End of story? Well, not quite. Look skyward. The fallout is just beginning.
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Premier Scott Moe and his Saskatchewan Party government were likely caught off guard by the severity of Speaker Randy Weekes’s allegations in the last moments of the spring sitting.
So was everyone else.
Reporters and others are still sifting through Weekes’s remarks in the assembly last Thursday as if it were the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination.
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An equal number of conspiracy theories appears to be emerging.
“It soon got back to me that my removal as Speaker was discussed on a regular basis in the government caucus,” Weekes said in his closing remarks, referring to the legislature a year ago after receiving a series of “bullying” and “harassing” texts, including one from Government House Leader Jeremy Harrison stating: “That’s an absolute bulls**t ruling. Completely wrong.”
At least to some extent, Weekes was being “bullied” and “harassed.” But was he also the victim of “intimidation both verbally and physically,” as he suggests? Was the Speaker accosted by a Moe senior adviser and nearly “headed-butted” by another angry MLA?
Has Harrison demonstrated “signs of inappropriate behaviour from the time he was first elected, misleading statements and out-and-out lies,” as Weekes suggested?
And, most critically, does Harrison have, a “disturbing obsession with guns”? Did he really “desire to get permission to carry a handgun in the legislative assembly”?
Was there “an incident reported by a former special constable,” as Weekes suggested, in which Harrison “flaunted the rules concerning weapons when he brought a hunting rifle into the Legislative Building” that may or may have been “a .223 AR-style 4-shot clip lightweight which looks like an assault weapon” or one of other “many weapons that he owns”?
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Did Harrison make “threatening gestures whenever I ruled against him” like “flashing his suit jacket” as if he had a concealed weapon?
“As the gestures and behaviour became more aggressive, I worried that he might be carrying a handgun,” Weekes said, adding that the Government House leader yelled “open carry, open carry next” after a motion to change the Firearms Act. “My concerns over his mental stability and his obsession with guns was only confirmed.”
It does seem a tad difficult to believe Harrison would be quite that reckless, but it’s even more mind-boggling that he hasn’t said anything since. He has ducked public appearances since Weekes’s comments. Harrison wouldn’t speak to reporters on Thursday, wasn’t at a scheduled event in Moose Jaw Thursday afternoon, wasn’t at the Premiers’ dinner on Thursday evening and didn’t show up for an announcement he was scheduled to attend at the legislature Friday morning.
Moe — at Friday’s cabinet swearing-in of Colleen Young as Advanced Education Minister — told reporters he spoke with Harrison, who denied all “allegations” (although not necessarily the harassing texts that Moe admitted were inappropriate).
According to Moe, we should believe the still unuttered explanation he got from Harrison over the “sour grapes” from Weekes. (Except, of course, for those texts and other things now accepted to be true.)
End of story? Well, not quite. Look skyward. The fallout is just beginning.
Even as Moe spoke on Friday, former Arm River MLA and deputy speaker Greg Brkich was phoning into the Evan Bray show’s “bugs day,” saying what bugs him is that he’s known Randy Weekes for 25 years and “you couldn’t get a nicer, more honest guy;” that Moe threw him “under the bus” and the “House has been deteriorating for the past 10 years.”
That now seems to be bugging other Sask. Party caucus members, as well.
Another ex-MLA said in an interview on Friday that “Randy was always respected” and that Harrison was “barely tolerated.”
Yet another former MLA said Friday that Weekes was “always a gentlemen” and “I never heard him (Weekes) badmouth anyone.”
This is the talk of the province. It’s making national news. Yet not so much as a written statement from Harrison? We’re just supposed to accept an explanation he allegedly gave to Moe?
It’s now over? That seems doubtful.
Better get an umbrella. The fallout is just beginning.
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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