Hon. Denise Batters: Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Senator Gold, I want to ask you about the Trudeau cabinet scandal of the week — not this week’s scandal involving the PMO coercing the RCMP commissioner’s interference in a mass murder investigation for crass political gain. No, I want to ask about public safety minister Marco Mendicino’s self-serving habit of playing fast and loose with the facts — specifically, his repeated assertion that the Emergencies Act was invoked at the request of the police. This repeated assertion was flatly denied in testimony by the RCMP commissioner and the current and former Ottawa police chiefs, who all said they did not ask for the act to be invoked.

Senator Gold, I feel for you. Not being a member of cabinet, you are forced to take Minister Mendicino at his word — a word that has time and again proven to be utterly false. As you said at the time, you had no direct knowledge of the Trudeau government’s Emergencies Act decision because you don’t have the clearance, nor did any of the many senators who relied on the public safety minister’s word when debating the serious matter of invoking the Emergencies Act in this chamber.

Senator Gold, Minister Mendicino knowingly misled Parliament multiple times, and that is a resigning offence. When will this minister, who habitually obfuscates, finally do the right thing and resign?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Leader, the Trudeau cabinet currently has a public safety minister who misled Parliament on multiple occasions over why he invoked the Emergencies Act. They have a Service Canada minister giving Canadians seeking a passport some of the worst service imaginable. There’s a foreign minister who blames her official attending a party at a Russian embassy on a missed email, a transport minister who blames passengers for the long lineups at our airports and an immigration minister presiding over a backlog of 2.4 million applicants, which must be a record, leader. This is all just in the last few weeks.

Leader, is anyone in the Trudeau cabinet competent at their job? If so, who?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question, in which there are a lot of assertions and conclusions. It was made clear that Minister Mendicino’s remarks were not properly interpreted. It is the position of the government, as it was my position in speaking to the invocation of the act, that it was necessary. It was made clear by the advice that was taken from all quarters that the tools that only the Emergencies Act allowed were necessary to address a serious challenge to our national security and economy.