Canada election: Liberal staffers who planted Trump-style buttons reassigned within campaign, Carney says [Video]

Recalling ‘the night of the long knives’

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, when asked about Poilievre’s plan to use the notwithstanding clause, had this to say:

“When you are in the position of a person that wants to be prime minister of Canada, you should rely more on improving [the] justice system and laws than removing yourself from their application.”

Blanchet also spoke briefly about the clause’s significance in Quebec, referencing what’s known among provincial nationalists as la nuit des longs couteaux, or “the night of the long knives.”

That evening, which occurred during Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s 1981 constitutional talks, saw former justice minister Jean Chrétien strike a deal to patriate the Canadian Constitution while agreeing to include the notwithstanding clause as a compromise with the provinces, who were worried a federal Charter would infringe on their autonomy.

Former Quebec premier René Lévesque wasn’t …