Former Trudeau cabinet minister Catherine McKenna has come out on the side of authoritarianism, claiming the democratic rights of MPs are “not absolute.”
McKenna’s comments come in response to Conservative MP Mark Strahl’s firm stance against vaccine mandates for parliamentarians.
“I know it’s kind of quaint — archaic, maybe — to talk about parliamentary privilege during a pandemic, but it’s been upheld through many crises … We’d better be very, very careful that we don’t cavalierly toss it aside,” said Strahl.
“…There should be options for people who just feel they cannot take a vaccine,” he continued.
“This is absurd,” McKenna tweeted in response. “The individual privileges of members aren’t absolute. There are rights that extend to Members collectively — e.g. right to work in a safe environment (for staff too).”
One Conservative MP says unvaccinated MPs should be allowed in the House.
This is absurd. The individual privileges of members aren't absolute. There are rights that extend to Members collectively – eg right to work in a safe environment (for staff too). https://t.co/NlvuWGBhA7
— Catherine McKenna 🇨🇦 (@cathmckenna) October 13, 2021
She went on to tweet, “If MPs don’t want to get vaccinated, they should join the House of Commons virtually. They can exercise their privilege that way — without endangering others. It’s not all about you.”
In both tweets, McKenna can be seen using a bit of semantic trickery to shift the conversation regarding the rights of the unvaccinated so that they become more pliable.
While parliamentary privileges are called privileges, the term refers to “the rights and immunities that are deemed necessary for the House of Commons, as an institution, and its members, as representatives of the electorate, to fulfill their functions.”
Basically, parliamentary privileges protect the ability for an elected representative to represent Canadians in Ottawa. When a vote is called in the house — they are even immune to traffic light laws.
The point is to prevent administrative interference against the opposition – the very thing McKenna is attempting with vaccine mandates.
McKenna, a former MP, would know this but chose to frame things differently.
By framing democratic rights, such as the right to pursue labour, as mere privileges, McKenna makes it sound like rights are just good-boy points that are granted and removed based on behaviour — or health status — rather than being unalienable and foundational to a free society.
While McKenna, fortunately, chose not to run in the 2021 election, she still commands a large following of 158,000 on Twitter alone — quite large for a Canadian MP — and her influence and connections remain far-reaching.
Moreover, McKenna’s comments are highly indicative of the real-time shift occurring in Canada, with more and more politicians and public figures bearing their teeth against freedom, only too happy to see the ostracism of their countrymen.
