The federal Liberals and NDP say conservative politicians are displaying a pattern of attacks against Speakers’ independence, an allegation the Conservatives in Ottawa strongly deny.
The accusation comes a day after the federal Conservatives tried and failed for the third time to get House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus to resign over claims he is too partisan for the role.
Their attempts are designed to intimidate and delay House work, government House leader Steven MacKinnon said.
“The fact is that this culture of intimidating the chair is something we have seen in other legislatures and I think Canadians are rightly horrified by it,” he said.
Some context on the Saskatchewan aspect that puts helps to understand the concerns being raised:
“Weekes also said Harrison once sought permission to bring a gun into the legislature. Harrison initially denied the allegation but resigned last week after admitting he had forgotten about the incident, which happened more than a decade ago.”
The CP photo caption says the incident happened in 2016.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The accusation comes a day after the federal Conservatives tried and failed for the third time to get House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus to resign over claims he is too partisan for the role.
His NDP counterpart Peter Julian said there’s a “disturbing undercurrent” in Ottawa and in Saskatchewan among conservatives who are attacking independent institutions, and their latest target is Speakers.
The Conservatives argue that Fergus has proven himself to be biased by, among other things, ejecting Poilievre from the House of Commons last month for refusing to retract his comment calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “wacko.”
Fergus was forced to pay a $1,500 fine and apologize after he delivered a partisan tribute to an outgoing interim Liberal leader in Ontario on a video played at the party’s leadership convention.
The Liberals apologized to Fergus earlier this month after an invitation to an event in his riding was posted with language attacking the Conservatives.
That incident is what prompted the latest Tory motion to oust Fergus, which failed Tuesday when the Liberals and NDP voted against it.
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