Leader, last spring, I was admonished for saying the Prime Minister and his former Minister, Marco Mendicino lied to Canadians about the prison transfer of Paul Bernardo. I was prevented from using the word that best describes this Prime Minister.

Last week, Senator Gold, you scolded me for using the term “made-up rapporteur,” saying it was an insult, even though the Prime Minister made up the former governor general’s job and title.

Leader, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship has recently used language online and in an interview to describe his colleague — the Leader of the Official Opposition, Pierre Poilievre — that he definitely cannot repeat in Parliament, yet no one from your government has condemned Minister Miller or said he should apologize.

Why is that, leader? Is that a double standard?

There is a difference between parliamentary language — as well as the parliamentary privilege that surrounds our statements in Parliament — and the statements that one may make outside of Parliament.

Minister Miller is more than capable of addressing these issues himself, and it’s not my intention to comment any further on the remarks that he may have made in that regard.

The time for Question Period has expired.

Was that supplementary?

Yes. I think, Your Honour, there was an agreement that we finish a question when we start.

You finished your question, and I answered.

No. There is a supplementary question. It is part of a question.

I’m prepared to answer the supplementary question if you so move it.

Is leave granted?

Thank you, Your Honour.

You’re right, leader; there is a difference. One was a Conservative and the other one was a Liberal.

There is an obvious double standard here. The Prime Minister, Minister Miller, and the rest of the Trudeau government are very quick to shake their fingers in disapproval at the opposition and at Canadians in general, yet nothing is ever their fault. The Prime Minister takes no blame for anything.

Last year — and Senator Housakos referred to this earlier in his question — the Prime Minister told a fellow MP, a member of the Jewish faith, that she stands with swastikas. An actual Nazi SS officer is lauded in the House of Commons during the visit of the Ukrainian president, and the Prime Minister and his government take no responsibility — he blames Parliament, blames Canada.

Canadians are increasingly fed up with this behaviour. Is there anyone left in the Trudeau government who accepts responsibility or who acts with common sense?

Senator Gold, these are not my words; these are Minister Miller’s words. Do you think it is befitting of a minister to call the leader of the official opposition “a snake-oil salesman” or “a classless jackass”?

Not knowing the honourable member well enough — that is to say, the person who is the object of those comments — I’m not in a position to evaluate the appropriateness of the comment. As I said, I choose not to comment further on Minister Miller’s comments.