Speaker of the House of Commons for barely two months, Quebec Liberal MP Greg Fergus provoked the indignation of the opposition for having participated virtually in a partisan convention in Ontario. The Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois are now calling for his resignation.
Over the weekend, Mr. Fergus appeared in a pre-recorded video message to pay tribute to John Fraser, the outgoing interim leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, a provincial party. In the video in question, Mr. Fergus was dressed in his black silk toga, the attire associated with his role in Federal Parliament.
Conservatives were quick to condemn the appearance, emphasizing the importance of the Speaker of the House remaining impartial and explicitly non-partisan, but without demanding his resignation before mid-afternoon Monday. Until then, the elected officials of the official opposition were content to demand that the Speaker of the Commons be summoned before the parliamentary procedure committee, for an investigation into the alleged breaches of his duty of impartiality.
“This conduct is simply unacceptable; it goes against all the long-standing traditions and expectations of the high office you hold,” wrote Conservative MP Andrew Scheer in a letter to the attention of Mr. Fergus, on his social networks.
Mr. Scheer, himself a former Speaker of the House, spoke again later in the day to clarify that his party was now demanding the departure of Greg Fergus since another party, the Bloc Québécois, had withdrawn his membership. trust.
President since October 3, Greg Fergus apologized Monday morning. He also clarified that he was asked to record this video message for Mr. Fraser, who is a long-time friend.
“I regret that this video was used differently than intended. It was broadcast, dear colleagues, at the congress of a party of which I am not a member, in a province where I do not live, in a jurisdiction where I have not been able to vote for almost three decades,” explained the president. .
“Lack of judgment”
His apologies, however, did not calm the discontent of the opposition parties.
“To carry out or do the work of the presidency, it takes two essential qualities: impartiality and flawless judgment. Unfortunately, the president showed us that he had neither one nor the other of the qualities following what he did at the end of the week,” for his part, he dropped it on the spot. from noon Monday.
The Bloc Québécois was the first party in Ottawa to ask the president to resign, under the pretext that the code of procedure and practices of the House of Commons indicates that “in order to guarantee the impartiality of his office, the president refrains from any partisan political activity (for example, by not attending meetings of his parliamentary group). »
Furthermore, the Bloc Québécois misdigested a comment made in the House by Mr. Fergus on November 29. The president said he was “not convinced” that a question from the Bloc leader, Yves-François Blanchet, to the Prime Minister about Christmas “has something to do with the administration of the government.” That day, the entire political class denounced the comments of the Canadian Human Rights Commission for having conflated public holidays linked to Christianity with systemic discrimination.
Greg Fergus then personally apologized to Mr. Blanchet for this incident.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) also criticized Mr. Fergus for his participation in the tribute to John Fraser: “It is a blatant lack of judgment on the part of Mr. Fergus,” reacted NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice before question period.
“It was your duty to ensure that this message was not used in a partisan context,” added his colleague Peter Julien, in the House.
“There is a mix of genres between partisanship, friendship and the parliamentary institution. Because the president, he represents all of us, from all political parties and he does not have to make this kind of intervention,” he added.
The member for Hull—Aylmer, in Outaouais, was elected to the post of Speaker of the House in October, following the resignation of his predecessor, Anthony Rota. The latter left office in the wake of the controversy concerning the recognition of a veteran who served under the Nazis during a visit by the Ukrainian president.