(Regina) A week after Premier Scott Moe publicly assured Saskatchewan residents that the accusation against the government House leader of bringing a shotgun into the legislature was false, the principal admits that this actually happened.
“I apologize for this error of judgment and for not informing the Prime Minister of this event,” Jeremy Harrison said in a statement Friday.
“I submitted my resignation as Government House Leader to the Prime Minister and he accepted it. »
“About ten years ago, I was going hunting for a weekend,” Harrison said. I stopped at the legislative building for a short time and brought a properly holstered shotgun into the building, with the knowledge of the security guards, so as not to leave it unattended in my vehicle in the parking lot. »
“In retrospect, I shouldn’t have done that,” he admitted.
Mr. Harrison remains in the cabinet of the Saskatchewan Party government as minister responsible for trade and immigration issues.
The New Democratic opposition has been asking Mr. Harrison for days to explain himself, after the Speaker of the House, Randy Weekes, accused him in the legislative assembly of having brought a hunting rifle there.
Simmering tensions between Mr. Weekes and his fellow members of the Saskatchewan Party caucus boiled over that day, with Mr. Weekes publicly accusing them of trying to intimidate him in his job as an impartial arbiter of debate in the House.
He named Mr Harrison as the main culprit, saying Harrison sent him intimidating text messages and showed the inside of his suit jacket, suggesting he was carrying a handgun.
Mr. Weekes also accused Mr. Harrison of flouting the rules of the Legislature by one day bringing a shotgun into the building.
The next day, Mr. Moe denied all allegations, telling reporters: “I have been informed that they are all unquestionably false. »
The NDP called for a broader investigation.
Security issues
The Saskatchewan Party government changed security at the legislature more than two years ago, removing the powers of the sergeant-at-arms and handing control over to the government.
The sergeant-at-arms, an independent position, now has an essentially ceremonial role.
NDP ethics critic Meara Conway said Thursday that Harrison was the “architect” behind the security changes.
“These are the kinds of things that concerned us, where the person responsible for security in this building answers to a minister in the Saskatchewan Party government rather than a neutral body,” she said.
“This only gives these allegations a more serious tone. »
The government said it had carried out a security overhaul to deal with the rise in threatening speech. He did not cite specific incidents that led to the changes.
Last week, Weekes read aloud in the House a letter from the province’s former sergeant-at-arms, Terry Quinn, criticizing the government’s handling of the overhaul.
Mr. Quinn wrote that three incidents had been brought to his attention, but that they were not related to a security breach in the building.