House Speaker Greg Fergus has promised to step down from his position if a partisan video tribute that was shown at the Ontario Liberal convention earlier this month causes the House of Commons to permanently lose confidence in him.
“I accept the process and the decision. I am a servant of the House of Commons, so if the House decides that they no longer trust me, and that I can’t regain the trust of members of Parliament, … of course I will leave,” Mr. Fergus told a parliamentary committee on Dec. 11.
The House of Commons voted unanimously for PROC to examine the Speaker’s conduct to determine whether he should step down. While the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois have asked Mr. Fergus to resign from his role as Speaker, he told a reporter on Dec. 5 that “there’s a process that has been set out by the House” and that the best way to keep the confidence of MPs was to “demonstrate fairness and impartiality.”
Mr. Fergus told MPs on the committee that he had been given assurances that the video would be a private one.
“Despite assurances to the contrary, it was shown at a public, partisan gathering. Regardless of it being aired privately or publicly, I should never have recorded it. I apologize unreservedly,” he said.
Mr. Fergus has also pledged to create a more “rigorous communication protocol” to ensure a similar incident does not happen again. The protocol will include consulting the clerk of the House of Commons every time a request is made for him to speak at an event or record a video message, and gathering advice from speakers in Canada and “other Westminster parliaments.”
Acting clerk of the House of Commons Eric Janse, while testifying before the committee, said Mr. Fergus did not consult him before recording the video, which “perhaps” went “too far into the partisan sphere.”
Bloc Quebecois ‘Lost Trust’ in Fergus
Bloc Quebecois MP Claude DeBellefeuille said Mr. Fergus had made a “grave” error and showed a “serious lack of judgment” by recording the video, particularly because he did not consult any members of his staff before doing so.
“You are saying it is not going to reoccur, but what concerns me is that when it is something that is even more complex when good judgment is required, well that’s very risky. Because for me, this was something that was very easy to judge,” said Ms. DeBellefeuille.
Mr. Fergus responded that it was important to have a “protocol” and “clear procedures to follow” to ensure a similar incident would not happen again.
“I am very sad to tell you that the members of the Bloc will never be able to trust you again,” Ms. DeBellefeuille added. “A lot of members have lost trust in you.”
NDP MP Peter Julian said he was also “troubled” by the partisan language used in an interview Mr. Fergus gave to The Globe and Mail around the same time, where he said Mr. Fraser had “held it all together at a very challenging time for our party.” Mr. Fergus replied that he should not have used the words “our party.”
When Conservative MP Michael Cooper also questioned Mr. Fergus regarding the Globe interview, Mr. Fergus said he had made it clear during the interview that while he couldn’t talk about current political affairs, “I could certainly talk about the man I knew.”
Liberal MPs on PROC appeared to be more forgiving of Mr. Fergus’s position. Liberal MP Stephane Lauzon said Mr. Fergus had a “steep learning curve” with his new role while Mark Gerretsen highlighted Mr. Fergus’s close friendship with Mr. Fraser.
The PROC session made Mr. Fergus the first House Speaker in Canadian history to be summoned for cross-examination by MPs. The committee is set to make its recommendation to the House of Commons on Dec. 14.
Mr. Fergus was elected as House Speaker following an incident where the previous House Speaker Anthony Rota recognized a former member of the Nazi SS in Parliament during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Ottawa in September. Mr. Rota apologized shortly after the incident but was forced to resign from his position.
