House Speaker asks MPs to behave better in question period after incident

House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus gave MPs a stern warning on Monday about improving their behaviour as they prepare for a fractious debate about whether the Liberals should continue to govern.

The Conservatives Tuesday will formally introduce a promised motion asking the House of Commons to declare it has no confidence in the Liberal government or Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

But news last week that NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his caucus would not support the motion led to a heated exchange in the House of Commons that one MP thought might actually come to physical blows. 

“There were words which fall outside of what’s acceptable,” Fergus said before question period on Monday. 

“There was behaviour which was also outside of the parliamentary traditions.”

He was referring to an incident last Thursday, when Singh stepped out from behind his desk to shout at the Conservative leader, after Pierre Poilievre called Singh a phoney and a fraud for his refusal to vote to bring down the Liberal government.

In a statement, the Conservatives said Singh “simply couldn’t control his emotions and became erratic,” and challenged Poilievre to a fight during the exchange. 

Shouting from all sides made it difficult to hear what Poilievre and Singh were saying inside the chamber, and the audio feed that can help amplify a speaker was cut shortly after the exchange began.

NDP House leader Peter Julian said Singh was merely standing up to bullying from the Tory leader.

“What Mr. Poilievre was doing was absolutely unacceptable, and I’ve never seen it happen in 20 years that any member of Parliament has been allowed to spew insults — unparliamentary, disrespectful — without having his microphone cut off,” Julian said in an interview last week.

He’s asked the Speaker to demand that Poilievre withdraw his comments and apologize. 

Fergus says he hopes to have more to say later this week in light of several demands from MPs for more discipline in the House. 

“I, for the first time ever sitting in the House, thought, ‘If they get near each other, they’re going to start hitting each other,'” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, who sits directly across the aisle from Singh in the House.

“It was uncomfortably close to that, I thought.”

Fergus has so far not sanctioned any members or called for any apologies, but instead asked all MPs to conduct themselves “in a manner that is befitting of our constituents” moving forward. 

Bloc Québécois MP Claude DeBellefeuille put forward a motion on Monday calling on members to reaffirm that violence, insults and threats have no place within Parliament, and urging all MPs to behave with civility and respect toward their colleagues.

All MPs who were in the House at the time voted in support. 

Meanwhile, May and Julian have both called on the Speaker to do more to rein in the antics that they say have degraded decorum in the House of Commons. 

“The Speaker has lots of powers that can be used to keep decorum, and they’re not used,” May said.

Among those powers are the ability of a Speaker to order an MP to withdraw or apologize for behaviour or comments, prevent an MP from speaking in the House for a period of time, or expel an MP from the Chamber temporarily.

Earlier this year, for instance, Fergus ejected Poilievre from the House after Poilievre called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “wacko” and Poilievre refused to withdraw the remark. The Conservatives accused Fergus of not fairly applying the rules.

MPs were far more docile during Monday’s question period, which may have had something to do with the fact that Singh was the only party leader in attendance.

On Tuesday, the Conservative non-confidence motion is expected to begin in earnest.

The Bloc Québécois and NDP have already said they do not support the Tory motion, drawing fire from the Tories who have promised there will be similar debates to come as they attempt to bring down the government. 

The Conservatives will have their chance to schedule a second confidence showdown on Tuesday, when they are expected to give notice of yet another motion that will be debated in the House later this week. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2024