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After a prorogation super-sized the summer break, question period returned Thursday largely where it left off: With queries about the Senate and exactly when and what the prime minister knew about the Nigel Wright cheque to former Conservative Senator Mike Duffy.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper wasn’t in the House Thursday to answer those questions as he had left for Brussels to oversee the signing of the long-promised free trade deal with the European Union.

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NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, who said Harper’s trip was tantamount to going “into hiding,” started off question period by asking Justice Minister Peter MacKay for a national inquiry for missing and murdered aboriginal women.

However, a polite exchange on the issue didn’t last long though as the topic quickly changed.

“The prime minister needs to take responsibility for the climate of corruption that he created but instead the prime minister flies off to Brussels on Con Air,” Mulcair said.