Second Liberal MP breaks with Justin Trudeau over pandemic restrictions

OTTAWA — A second Liberal MP from Quebec has broken ranks with Justin Trudeau’s governing caucus over the prime minister’s pandemic policies and COVID-19 vaccination mandates.

Yves Robillard told a Parliament Hill news outlet that he agrees with Joël Lightbound, who delivered a stinging critique Tuesday of Trudeau’s “politicization” of the pandemic and COVID-19 vaccination mandates during last summer’s election campaign.

Lightbound “said exactly what a lot of us think,” Robillard (Marc-Aurèle-Fortin) told The Hill Times. “I agree with everything that Lightbound said.”

Robillard’s comments came one day after Lightbound told a news conference that he’d raised his concerns in caucus but could no longer stay silent, and denounced his own government’s approach.

“From a positive and unifying approach, a decision was made to wedge, to divide and to stigmatize. I fear that this politicization of the pandemic risks undermining the public’s trust in our public health institutions, ”Lightbound said, adding“ quite a few ”of his Liberal colleagues he agreed with him.

Hours later, the respected and popular MP for Louis-Hébert quit his job as Quebec caucus chair. However, he was not ejected from the national Liberal caucus.

Robillard, who had already been stripped of a committee position before Christmas after he traveled to Costa Rica, told The Hill Times he doesn’t care if he gets kicked out of the Liberal caucus.

“I have [Trudeau] said to everybody in the caucus ‘I strongly disapprove those who are going to travel during that time,’ but he never said, ‘don’t,’” Robillard said in the Hill Times interview. “It’s not something that even the prime minister can say. We all have our authority, we all have our conscience.”

Before news of Robillard’s statements broke, the prime minister said he’d spoken to Lightbound several times, including the morning before his explosive news conference.

“We’re going to continue to talk. We’re going to continue to go through this the way Canadians are where, yes, we’re all tired, yes, we’re all frustrated, but we continue to be there for each other,” Trudeau told reporters. “We continue to know that science and public health rules and guidance is the best way through this pandemic, is the way we’re going to get to the other side.”

Trudeau continued to defend his handling of COVID-19 vaccination policies in the House of Commons on Wednesday. However, he has also turned his rhetorical fire on the Conservatives, who have accused of supporting protesters who are blockading downtown Ottawa and damaging the economy with blockades at border crossings in Ontario and Alberta.

Before Robillard publicly joined Lightbound, other Liberal MPs had downplayed the impact of Lightbound’s dissent, saying their party is a big tent with diverse opinions.

Marcus Powlowski, a Liberal MP and former emergency room doctor, said he profoundly disagreed with Lightbound but respected his right to have a different opinion.

But Powlowski added that the Trudeau government is unlikely to capitulate on vaccination mandates in the face of threats by the truckers’ blockade on Parliament Hill, even as it appears the pandemic’s Omicron wave may have peaked.

“I think the time is going to be coming in order to decrease restrictions,” he said, “but I think what’s happening outside isn’t really helping us remove those restrictions.”

He said it is a “natural response” when threatened “to defend your position and defend the restrictions.”

However, he added, “I don’t think it helps that they’re saying ‘F- Trudeau,’ then we drop the mandates, and then it looks like it’s in response to the truckers and that kind of approach.”

He said if the government changes its policies, the moves will be “in response to the public health, which is that cases are coming down, a lot of people are vaccinated, and maybe a lot of those mandates aren’t really required.”

Powlowski said he thinks “we should tolerate different opinions within caucus,” but as a doctor he believes it is “premature to dial (pandemic restrictions) down too much.”