Two witnesses stormed out of a parliamentary committee meeting on July 31, after Liberals tried to steer a planned discussion about violence against women towards the topic of abortion rights.
The rare summer hearing of the House of Commons status of women committee was organized so MPs could hear from advocates and a deputy chief of the Peel Regional Police.
Though witnesses set out to sombrely argue that the current justice and bail system is failing victims, the session quickly derailed into a mess of political bickering.
During an opening statement, Cait Alexander, who heads up the advocacy group End Violence Everywhere, shared her personal story as her family looked on in a public seating area.
“I’m supposed to be dead,” she said, showing MPs graphic photos of abuse she suffered at the hands of her ex-boyfriend three years ago.
“If you haven’t met a survivor and a victim’s family, well, now you have.”
Before long, MPs were answering to Alexander’s family for a partisan display that descended into procedural chaos. Her mother, frustrated, told the Liberal instigator that she was “disappointed,” and the whole thing amounted to another instance of abuse.
It began just a few minutes after opening statements from Alexander, advocate Megan Walker and deputy police chief Nick Milinovich, and after a first question-and-answer round for Conservative MP Michelle Ferreri.
Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld was given the floor next. After making a brief statement about the federal government taking the issue seriously, she chastened Conservatives for politicizing the issue and accused them of leaving little time for other parties to prepare—and no ability to recommend witnesses.
“We do not use victims and survivors of trauma to try and score political points in this committee,” she pronounced.
“I think it’s cruel to have people relive the trauma that they’ve endured just to be able to have a meeting that if it’s not agreed to, then there’s all kinds of social media that Liberals or others don’t care about this issue, which, as we all know, we do very deeply.”
Instead of pivoting back to discussing the topic at hand with witnesses, Vandenbeld went on to move that the committee instead resume a different discussion about abortion rights.
The witnesses, left hanging, began heckling Vandenbeld.
Alexander held up the photos of her wounds again. Walker, visibly upset, said: “This is the problem. Did she listen to anything that was said this morning?”
The microphone was not handed back to them. Instead, a lengthy back-and-forth between MPs ensued, with multiple points of order brought to the chair.
NDP MP Leah Gazan accused the Conservative committee chair, Shelby Kramp-Neuman, of failing to give her the floor and favouring her Tory colleague instead.
“The fact that my voice is being silenced in the committee after not having an opportunity to put in witnesses is deeply offensive, deeply violent and deeply troubling,” Gazan said.
“I’m disgusted because I wasn’t given a chance to put forward witnesses when I’m representing Ground Zero for murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.”
Not long after that, Alexander stormed out of the room in tears. Walker turned her back on the committee and followed.
Conservative MP Anna Roberts said she was “disgusted in this whole day,” and apologized to the two.
Ferreri blasted Vandenbeld and said the victims came to testify in order to bring about “legitimate change.”
She said the committee should hold more meetings on the topic to hear from other witnesses, and apologized to Alexander’s mother, who stood behind the witness table.
“‘Sorry’ isn’t good enough—we’ve heard ’sorry,'” Alexander’s mother responded.
The meeting adjourned shortly thereafter.
