matters around on a dime, has finally manipulated a situation during a crisis emulating that of the CPC, bringing Canada to the status of 'your basic dictatorship'.

The motion to suspend Parliament until September 21 passed with the assent of the New Democratic Party, which obviously gave short shrift to its own namesake values. Giving the Liberal government the cover it wanted to sidestep scrutiny of the emergency spending launched by the government. Which has proven to be as much an opportunity for popularity and vote-buying for the Liberals as it has been to support Canadians facing economic difficulties during the COVID epidemic.

The vote passed 28-23, representing those elected Members of Parliament who were in the House of Commons in the much-diminished Parliament. As for Parliament not operating as it should, during this time of the pandemic, it's passing strange that elected Parliamentarians cannot do what they were elected for, while people working in hospitals, grocery stores and other employees deemed vital to the situation are managing to serve the public while observing safe distance, but high-paid MPs cannot.

With the passing of the motion, the dangers the Liberals face of a no confidence vote in their minority status cannot occur. A special COVID-19 committee is slated to continue meeting into June without the powers of Parliament, where opposition parties are able to do what they too were elected for. The four-hour limit set aside for one sitting to enable opposition questioning of the government's emergency agenda, came under criticism by Aaron Wudrick, director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, leaving the government spending programs free to continue as the government wishes without accountability.

"There's just no reason for them [the Liberals] to do it this way, except that they don't want to be bothered with basic parliamentary accountability" he noted. "These are historical changes to program spending. MPs cannot scrutinize in a proper way" -- the spending proposals within a four-hour window -- observed Kevin Page, founding president, Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy and formerly Canada's first Parliamentary Budget Officer.

A Convergence of Circumstances : New Canadian MDs in Abeyance at a Critical Time of Need

"These are not medical students. These are fully trained doctors at the end of their training."
"Everything should be done to ensure they can practise medicine and care for patients in the face of this pandemic."
Dr.Emily Stewart, President, Resident Doctors of Canada

"We are a resource in this time of need that could be mobilized on an expedited basis. We can help, please let us."
"[With the delay announcement] our futures became uncertain. The futures of the Canadian physician supply chain became uncertain."
Concerned Family Medicine Residents

Tyler Anderson, National Post

Over two thousand Canadian doctors freshly schooled in medicine and its practise are reacting with disbelief at the news that their final exams to certify them have been suspended as a result of yet another reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic which has seen governments mandate stringent measures on ensuring that people do not gather in large numbers in fear of the novel coronavirus transmission.

Finishing two to five years of on-the-job training in their fields, the residents must pass exams to enable them to be qualified by either the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (for specialists), or the College of Family Physicians of Canada (for general practitioners). Both of these agencies have announced that the exams are to be delayed; written tests and face-to-face evaluations in view of the risk of spreading the virus.

Tentative plans are for the rescheduling of the March exams to the last week of April and early May for the Royal College, as long as the situation does not further deteriorate dramatically. Provincial regulators are being pushed by the two colleges and the residents' association to issue provisional licenses to enable the new physicians to get into practise, while awaiting the final exams.

Processing that many temporary licenses in one fell swoop has never occurred previously, but these are unusual times. There is an absolute and express need for more doctors to be able to join the medical community in view of dire shortages of both medical personnel and equipment to handle the growing epidemic of viral transmission. Yet having finished medical school, the students are considered doctors who must still undergo five-year residencies to become specialists and two-year programs to qualify as family practitioners.

Medical staff work at a computer terminal as they prepare for the opening of the COVID-19 Assessment Centre at Brewer Park Arena in Ottawa, during a media tour on Friday, March 13

Once the specialty exams have been passed, the college of physicians and surgeons in each province then awards the licenses permitting doctors to practise independently. The two certifying bodies are adamant that they cannot safely conduct exams bringing large numbers of residents and evaluators together, given the federal government's recommendation that Canadians isolate themselves.

"To quickly adopt a new exam delivery process with no previous logistics plan is extremely complex and risks the validity of the exam", explained Bruce Kvern of the College of Family Physicians, though they are exploring the potential of other options for the exams to be completed expeditiously, outside of using Internet-based technology to have the exams remotely held.

For security and technical reasons, it is not envisioned that the four-hour written test could be delivered at  home, while the oral portion is a multi-station process with the resident interacting with a mock patient posed by a practising family doctor in an evaluative procedure.