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Two members of Newfoundland and Labrador’s House of Assembly were asked to leave the legislature Monday as a result of a heated exchange last week.
On Thursday Energy Minister Lloyd Parrott and Liberal MHA Elvis Loveless stormed behind the Speaker’s chair during an argument that sparked when Liberal MHA Sarah Stoodley said Premier Tony Wakeham had a “really angry old man face.”
It resulted in both Parrott and Loveless having their speaker privileges removed.
On Monday, Speaker Paul Lane called the squabble unacceptable and it was “an affront to the integrity” of the legislature.
“Too many times in this session of the House, the focus has not been on the issues, it’s been on individuals both inside and outside the House,” Wakeham told reporters after Monday’s sitting.
The premier said all members can and must do better.
In a statement made Friday, Wakeham said he’d like to meet with his fellow party leaders to discuss what he called a “declining level of decorum.”
The officials involved in recent events say they’re ready to tackle the problem.
After the heated exchange between a Liberal and Progressive Conservative MHA in the House of Assembly Thursday, they were dismissed for the day on Monday. The incident has sparked a bigger debate about decorum, and while the premier wants the House leaders to meet, Liberal and NDP leaders think matters need to be taken even further. The CBC’s Henrike Wilhelm reports.
Parrott, who is also Government House Leader, admitted things got out of hand last week, adding he and Loveless have put the exchange behind them.
“We’ve agreed that we’ll move forward,” Parrott told reporters.
Loveless is taking Speaker Paul Lane’s ruling as a lesson. He said he’s apologized to NDP MHA Sheilagh O’Leary, who said she was frightened by the exchange.
“You should not feel that you’re in the House of all places… and you’re not safe,” said Loveless.
Laurabel Mba, a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) consultant and a former NDP candidate, was sitting in the public gallery of the House of Assembly when Thursday’s events unfolded.
Mba said she was shocked by the argument playing out before her eyes, comparing it to schoolyard behaviour.
“What I saw was disgraceful,” Mba told CBC Radio’s On the Go. “It was embarrassing.”
She said the exchange went beyond typical political chirping and debate.
Past the disappointment of seeing elected officials act in such a way, Mba said the display raised concerns about workplace harassment.
As a DEI consultant, Mba works with and for marginalized populations. She said the lack of decorum in N.L.’s legislature sets a bad example.
“This shows them that if even in…the highest place of power in our province that people can’t expect respect, what are they to expect in their workplace?”
Mba added people are less likely to run for office if this is what they have to look forward to.
She said the province’s MHAs need to remember their peers are fellow human beings, no matter their political stripe.
“You don’t need to like the person sitting across the floor for you, but you do need to respect them,” Mba said.
On Monday Lane also addressed PC MHA Keith Russell’s sharing of a satirical Facebook post that said Liberal MHAs deserve “a good shit knocking” for supporting the Churchill Falls memorandum of understanding.
The Speaker did not find Russell in breach of privilege.
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