House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus is warning members of Parliament that he will use all powers available to him to maintain order and decorum, if they can’t do it themselves.
Mr. Fergus rose before question period on Wednesday to declare his intention to bring down the temperature during parliamentary proceedings.
He said behaviour in the House has deteriorated over the years, with heckles transitioning from light-hearted or clever comments to boorish, rude and insulting language.
“Excessive, disruptive and loud heckling must be toned down,” Mr. Fergus said.
Mr. Fergus, who was elected Speaker at the beginning of October, said he’s committed to protecting MPs’ freedom of speech, but questionable language and provocative statements will not be tolerated.
“The growing tendency to make pointed criticism in a way that is unnecessarily personal and designed to denigrate, bully, elicit an emotional reaction or to attack the integrity of the person introduces a toxicity to our proceedings which hampers our ability to get things done,” he said.
Mr. Fergus raised examples such as MPs making comments about the absence of members as a means to embarrass them, coming up with fake titles in order to mock them, and questioning their loyalty to their country.
“I will point out there are examples of these sort of comments on all sides of the House,” he said.
The official Opposition tried to prevent Mr. Fergus from delivering his speech.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he shouldn’t have delayed question period to do so, and the daily question-and-answer session is “sacred.”
When Mr. Fergus was elected Speaker on Oct. 3, he committed to ensuring that members of Parliament treat each other with respect and to set an example for Canadians.
He said that over the last few weeks, he’s heard from members expressing their desire for better order and decorum within the House, and that his door is always open to discuss the issue further with them.
