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Canada  

All-nighter in the Commons

An all-night voting marathon that kept members of the House of Commons in Parliament through the night and most of the day, fuelled by a Conservative protest over the way the government has handled the prime minister's disastrous trip to India, is over.

Conservative House leader Candice Bergen called a halt to the procedural stunt after MPs spent more than 20 hours voting on hundreds of minor motions. After she did, the calendar on the clerk's desk finally flipped over to Friday and the sitting wrapped up.

Bergen thanked parliamentary staff, from the Speaker to security guards to cafeteria workers, for hanging on through the prolonged sitting.

The bleary members, some clad in sweats, had spent the night catching cat-naps and snacks between the roll-calls.

At issue was the Liberal government's refusal to support a Conservative demand that national security adviser Daniel Jean be called to testify before a Commons committee about a briefing he gave journalists during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's ill-starred visit to India.

Jean suggested to reporters covering Trudeau's trip last month that rogue factions in the Indian government had sabotaged the visit. Since then, Opposition MPs demanded that Jean explain his reasoning about how one-time Canadian Sikh separatist and convicted attempted murderer Jaspal Atwal was invited to a Trudeau event in India.

"Justin Trudeau has failed, repeatedly, to come clean with Canadians about his trip to India," Bergen said in a statement.

"When a convicted attempted murderer appears at an official government of Canada event, that is serious. When the prime minister then blames a foreign government for his mistake, that is even worse."

Liberal House leader Bardish Chagger said it was entirely up to MPs on the national security committee — the majority of whom are Liberals — to decide whether Jean should be called to testify. They voted no.

"The committee should be able to choose if they would like him to come and testify or not," said Chagger. "And that's a choice for committee members to make."

The Conservatives weren't buying it.

"Canadians deserve to know the truth about what happened during the Atwal Affair," Bergen said. "Justin Trudeau is trying to hide the one person who can set the record straight. That's not right."

She said the Conservatives tried to negotiate a deal throughout the night, without success.



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