Conservatives decry 'procedural nonsense' as NDP forces House debate on abortion

A surprise tactical move by the NDP forced a debate in the House of Commons on abortion access Thursday, sidelining a Conservative motion designed to use NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh's own words against him.

Just ahead of the time set for the Conservative motion to come up, NDP MP Heather McPherson changed the channel by launching into a debate on a foreign affairs committee report tabled in the House Thursday.

McPherson also used the report on Canada's global assistance for sexual and reproductive health rights to pivot to domestic abortion issues by accusing the Conservatives of being beholden to abortion opponents and the Liberals of failing to protect access to services.

"The Liberals are too weak to stand up to premiers — those conservative premiers — who are restricting access to women's health care," she said.

When the Tories attempted to return to the regular scheduled programming, the Liberals and NDP ganged up and voted against them.

The Tories claimed that the NDP hijacked the House agenda to get Singh out of a tough spot.

"What we're witnessing today is an attempt by the NDP to stop our confidence motion on the NDP leader's words ... that purport to stand up for unions and the unions' right to strike," said Conservative MP Kyle Seeback.

Conservative MP Shelby Kramp-Neuman called it "procedural nonsense."

The Conservative opposition motion quotes Singh accusing the Liberals of being "too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people."

It also quotes Singh saying the Liberals will always ensure "unions have no power" by stepping in to stop labour disputes, following Ottawa's recent interventions to end disruptions by rail and port workers.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre needled Singh on this in the House on Wednesday, calling on the NDP to "stand with unions" and support the motion to bring down the Liberal government when it comes to a vote next week.

The government will face a raft of opposition motions in the coming days ahead of the winter holiday break.