The Conservatives are calling for House Speaker Greg Fergus to be fired after he banned Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre from speaking in the House of Commons over accusations of using unparliamentary language.
Fergus ruled that Poilievre could not speak in the House for the remainder of Tuesday after he refused to withdraw comments that Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly continues to “pander to Hamas.”
Poilievre made the remark during a heated exchange the day before when Joly refused to denounce specific slogans used by anti-Israel protesters.
Fergus initially asked Poilievre to withdraw the allegation, saying that accusations of pandering had already been determined to be unparliamentary. He also noted in his ruling that the incident marked the third time that Poilievre had used unparliamentary language during Question Period.
Fergus first issued Poilievre the punishment of being named, a means of saying he had been asked to leave the chamber.
Following this punishment, Fergus then docked the number of questions the Conservative party could ask before ultimately telling Poilievre that his continued refusal to withdraw his remark was his third strike.
“He knows that in our system, the role of the Leader of the Opposition is to ask questions to the ministry, to ensure it is held accountable for its actions and to challenge its decisions,” wrote Fergus in his ruling.
“His role is not to make the government comfortable, quite the contrary, but his actions must also be exercised within the existing boundaries of parliamentary decorum.”
Poilievre did not appear in the chamber at the start of Question Period, but instead had deputy leader Melissa Lantsman handle the first round of questions.
The Conservatives responded by saying that Fergus must act in a “non-partisan nature” which is required of the role of House Speaker “to ensure fairness and neutrality.”
According to a party statement released on Tuesday, “Fergus, has shown complete disregard for the neutrality his role requires by clearly acting in a way that benefits the Trudeau Liberals and disparages Conservatives.”
The statement addressed previous incidents where Fergus acted in a non-partisan manner such as when he “filmed a partisan video in his office wearing his Speakers’ robe to address the Ontario Liberal Caucus” and when he ejected Poilievre after he refused to withdraw a claim that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is a “wacko.”
Additionally, the Conservatives addressed an incident involving Fergus hosting an event “advertised on the Liberal Party website that directly criticized the Conservative Party Leader.”
The party accused Fergus of a pattern of “favour and a double standard of treatment to Liberal MPs in the House of Commons” that included censoring “Poilievre and common sense Conservatives while allowing Justin Trudeau to speak freely.”
“Therefore, we call on all members of the House of Commons to uphold the principle of Speaker neutrality, and express non-confidence in this partisan Liberal Speaker,” reads the statement.
