(Ottawa) As the House of Commons wonders whether it should operate differently since parliamentarians unwittingly applauded a man who fought for the Nazis in Ukraine last fall, the new Speaker of the House offers some possible solutions.
One such proposal is to investigate the “reputation” of certain guests who must be greeted on the House floor, in addition to the usual checks to determine whether they pose a physical threat.
Clerk of the House of Commons Eric Janse shared Speaker Greg Fergus’ suggestions during a meeting of the Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Tuesday.
Rather than looking at the “reputational risks” of all guests at Parliament, Mr Janse said, one could “only check the reputation of anyone who might be greeted in the stands by one of the people addressed to Parliament.
He said Speaker Fergus had also suggested to House leaders that information on recognized guests be shared with all political parties.
This way, “everyone can undertake their own background checks, if they wish, before sharing with their group or caucus whether or not that person should be applauded,” Clerk Janse said.
Guests are currently only screened for physical threats, and staff rarely have time to do a thorough analysis of all risks, he said.
Yaroslav Hunka was on the guest list last September to hear in the Speaker’s gallery, in the House, the speech of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on an official visit to Canada.
However, Mr. Hunka, a Canadian of Ukrainian origin, had fought for a division of the Waffen-SS during the Second World War. This was a Ukrainian volunteer unit created by the Nazis to help fight Soviet troops.
Then-Speaker Anthony Rota took full responsibility for inviting the 98-year-old veteran into the House and hailing him as a hero in front of a crowd on September 22. At the heart of an embarrassing controversy, even internationally, Mr. Rota resigned the following week. Greg Fergus was elected in October to succeed him.
Responsible government?
In his apology, Rota said he was solely responsible for the invitation and that neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the Ukrainian delegation were aware of it. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also apologized on behalf of Parliament.
Russia continues to reiterate what happened as it attempts to advance its “anti-Nazi” propaganda aimed at legitimizing its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“I think I speak on behalf of all parliamentarians in expressing our embarrassment at this event,” Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon said on Tuesday.
“The prime minister himself expressed his regrets and apologies to President Zelensky. »
The Conservatives continue to argue that the Prime Minister’s Office is to blame for this blunder. They argue that the government had a responsibility to control participants in such a high-profile event.
But the Liberals and Clerk Janse, a nonpartisan public servant, say otherwise.
“As has been the subject of much discussion, guest lists provided to the Office of Parliamentary Protocol are not shared with other parties or organizations,” the Clerk said. And in accordance with the principle of the independence of Parliament, these lists are not shared with the government either. »
When there is a common parliamentary speech, the parties and organizations are each allocated a certain number of invitations.
“Until now, we have always expected parties to do some sort of background check before submitting their list to us,” Janse said.
Guest lists are shared with parliamentary security, which checks names against a database and helps with accreditation, the clerk said.
But Mr Janse stressed that the lists are not screened for reputational threats, “which would in any case be difficult to achieve in the very short time available for organizing such ceremonies”.
Patrick McDonell, sergeant-at-arms and director of institutional security for the House of Commons, estimated that checking the reputation of 500 people would take weeks.
“If I were mandated to do this, I would only have the resources necessary to do an ‘open source’ verification,” Mr. McDonell said Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Speaker’s office said Mr. Fergus’s draft guidelines for recognizing certain guests in the Commons are in the hands of House leaders and other officers of Parliament for consultation.
“President Fergus looks forward to receiving any recommendations [du comité] on how the process could be improved in the future,” said Mathieu Gravel.