(Ottawa) The Bloc Québécois has stopped punctuating its questions in the House of Commons with the traditional “Mr. President”, in order to send an additional signal to President Greg Fergus that he should bow out.
Posted at 6:02 p.m.
Michel Saba The Canadian Press
“We have stopped recognizing the president, as he no longer has the confidence of the Bloc Québécois” and that “he seems to be desperately clinging to his post,” press secretary Julien Coulombe confirmed Wednesday afternoon. Bonnafous to The Canadian Press.
House of Commons procedure specifies that oral questions must be addressed to the Speaker.
However, the “instructions” were given to the Bloc members to “systematically” no longer appoint Mr. Fergus when he occupies the chair and to do the same “as much as possible” the rest of the time, mentioned Mr. Coulombe-Bonnafous .
The Bloc members will, however, continue to use the phrase “Mr. President” when the vice-presidents direct the deliberations.
The Liberal MP for Hull–Aylmer, who has only held the position of Speaker of the House since October, is in embarrassment due to his recent appearance in a video dressed in his ceremonial attire during a partisan event.
The Conservatives and the Bloc are leading the charge to push him to resign for having failed in his duty of impartiality, while the Liberals and the New Democrats, who together have a majority of votes, see it as an “error of judgment” and place their trust in him.
“When a Speaker of the House sees two major parties no longer have confidence in him, the usual rule is that he leaves,” once again pleaded Wednesday the parliamentary leader of the Bloc Québécois, Alain Therrien.
In the wake of the controversy, elected officials sent the file to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs – “PROC” as it is known -, giving it the mandate to examine whether the president should be punished and to submit a report no later than Thursday.
During his testimony Monday before this committee, Mr. Fergus admitted his mistake and promised not to do it again.
He resigned himself to resign if “the House decides that they no longer have confidence in my work, that I cannot regain the confidence of the deputies, that I cannot carry out the responsibilities of president by learning from this error, with a deep and sincere desire to correct the situation.
The motion that placed the matter in the hands of this committee specifies that the president was “to be instructed to request appropriate corrective action.” The New Democrats propose that a financial penalty be imposed.
It seems highly unlikely that committee members will unanimously demand that Mr. Fergus step down.
In any event, the Conservatives tabled a notice of motion that the House withdraw its confidence in Speaker Fergus and order a new election. According to the political party, a vote should take place on Thursday.
Mr. Fergus became Speaker of the House in October following the resignation of his predecessor, Anthony Rota, for unwittingly leading lawmakers to give a standing ovation to a former Nazi fighter during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
with information from Émilie Bergeron, The Canadian Press
2023-12-14 00:31:01
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