Elbowgate

Justin Trudeau as he grabs the arm of Conservative whip Gord Brown

Elbowgate was an incident in which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was accused of having "manhandled" two opposition members of parliament—one Conservative and one NDP—in the House of Commons on May 18, 2016. It took place as opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) sought to delay a closure motion on the final reading of Bill C-14, a bill to amend the Criminal Code to allow physician-assisted death.^[1][2] Numerous MPs, including Green Party leader Elizabeth May, have suggested that Trudeau's actions may be explained by the time-sensitive nature of this bill, which had to be passed before the Supreme Court invalidated certain sections of the Criminal Code that could have put voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted death in a legislative grey area.^[3]

Incident

As the Conservative Party's chief opposition whip Gord Brown was moving down the opposition side of the aisle toward his seat, three NDP members of parliament—Ruth Ellen Brosseau, David Christopherson, and NDP leader Tom Mulcair—attempted to block his path in an effort to delay the vote. Custom has it that, before a vote begins, the government and official-opposition whips walk into the House together after the bell has rung, walk up the aisle on their own sides, then sit down after bowing toward the Speaker and each other.^[4]

The government whip, Liberal MP Andrew Leslie, and Government House Leader, Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc, had walked down his side of the aisle, but Brown was unable to move past at least the three NDP MPs.^[4] In interviews with CBC News, Green Party leader Elizabeth May affirmed that the NDP members were deliberately seeking to disrupt proceedings in their obstinate refusal to clear the aisle.^[3] Watching the situation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau crossed the floor of the House, took hold of Brown's arm to steer him through the group, and allegedly shouted to the other MPs "Get the fuck out of my way."^[5] Brosseau would later allege that in the confusion, Trudeau elbowed her in the chest.^[5] She later told the House she had felt overwhelmed and had gone to sit in the lobby, missing the vote as a result.^[5] The incident prompted a shouting match on the opposition side of the aisle between Trudeau and Mulcair, in which Mulcair called the Prime Minister "pathetic."^[5]

The following day, MPs spent five hours discussing the altercation. Trudeau apologized to the House several times for his actions.^[5][6] Brosseau said the public later accused her, in telephone calls to her office, of "crying wolf." The all-party Committee on Procedure and House Affairs decided on May 31, 2016, that Trudeau would face no scrutiny or parliamentary sanctions for the incident, a decision that paralleled public opinion on the matter; according to polls taken the week after the incident, the majority of Canadians indicated that they saw the incident as "no big deal" or a "momentary lapse of judgement".^[7]

Responses

The elbowgate incident provoked multiple responses from various Members of Parliament:

• Conservative MP Peter Van Loan suggested following the proceedings of a "Physical Molestation" matter.^[8]
• NDP MP Pierre Nantel was quoted as seeing the incident with "such determination that it was clear he was furious and determined to make it physical."^[8]
• NDP MP Niki Ashton believed that the matter should be considered assault.^[8] MP Ashton also associated this as an intentional gender-based action after being quoted to saying "What I will say, if we apply a gendered lens, it is very important that young women in this space feel safe to come here and work here...He made us feel unsafe and we're deeply troubled by the conduct of the prime minister of this country."^[9]
• Conservative MP Lisa Raitt made an indirect reference to Jian Ghomeshi, who was on trial for sexual harassment.^[10]
• Conservative MP Peter Kent suggested that Trudeau's actions were in contempt of Parliament.^[11]
• NDP MP Peter Julian compared the incident to the violent outbreaks in other countries.^[9]
• Conservative MP Michael Cooper said he considered the actions criminal assault.^[12][13]
• Interim Conservative Party of Canada Leader, Rona Ambrose, tweeted that Trudeau's actions "are worthy of the strongest condemnation of this House."^[14]

Political commentators and satirists also commented on the incident:

• Comedian John Oliver, in a Last Week Tonight segment, commented that Trudeau should not have done what he did, but also compared the contact to that one might expect shopping at a New York Trader Joe's. Acknowledging Trudeau's multiple apologies immediately following the incident, he joked that Trudeau would be expected to "spend the remainder of his term... apologizing for the existence of his arm".^[15]
• Progressive political commentator Cenk Uygur said that Trudeau had "bumped into" Brosseau. He was also critical of Brosseau for claiming she was so overwhelmed she needed to leave the chamber and miss the vote.^[16]

Aftermath

Trudeau made apologies for the incident three times over the following two days.^[17] Brosseau formally accepted Trudeau's apology and stated she hoped MPs would "work to ensure that we never see this conduct repeated".^[17] An all-party committee also accepted Trudeau's apology^[18] and determined there would be no paliamentary sanctions nor further calls for apologies.^[17]

See also

• List of scandals with "-gate" suffix

References

Works cited

External links

• "Justin Trudeau accused of 'manhandling' and elbowing in House of Commons", The National, CBC News, May 18, 2016.