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Justin Trudeau caused uproar in the House of Commons Wednesday after he called Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent a “piece of shit” during a heated question time debate over the Kyoto Protocol. The Liberal MP for Papineau immediately apologized, admitting he “lost his cool” after Kent questioned why NDP environment critic Megan Leslie had not attended last week’s climate change summit in South Africa. But Mr. Trudeau was not alone as members of Parliament hurled insults and swore at each other in the final Question Period of the year. The exchanges marked a new high — or low — in parliamentary conduct and served to highlight the extreme emotions and partisanship that has swept the federal political scene over the past few months.

How it all started



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Canada officially withdrew from the Kyoto accord on Monday, drawing pointed criticism from overseas signatories to the pact.

In a particularly heated question period session, Trudeau became incensed after Kent suggested that Leslie should have been in Durban for the UN meeting, despite the minister banning all non-government MPs from Canada’s official delegation.

House Speaker Andrew Scheer could barely keep control as members of the government and opposition went after each other.

In questioning Kent, Leslie suggested Canada was abandoning Kyoto to hide the Conservative government’s failure to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

As the environment minister chided opposition parties for not attending the conference, Trudeau could be heard shouting, “Oh, you piece of shit,” at Kent.

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Trudeau’s quick apology

Trudeau apologized and asked that his remarks be stricken from the record, but only after noting that the Conservative government had forcefully prevented opposition parties from attending the conference.