Greg Fergus will stay on as Speaker of the House after surviving a push by the Conservatives to remove him from the role.
The Tories put forward a motion Monday asking the House to remove Fergus from the role over partisan language that appeared in an ad for an event in his riding.
But the NDP and Liberals voted down the Conservative motion last Tuesday. The Green Party’s two MPs also voted against it.
Conservative MP James Bezan said Tuesday in the House this latest incident should be an indication that Fergus is too partisan to serve in the traditionally impartial role of Speaker.
“In baseball, three strikes, you’re out, and we’ve got the Speaker on three different occasions — or actually, this is the fourth occasion — that he has done partisan activities and given partisan speeches,” Bezan said.
Fergus has come under fire for similar incidents in the past. He initially lost the support of Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs late last year after he taped a video tribute to outgoing Ontario Liberal leader John Fraser while wearing the Speaker’s robes.
Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon said the debate was meant to delay government work and create distrust in democratic institutions.
“What they seek to do is create chaos and create disorder,” MacKinnon said in the House on Tuesday.
Debate and questions about Fergus’s impartiality took up a good portion of time in the Commons chamber and at the House procedures committee on Tuesday.
Conservative MP Chris Warkentin moved the motion to remove Fergus after Deputy Speaker Chris d’Entremont ruled that the use of partisan language in the ad amounted to a prima facie question of MPs’ privilege.
House of Commons rules state that questions of privilege take priority over all other matters. MPs spent most of Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning debating the issue.
The Liberals, with the support of the NDP, passed a closure motion on the privilege debate. That motion forced the vote on the Fergus matter to take place by the end of day on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the Conservatives grilled Fergus during an appearance before the House procedures committee.
Michelle Rempel Garner questioned House Speaker Greg Fergus in a parliamentary committee about his ability to respond to harassment in the House of Commons. Rempel Garner referred to Fergus’s response to a 2016 incident in which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau elbowed NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau in the House of Commons. Fergus, a Liberal MP, said at the time the incident happened “exactly as the prime minister described it.”
The committee is reviewing the House workplace harassment and violence prevention policy, which the Speaker has a role in overseeing.
Conservative MPs Michelle Rempel Garner and Jamil Jivani questioned how opposition MPs could approach Fergus about workplace issues given the concerns about his impartiality.
Rempel Garner pointed to Fergus’s past defence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after he elbowed former NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau during an incident in the House in 2016.
“Do you think opposition MPs would feel safe or empowered to report incidents of any form of harassment given that this … falls under your supervision?” Rempel Garner asked.
Fergus replied that MPs should have “complete confidence” that complaints will be given the “full treatment” by his office.
Rempel Garner responded by saying many women feel uncomfortable reporting to men in power because they fear their concerns won’t be heard.
“I am not sure that if I reported something to you, that you would treat me fairly, that I wouldn’t have my issue twisted for partisan gain because of the repeated incidents of partisanship,” she said.
Fergus’s actions have raised questions before
The online ad for “A Summer Evening with the Honourable Greg Fergus” included a line that took aim at Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. It accused him of pursuing Conservative policies “that would risk our health, safety and pocketbooks” and promoted a Liberal plan to “grow an economy that works for everyone.”
The Liberal Party apologized to Fergus in a letter last week, saying the language posted on the event page was the auto-populated, standardized language the party uses for events on its website.
The language was posted without Fergus’s knowledge and “as a result of a miscommunication between the Party and the riding association,” said the letter from Azam Ishmael, the party’s national director.
This is not the first time Fergus, who was elected to the chair in October, has had his impartiality questioned by MPs.
After appearing in the Fraser tribute video, Fergus apologized and paid a fine for breaking Commons rules that forbid the use of parliamentary resources for partisan purposes.
He also participated in a fundraising event in his riding last fall, something billed as a “cocktail militant” for Liberal supporters.
Fergus held on to his job after the NDP backed him during the fracas over the video. He apologized and paid a fine for breaking Commons rules that forbid the use of parliamentary resources for partisan purposes.
The NDP has maintained that Fergus behaved appropriately in this most recent case by having the event cleared by the Clerk before proposing to host it.