House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus is rejecting calls to resign for forcing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to leave parliament during Question Period on Tuesday.
Fergus gave Poilievre the boot after he referred to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “wacko” prime minister with “wacko policies.”
In response, the Conservatives argue that Fergus failed to remain impartial as the House Speaker and furthermore that he censured Poilievre after having just allowed the Liberals to use unparliamentary language. Fergus was elected as a Liberal MP prior to being chosen to be Speaker.
Moments before Poilievre’s wacko comment, Trudeau had accused the opposition leader of “shameful, spineless leadership,” claiming that Poilievre pandered to white nationalists for votes.
Poilievre had offered to withdraw his statement and replace the word wacko with “radical” and or “extremist,” however Fergus demanded that he withdraw the statement completely.
In the roar of frustration from the Conservative bench, an MP could be heard yelling, “they (the Liberals) can call us white supremacists.”
“I replace the word with extremist,” Poilievre replied.
“I will ask the honourable leader of the opposition one last time to please withdraw that comment, and simply withdraw that comment,” said Fergus.
“I simply withdraw and replace with the aforementioned adjective,” answered Poilievre.
After Poilievre refused to simply withdraw the statement, Fergus kicked him out. His exit was followed by the majority of Conservative MPs who left the house as well out of solidarity.
Conservatives demanded that Fergus resign on Wednesday, however, according to his spokesperson Mathieu Gavel, that won’t be happening.
“Speaker Fergus has no intention of resigning,” Gravel told the Globe and Mail in a statement. Gravel said that Fergus instructed Trudeau to “reframe” his previous statements about Poilievre, to which he complied.
“The Speaker offered Mr. Poilievre four opportunities to withdraw his comment and reframe his question. Mr. Poilievre did not avail himself of those opportunities,” said Gravel.
While Fergus is a Liberal MP, it’s still incumbent upon him as Speaker of the House to remain non-partisan, behaviour that Conservatives say he’s failed to exhibit.
Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett said that equal rules must be applied in the House of Commons, as the prime minister hurled “personal insults,” at Poilievre beforehand, instead of defending his policies.
Housing Minister Sean Fraser rebuked any comparison between the way his Liberal party behaved and the comments made by Poilievre on Wednesday.
“Yesterday, from my perspective, I saw the behaviour on the other side dramatically beyond what most people would think would be reasonable,” said Fraser. “This is not two sides of the same coin.”
Conservative MP John Brassard does think the comparison is fair however, saying that Trudeau used “undignified” language by inferring that his party was in any way connected to white nationalists.
