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OTTAWA – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was not allowed to speak in the House of Commons on Tuesday as his public spat with Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly spilled into a second day.
Speaker of the House Greg Fergus delivered the punishment to Poilievre in the morning, a day after he asked the leader of the opposition to withdraw attention accusing Joly of attacking supporters of the terrorist organization Hamas.
Poilievre made the comment during question period on Monday, one year since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, after he asked the Liberals to condemn “chants of genocide by hateful mobs on our streets.”
“Our Jewish friends and neighbors have been victimized twice as antisemitic mobs took to the streets shouting, ‘from Palestine to Lebanon, Israel will soon be gone’ and ‘there is only one answer: intifada, revolution ,’” Poilievre said.
Joly responded by naming the seven Canadians killed in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and saying the government stands with the Jewish people.
Poilievre said she did not actually condemn antisemitism in Canada in her response and accused her of refusing to do so in an attempt to score political points for what she called her desire to run for the Liberal leadership.
“She continues to pander to supporters of Hamas and the Liberal party as part of her leadership campaign rather than doing her job,” he said.
Joly accused Poilievre of “gaslighting” and playing politics on a day that was supposed to honor the victims of October 7.
“Clearly, the man is unfit to become prime minister because Canadians deserve much better,” she said, asking him to apologize.
All MPs, including the Liberals, supported a Conservative motion in the House on Monday condemning Hamas and anti-semitism in Canada.
At the end of question period Fergus asked Poilievre to withdraw his comment about Joly, noting that he had asked another MP to withdraw after he made a similar comment about Poilievre “drifting into a regime that I think would be” most of us find it repulsive.”
That MP, Yvan Baker, has not withdrawn the remark and has not been allowed to speak in the House since March.
Fergus denied the Liberals’ request to keep Poilievre from speaking until he withdrew, but changed his mind on Tuesday and issued the one-day ban. Fergus noted that this is not Poilievre’s first offense and he is also not new to the rules of decorum in the House.
“Over the last few months, the member refused to listen to the chairman’s decisions on non-parliamentary comments during question periods on two occasions,” said Fergus.
Poilievre received a warning the first time; the second time the Conservatives have had questions removed from their daily allotment.
“Yesterday’s events represent a third occasion,” said Fergus. “The opposition (leader) should withdraw his comments yesterday during question period… if he is not willing to do so, the chairman will not recognize him for the rest of today.”
Fergus also said Tuesday that Baker’s sentence would end Wednesday.
Poilievre has not withdrawn the comment and did not appear in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
He held a news conference in the lobby outside the House of Commons before question period, accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals of being to blame for the rise in anti-semitism in Canada in the past year.
Poilievre said that anti-semitism began to rise in Canada before October 7, 2023, and that there had been previous conflicts in the Middle East that had not led to similar problems in Canada.
Joly appeared in the lobby shortly after Poilievre, saying he was a hypocrite and unfit to govern the country.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Conservatives, Sebastian Skamski, said that the Speaker was showing “partisan bias” by trying to censor questions from his party.
Tensions continued in the House of Commons during question period, with members from each party heckling each other at various times throughout the period as the Speaker tried to restore order.
The Conservatives asked the Liberals several times if they would add Samidoun as a listed terrorist entity.
That group organized a pro-Palestinian rally in Vancouver on Monday night, where a masked woman led the crowd chanting “death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel,” while others burned Canadian flags.
Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman asked “what the hell is it going to take” for the Liberals to ban the organisation.
The Speaker asked her to withdraw “hell” as it was unparliamentary, which she did.
Jennifer O’Connell, parliamentary secretary to the public safety minister, said the government would not follow the Conservatives and “play politics” with the issue.
“When it comes to listing terrorist entities, the members opposite know very well that it is not a political decision,” O’Connell said. “It is based on the national security services of this country.”
“But that is exactly why the minister had already sent it for an urgent review, understanding that this hatred is unacceptable in Canada.”
While O’Connell answered the question, Lantsman shouted from across the aisle that she should be “ashamed” of herself.
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on October 8, 2024.
— With files from Chuck Chiang in Vancouver
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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