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Much of the resulting speech was raucous and fun, portraying Burns as a loose-limbed “penile philanthropist” who had 12 children by five women. “If Robbie Burns were alive today, he would be black and on Maury Povich,” Caesar-Chavennes quipped.

It was an opportunity to make people think

But there was a serious edge amid the satire: a broadside on the politics of politics, much of which appeared to be aimed at her own political party.

She broached the subject of government ministers feeling the “burn” of recent ministerial changes, and cited another of the ministers in attendance that night.

“Speaking of Jody Wilson-Raybould, if Robbie Burns was a member of our government, she would have been asked to remove him from our Parliament, not just our caucus, based on his exploits.

Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

“If she didn’t succeed, she would have been fired. If she succeeded in removing Robbie Burns, she would have been fired. You can’t have an Indian doing that to the White Man. (David) Lametti can, you can’t. The lads are better at that sort of thing,” she said.

The recent ministerial shuffle moved Wilson-Raybould to veterans affairs from the justice department, where she was replaced by Montreal MP Lametti — a switch that has angered some Liberal caucus members. There have been many rumours about why Wilson-Raybould was moved but none I have heard centre on her race or gender.

Caesar-Chavannes said she is tired of finding herself at the centre of such controversies, but she said she couldn’t give a speech that didn’t address the question of privilege.