亚洲天堂

Skip to content

Opposition seeks to oust Speaker again over Liberal post attacking Poilievre

Conservatives, backed by Bloc Qu茅b茅cois, accusing Speaker of partisan behaviour
web1_20240521120544-365129cada8124252fade7b1ef19d2fc41422528a04c37afc8411d8ce2e783a5
Speaker of the House of Commons Greg Fergus takes part in the Speakers Parade prior to question period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The Opposition Conservatives, backed by the Bloc Qu茅b茅cois, are calling for the House Speaker to resign over what they say is yet another display of partisan behaviour.

The accusation stems from a post on the Liberal party website promoting a summer barbecue event involving Speaker Greg Fergus, who is a Liberal MP.

The event details included a political attack on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, saying his 鈥渞eckless policies鈥 would risk the health, safety and pocketbooks of Canadians.

鈥淭he promotional material of this event uses very partisan, inflammatory language concerning the Conservative party and the leader of the official opposition,鈥 said Alberta Conservative MP Chris Warkentin in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

The language in the event details was automatically included based on a template for events posted to the website, said Liberal spokesman Parker Lund.

He said a miscommunication between the party and Fergus鈥檚 riding association led to the wrong text being put on the event鈥檚 details.

A spokesman for Fergus said that the Speaker鈥檚 team did not approve the text and that the riding association did not know the event was going to be posted on the party鈥檚 website.

The Speaker鈥檚 office provided a copy of the original information for the event, which did not include any partisan language.

The more-partisan version has been taken down from the Liberal party鈥檚 website.

鈥淚t has simply become impossible to make any distinction now between Speaker Greg Fergus and Liberal Greg Fergus,鈥 Warkentin wrote in a letter to the Speaker, asking him to resign.

鈥淓very ruling you give now 鈥 and, with hindsight, every ruling you have given 鈥 will now all be assumed to have been delivered with a red tint.鈥

The Bloc Qu茅b茅cois joined the call for the resignation on Tuesday, while the New Democrats called on the party to apologize.

鈥淭he Liberal Party of Canada has shown profound disrespect by publishing that without the authorization of the Speaker, without the knowledge of the Speaker,鈥 NDP House leader Peter Julian said Tuesday.

鈥淭hey should apologize to the Speaker of the House of Commons, and the House of Commons for acting this way.鈥

This is the third time Conservatives have called for Fergus to resign.

They asked him to leave the post after a video tribute to the Ontario Liberals鈥 departing interim leader in which Fergus was donning his Speaker鈥檚 robes was shown to a party convention. Fergus apologized for the incident and a study by MPs yielded a recommendation that he pay a fine.

Conservatives raised ire again last month when Fergus kicked Poilievre out of the House of Commons during question period after the Conservative leader called the prime minister a 鈥渨acko鈥 and refused to retract the comment.

READ ALSO:

Mickey Djuric, The Canadian Press

Breaking 亚洲天堂 You Need To Know

Sign up for free account today and start receiving our exclusive newsletters.

Sign Up with google Sign Up with facebook

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google and apply.

Reset your password

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google and apply.

A link has been emailed to you - check your inbox.



Don't have an account? Click here to sign up




(or

亚洲天堂

) document.head.appendChild(flippScript); window.flippxp = window.flippxp || {run: []}; window.flippxp.run.push(function() { window.flippxp.registerSlot("#flipp-ux-slot-ssdaw212", "Black Press Media Standard", 1281409, [312035]); }); }