A Liberal MP who was deprived of his right to speak in the Commons by the Speaker of the House for more than six months considers it unfair that the same sanction was applied to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre for a single day.
“There is a double standard in the House not only with this decision […]but in general. Mr. Poilievre is constantly there in the House insulting other members, lying, saying inappropriate things […] and most of the time, there are no consequences,” said Liberal elected official Yvan Baker on Wednesday.
The latter has been kept silent in the House since last March, when he refused to withdraw his comments accusing Mr. Poilievre of giving in to a pro-Vladimir Putin fringe in his party. He must regain his right to speak in the House on Wednesday.
In sanctioning Mr. Poilievre for one day on Tuesday, House Speaker Greg Fergus cited the punishment Mr. Baker received as an example.
The latter finds it difficult to explain the obviously shorter duration of the sanction for Mr. Poilievre. He noted that the decision for his punishment was made by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Chris d’Entremont, a Conservative MP. Mr. Baker claimed that Mr. d’Entremont was pressured by the Conservative caucus to pursue such a severe sanction.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, who was targeted by the words of the Conservative leader which earned him a sanction, also considers that it is insufficient that Mr. Poilievre is only deprived of speaking in the House for one day.
“He continued his lies yesterday, he will continue today and in the meantime he still has not apologized,” she said.
Mr. Poilievre on Monday accused the minister of “giving in to Hamas sympathizers and the Liberal Party as part of her leadership campaign rather than doing her job.”
The Conservative leader criticized Ms. Joly, during question period, for not having seized two opportunities that he had previously given her to “condemn the terrifying and increasingly common anti-Semitic chants that we hear in the streets.” He had just read slogans such as “Israel will soon disappear” and asked her to denounce them.
Minister Joly pleads that she denounces such comments “every day”. On Monday, she responded to Mr. Poilievre by affirming that the day of October 7, marking the 1st anniversary of the surprise attack by Hamas against Israel which kicked off the war raging in the Middle East, was well poorly chosen to “do politics”.
“We are all, I hope, in this House, against any form of anti-Semitism and discrimination and I really hope that my colleague opposite will apologize,” she retorted. His liberal colleagues then stood up and applauded wildly.
Mr. Poilievre then returned to the charge by maintaining that October 7 is a favorite day for “a government to stand up for what is right.”
On Tuesday, a Conservative spokesperson, Sebastian Skamski, said Mr. Fergus shows “partisan bias” by attempting to censor questions from Conservatives.