Bardish Chagger, seen here in this file photo, is just wrapping up a mission to China to promote Canada-China tourism. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand

The Liberal government sharply reduced time for debate on its high-profile gun bill Tuesday in retaliation for a Conservative attempt to filibuster Commons business over the Jaspal Atwal affair.

Government House Leader Bardish Chagger moved time-allocation on the gun legislation – after less than an hour of debate – moments after the Liberals deflected the second Conservative filibuster since Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale tabled the bill last Tuesday.

The Conservative filibuster had already halted the gun bill’s initial debate last Friday and interrupted the bill’s progress again this week.

When Chagger moved a time allocation motion to limit debate to only one more day before sending the legislation to committee for study hearings, the bill had been debated for only 50 minutes, on Monday.

Earlier Tuesday, an unexpected move by the government to change the planned orders for the day deflected a Conservative plan that would have forced a marathon round of voting on 103 routine committee motions, after 21 hours of filibuster voting last week.

As the House confrontation continued, Conservatives said the dust-up had gone beyond attempts to focus public attention on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s troubled trip to India last month, and was focused now on government actions after the visit.

Controversy erupted after the discovery of the presence of Jaspal Atwal, a Canadian Sikh who had been convicted three decades ago of attempted murder in a shooting attack against an Indian cabinet minister visiting Canada. The Canadian government withdrew an invitation Atwal had received to a Canadian diplomatic reception during Trudeau’s visit. The Liberal Sikh MP who put Atwal on the invite list then apologized.

In the fallout after the trip, the government arranged a special national security briefing about Atwal’s presence. The official providing the brief claimed dissident officials India’s government had orchestrated Atwal’s visit in an attempt to embarrass either Trudeau or the Indian government, reports on the briefing said.

The Conservatives later disclosed it was Trudeau’s national security adviser, veteran public servant Daniel Jean, who had briefed selected journalists about Atwal and how he came to be in India for the visit.

The Conservatives launched their filibuster after the government majority on the Public Safety Committee twice voted down opposition committee motions, and a Commons motion, calling on the government to let Jean explain his media briefing to the journalists

The Conservative filibustering and the Atwal affair, as well as the government time limit of only more day of debate on Bill C-71, the gun legislation, were all part of the debate Tuesday, sparked by the kind of Commons tactic Liberals railed against under the previous Conservative government.

“What we have now is a bill that was tabled last week,” NDP House Leader Ruth Ellen Brosseau said in response to Chagger’s motion.

“We have had less than one hour of debate,” Brosseau said. “Even the Conservatives when they were a majority government never did time allocation with less than one day of debate.”

Goodale blamed the Conservatives.

“We have on two occasions attempted to bring Bill C-71 to the House of Commons,” Goodale said. “On both occasions, the official opposition chose a different procedure and stymied the opening of a discussion.”

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has ignored a government offer of a special briefing for Scheer on Atwal and the India trip.

Scheer, a member of the Queen’s privy council as Leader of the Official Opposition, and therefore authorized to receive classified information, has refused to take the offer up because he would be unable to disclose whatever he learned.

In Commons question period Tuesday, Scheer claimed Jean had provided classified information to the reporters.

Trudeau dismissed the allegation.

“At no point did members of the public service ever reveal classified information to the media, nor would they,” Trudeau retorted.

He accused Scheer of playing political games.

“He plugs his ears, refuses to know the truth, and continually refuses to get a full classified briefing on this situation,” said Trudeau.

Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus, the party’s public safety shadow critic, said the affair has spread beyond Atwal.

“Actually Mr. Atwal is not a concern for us anymore,” Paulsaid Tuesday morning. “The problem is the briefing Daniel Jean gave to journalists,” Paul-Hus said.

“We just want the same briefing Daniel Jean gave to journalists, it’s not supposed to be classified;, he gave a briefing to journalists,” Paul-Hus told iPolitics.

Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux, the parliamentary secretary for Chagger, accused the Conservatives of trying to single out a public servant.

“I was in opposition for more than 20 years (including time in the Manitoba legislature) and what surprises me is the issue they decided to do it over. I would have thought there would have been other types of issues you could bring to the table.”

“I heckled this to Erin O’Toole in the Chamber yesterday, ‘today it’s this civil servant, what civil servant are you going to bring in next week, what about the following month?’” Lemieux said.

As for the government’s response to the Conservative filibuster Tuesday, Lemieux replied: “The government will do what the government has to do. The opposition will do what they feel they have to do.”