Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was expelled from the House of Commons by Speaker Greg Fergus on April 30 after calling Justin Trudeau a “wacko Prime Minister” and refusing to withdraw the comment without replacing it with another phrase.
The Tory caucus followed their leader out of the House after his expulsion.
The speaker asked the Conservative leader four times to withdraw his comments. Each time, Mr. Poilievre responded that he would withdraw and replace the term “wacko” with “extremist” or “radical,” which was not satisfactory for the speaker.
Prior to Mr. Poilievre’s removal from the House, Mr. Fergus also expelled Tory MP Rachael Thomas for challenging and disregarding the authority of the chair.
The confrontation came after a heated debate between Mr. Poilievre and Mr. Trudeau, as the prime minister accused the Tory leader of associating with and refusing to denounce the group “Diagolon,” which the prime minister called a “white nationalist group.”
Question Period
During question period on April 30, Mr. Poilievre pressed the prime minister on drug decriminalization, asking why Ottawa has not responded to requests from the B.C. government to amend decriminalization and place restrictions on possession in certain locations. B.C. announced on April 26 its plan to change course on drug decriminalization and ask Health Canada and the federal government to modify the policy to stop the use of drugs in public places.
“There are supervised consumption sites, some of which are a couple steps away from schools in Montreal,” he said. “When will the prime minister reverse his radical policies which are causing deaths?”
Mr. Trudeau replied that drug policy was a health-care issue.
“We need evidence-based solutions,” he said. “Now we will continue to work together with provinces and with communities to address this public health crisis. We will do so in a thorough and compassionate manner.”
When Mr. Poilievre pushed the prime minister again on the issue, claiming that drug overdose deaths in B.C. had increased by 380 percent, Mr. Trudeau switched gears and accused Mr. Poilievre of consorting with Diagolon.
“What hasn’t been answered by the leader of the Opposition is why he chooses to continue to court extreme white nationalist groups like Diagolon,” Mr. Trudeau said. “He refuses to denounce these extremists who do not believe Canadians should coexist with each other.”
Mr. Poilievre responded, saying, “Mr. Speaker, I always condemn extremism and racism, including from the guy who spent the first half of his adult life as a practising racist dressing up in hideous racist costumes.”
The Tory leader went on to highlight the case of “anti-hate” activist Laith Marouf, whose group was awarded $133,000 by the federal government to fight racism. It later emerged he had made several anti-Semitic posts on social media.
The prime minister responded by saying Mr. Poilievre shows “us exactly what shameful spineless leadership looks like.”
Anything further the prime minister might have said was interrupted by a furor in the House. Ms. Thomas called the speaker’s handling of the exchange “disgraceful,” and when Mr. Fergus asked her to withdraw the comment, she refused and was ejected from the House of Commons.
After Ms. Thomas’ expulsion, Mr. Trudeau again took aim at Mr. Poilievre, saying, “He shakes the hands of the leader of a white nationalist group that goes to actively court the support of the group’s members and thinks he can get away with it.”
In response, the Tory leader again called for Mr. Trudeau to reverse course on drug decriminalization. “He continues to allow those drugs to kill the people in our hospitals and on our public transit. When will we put an end to this wacko policy by this wacko prime minister?”
At that point, the speaker called for Mr. Poilievre to withdraw his comment. Mr. Poilievre said he would withdraw and replace the word “wacko” with “extremist” or “radical.” Mr. Fergus asked him to simply withdraw the comment, after which he expelled Mr. Poilievre for the remainder of the working day. The Tory caucus walked out of the chamber with him.
In his April 30 video, Mr. MacKenzie said the flag on the RV door was drawn by a partner of his two years ago during the Ottawa convoy protest as a “friendly gesture of support, and nothing more.” He said he has since asked the organizer of last week’s protest to remove the drawing because he has no relationship with Diagolon.
The Diagalon founder noted that the RCMP did not find any criminality related to Diagolon, which he described as a group of “like-minded folks that enjoy my podcast and commentary.”
Mr. Poilievre has denounced Mr. MacKenzie for making offensive remarks about the Conservative leader’s wife, and Mr. Mackenzie said it should be obvious that he and Mr. Poilievre are “not mutual friends.”
Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet applauded the House of Commons speaker for Mr. Poilievre’s expulsion.
“Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate you on your common sense today,” he said.
Mr. Poilievre took to social media afterward and said, “Today the Liberal speaker censored me for describing Trudeau’s hard drug policy as wacko,” he said in an X post. “Six people dying from overdoses every day in BC is wacko. Kids playing next to used syringes is wacko.”
“Nurses worried about breastfeeding after breathing in toxic drug fumes is wacko,” he added. “This is a wacko policy from a wacko PM that’s destroying lives.”
