(Ottawa) New Democrats are pushing for the parliamentary committee responsible for “seeking appropriate corrective action” against Speaker of the House of Commons Greg Fergus to recommend a financial penalty.
Their parliamentary leader, Peter Julian, has made it known that this is what his political party wants, which, unlike the Conservatives and Bloc members, does not want Mr. Fergus to resign for the moment.
The Liberal MP for Hull-Aylmer, who has only served as Speaker of the House since October, is in embarrassment due to his recent virtual appearance at a partisan event.
“We are proposing disciplinary measures that are strong, important, so that this never happens again,” Mr. Julian, who sits on the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, said on Tuesday.
This committee, which heard Mr. Fergus on Monday, has until Thursday at the latest to submit a report for the consideration of all elected representatives of the House.
The motion which placed the file in the hands of this committee specifies that the latter should “be instructed to request appropriate corrective action”.
Mr. Julian did not specify how high he believes the fine should be or what other administrative measures the New Democrats are contemplating, in concrete terms. “We are going to be in discussions regarding the report, so of course I cannot reveal details,” he responded to journalists who pressed him with questions.
Visions between parties probably differ on what constitutes the sanction to be recommended. “I want to tell the NDP ‘a little courage’,” said Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet in his own exchange with the media.
He argued that Mr Fergus “quickly disqualified himself for the office he occupies, which must be first and foremost characterized by neutrality and impartiality”.
“Financial penalties and slaps on the wrist” are not a solution in his eyes. “Even if he writes a check the next morning, he does not return to being someone who has the perspective and judgment necessary to manage a Parliament as complex as this one impartially and in troubled times. »
It remains to be seen how committee members, who met behind closed doors on Tuesday, will find common ground.
Criticism of Mr. Fergus has been coming since last week. The trigger was the broadcast, at the Ontario Liberal Party convention, of a message captured on video in which he thanked the outgoing interim leader of this political party, John Fraser.
“If you were a hockey player, you were about to play a game and you saw the referee in his uniform giving a pep talk to the opposing team’s locker room, the context would not wouldn’t matter, would it? You wouldn’t want that official refereeing your match,” said Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer during Mr. Fergus’s appearance in committee on Monday.
The main interested party responded to the MP who was once Speaker of the House that he thought it was important to note that as a Quebec MP, he and Mr. Fraser were in “a different league”.
“I also recognize that the member is right,” he added.
Mr Fergus stressed that his colleagues in the Commons could decide to ask him to resign.
“If the House decides that they no longer have confidence in my work, that I cannot regain the confidence of the deputies, that I cannot carry out the responsibilities of president by learning from this mistake, with a deep desire and sincere to correct the situation […] absolutely I will leave,” he said.
However, it seems unlikely that the elected representatives of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs will demand in unison that Mr. Fergus relinquish his functions.
In addition to New Democrats rejecting a request for resignation, the Liberals maintained their confidence in the president, arguing that he apologized and understood the content of his “error of judgment”.
On the procedure committee, the troops of Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh have more members than the Conservatives and Bloc members.
The same mathematical addition applies in the composition of the deputies of the Chamber.
In any case, Mr. Julian added Tuesday that the New Democrats could, in the longer term, present a motion so that all elected officials decide on the confidence they have, or not, in Mr. .Fergus.
He said this scenario would only apply if an incident like the one that sparked the outcry occurs again.
The Hull-Aylmer MP was elected Speaker of the House in October, following the resignation of his predecessor, Anthony Rota. The latter left office in the wake of controversy over the recognition of a veteran who served under the Nazis during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.