Disgraceful display fuelled by PM's desperation, Fergus's shortcomings as Speaker
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Parliament sunk to a new low on Tuesday, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and aided by Greg Fergus, the weakest Speaker in Canadian history.
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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s expulsion from question period was actually a sideshow rather than the main attraction in this disgraceful spectacle.
When asked about the very real issue of the opioid crisis in British Columbia, Trudeau resorted to baseless personal attacks. Last week, facing ever-increasing opioid overdose deaths and chaos from public drug use, B.C.’s NDP premier asked the federal government to recriminalize hard drugs in most instances.
The Liberal government has yet to give an answer on that and when Poilievre asked Trudeau about that issue, Trudeau ignored the it, opting instead for personal attacks.
“The leader of the Conservative party is actively courting the support of groups with white nationalist views and he needs to stand up and apologize now,” Trudeau said.
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Trudeau and his Liberal party have been banging on this drum for days, desperate for anything to turn around their sagging polling numbers. Their claim that Poilievre met with white nationalists is due to an impromptu stop the Conservative leader made to chat with anti-carbon tax protesters on a highway near the New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border last week.
Spotted in the background of a photo of the group is a small Diagolon symbol drawn onto the side of camper parked at the protest site.
That’s it, that’s the entire claim that he is courting extremists. So why won’t Poilievre denounce this group?
First off, that’s not who he met with, it’s just their tiny logo drawn on the side of a camper with a bunch of other logos including the peace symbol and a heart. Secondly, he already denounced Diagolon two years ago when leaders of this group recorded a podcast that included threats of raping Poilievre’s wife. He called them dirtbags, losers and odious and said their views had no place in Canada.
Statement from the Hon. Pierre Poilievre pic.twitter.com/LekmhiLbUa
But again, Trudeau is desperate. Another poll was released Tuesday morning showing that despite his big spending budget, Poilievre and his Conservatives have a 20-point lead in popular support. So the Liberals keep making baseless claims, accusing Poilievre of being a white supremacist and anti-immigrant despite being married to a Venezuelan immigrant.
Rather than play the game the Liberals want to play, Poilievre stood up and said he condemns Trudeau’s record of dressing up in racist costumes.
“I also condemn the extremism of a prime minister who gives hundreds of thousands of dollars of anti-racism money to a Jew hater who has proposed shooting Jews in the head. I condemn a prime minister who allows the IRGC (the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran), which murdered 55 Canadians, to remain legal. And I condemn a prime minister who allows the use of crack, heroin, meth and weapons in hospital rooms that threaten nurses and on school buses next to children. Will the prime minister reverse his extremist policies?” Poilievre asked.
At that point, Trudeau stood up and said that Poilievre was “showing us exactly what shameful, spineless leadership looks like.” That is unparliamentary language and not allowed, according to the rules, but Fergus didn’t stop Trudeau and allowed him to keep making personal attacks toward Poilievre.
It was only when Conservative MPs were shouting Fergus down that he acted.
“Get it together, Greg!” one MP could be heard yelling from the Conservative benches.
“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” called out another.
Fergus then stood and instead of chastising the prime minister, he turned his attention toward Conservative MP Rachel Thomas, who had challenged Fergus’ lack of action.
“The chair is acting in a disgraceful manner,” said Thomas.
For refusing to withdraw, Thomas was ejected.
Fergus, a Liberal MP who has shown favouritism toward the Liberal government since being elected as Speaker last fall, then told the prime minister that he could restart his answer, but never asked him to withdraw the unparliamentary language.
That same courtesy wasn’t afforded to Poilievre when he again asked about the drug policy in B.C., calling it a “wacko policy from this wacko prime minister.”
Unlike when Trudeau used unparliamentary language, Fergus was on his feet chastising Poilievre immediately and demanding he withdraw his comments. When Poilievre eventually said he would withdraw “wacko” and replace it with “extremist,” Fergus ejected the opposition leader to wild applause from the Liberal benches.
Most Conservative MPs followed their leader out of the chamber.
This has to be the lowest point for Fergus as Speaker; he lost complete control of the Commons. He doesn’t seem to have the skills or respect needed to operate as Speaker and should step down as soon as possible.
It’s never a good look for an MP to be ejected, especially not the leader of the opposition, but this all started with Trudeau debasing the House of Commons and question period.
Trudeau’s desperation is leaving a stink on all of Parliament.
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