C-291 Update: Mrs. Talbot cries at Committee Meeting

I just got wind of some juicy intelligence about the PROC meeting that said that the C-291 legislation was non-votable.

Apparently, the non-conservative members there were complete jerks to Mrs. Talbot, the lady whose daughter and unborn granddaughter were killed. Liberal, Marcel Proulx was stern and gruff. There was an effort to get Mrs. Talbot to speak for three minutes. It was said something like: "She came all the way from Edmonton, can't she say something"? He sternly said words to the effect of: this meeting is about the constitutionality of the Bill, can she speak to that? No, then she's not to speak. There was a bit of a discussion, and Proulx said something like "okay fine, if there's unaninmity on the committee, she can speak". So of course, there was no unanimity. Mrs. Talbot was BAWLING during the committee meeting. She had pictures of her daughter, as well as her granddaughter in the casket, who at 27 weeks looked just like a baby. The committee members did not want to see the pictures. They were being extremely insensitive.

Apparently, the Conservative committee members abstained because of Vic Toews' intervention. The sense is that they do not want to contradict orders from on high.

So that's one little tidbit.