House of Commons Hansard #58 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was opposition.

Topics

Bill C-14—Time Allocation MotionCriminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:15 p.m.

Some hon. members

Yea.

Bill C-14—Time Allocation MotionCriminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:15 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

All those opposed will please say nay.

Bill C-14—Time Allocation MotionCriminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:15 p.m.

Some hon. members

Nay.

Bill C-14—Time Allocation MotionCriminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:15 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

In my opinion the yeas have it.

And five or more members having risen:

Call in the members.

Before the taking of the vote:

Criminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

I will hear the hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby on a brief point of order or a question of privilege, whichever it is.

Criminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:50 p.m.

NDP

Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC

Mr. Speaker, I have been in the House now for 12 years and I have never seen what just transpired in the House of Commons. The right hon. Prime Minister stepped in to a group of opposition MPs, pushed aside members of the NDP opposition, and manhandled—

Criminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:50 p.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh!

Criminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

Order. I want to hear the member.

Criminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:50 p.m.

NDP

Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC

Mr. Speaker, he elbowed the member for Berthier—Maskinongé and he manhandled the whip of the official opposition. Physical force in the House is never permitted, is never welcome, and it is entirely inappropriate. The actions of the Prime Minister are entirely inappropriate. I have never seen any member of the House act toward another member or members as he just did, and I submit to you that those are entirely inappropriate actions.

Criminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

Order. I see the Prime Minister rising on this serious matter.

We have heard the member for New Westminster—Burnaby, and it was important to hear him, but now I want to hear from the Prime Minister.

Criminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:50 p.m.

Liberal

Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC

Mr. Speaker, as we were gathered here for a vote, after the time had counted down, I observed our whip walking down the aisle to proceed with the vote. I had noticed that the official opposition whip seemed to be impeded in his progress down the hall. I felt that this lacked in respect for Parliament and indeed for the function that the official opposition whip is endeavouring to deliver on behalf of all of us.

Therefore, I walked over to encourage the member to come through, and indeed, offered my arm to help him come through the gaggle of MPs standing there impeding his progress down the aisle, and impeding our ability to move forward with this important vote. In so doing, I admit that I came in physical contact with a number of members as I extended my arm, including someone behind me whom I did not see. I certainly did not intend to offend or impact on anyone. I was simply concerned that, unfortunately, the decorum of this place has been impeded by this kind of prevention of the work that the whips are doing.

If anyone feels that they were impacted by my actions, I completely apologize. It was not my intention to hurt anyone. It is my intention to get this vote done.

Criminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

I have a couple of comments for colleagues, and I want to hear from all members.

There was an issue raised by the hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby. It was not raised as a question of privilege, but the Prime Minister has indicated his apology for his actions.

Members ought to know, first of all, that if one whip walks down before the other and takes his or her seat, and that is either whip, the Speaker then reads the question and the voting process begins. Nothing else is required. That is what happens. That has happened before.

Criminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:55 p.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh!

Criminal CodeGovernment Orders

5:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

Order. It is not appropriate to manhandle other members. The Prime Minister has apologized for that, I believe.

That will conclude the matter for now, and we can go on to the vote.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Vote #63

Criminal CodeGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

I declare the motion carried.

Alleged Actions of Prime Minister in ChamberPrivilegeGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

Mr. Speaker, the rules of the House are quite clear. It is an offence to the privileges of members of Parliament to in any way physically intimidate them or otherwise interfere with them.

Today, I was witness to an extraordinary example of just such physical intimidation by no less than the first minister of this country. I witnessed as he strode across the floor, with anger fierce in his eyes and face, toward—

Alleged Actions of Prime Minister in ChamberPrivilegeGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh!

Alleged Actions of Prime Minister in ChamberPrivilegeGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

Order, please. The member for York—Simcoe has the floor.

Alleged Actions of Prime Minister in ChamberPrivilegeGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

Mr. Speaker, he strode across the floor toward a group of individuals here, and I think the film will show it, but certainly there are many other witnesses here who can speak to what they saw take place. What took place was the Prime Minister physically grabbing people, elbowing people, hauling them down the way; and I am sure his defence will be that he was in some way, on their behalf, asserting their privileges.

That is not his job. It is the job of individual members to assert their own privileges. It is his job to respect the privileges of every member in this House.

O'Brien and Bosc is entirely clear on this matter that, in a case such as this, the Speaker will normally find that the privileges of the members have been offended, that the conduct is unacceptable, and will make that finding of privilege.

I will point out that the individual member—and I witnessed it all right in front of me here, and I do not know if she has returned to the House—was so shaken up by the episode that she left the House. Her ability to participate in the vote was affected and denied. Her privileges were interfered with in a most direct and physical fashion that is unacceptable in this House.

Mr. Speaker, I think you should make the appropriate finding in the circumstances, and I will invite any of my other colleagues who witnessed this to provide further evidence to the House.

Alleged Actions of Prime Minister in ChamberPrivilegeGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

NDP

Niki Ashton NDP Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB

Mr. Speaker, I am rising because I was a witness as well to what took place here, something that I do not think any Canadian could imagine would take place in the House of Commons.

I witnessed the Prime Minister walk over and manhandle the whip of the official opposition, and as he was doing so, he actually pushed my colleague, a friend of mine, a young woman who also sits in this House, and pushed her into the desk. In fact, as he was pulling away, pulled her along with him and physically pushed her into this desk.

I am ashamed, as somebody who sits in this House, to have been witness to the person who holds the highest elected position in our country to have done such an act in this House.

We were witnesses in this House. I also want to say that, for all of us who witnessed this, it is deeply traumatic. I am unwilling to make this political, but if we apply a gendered lens, it is very important that we recognize that young women in this place need to feel safe to come here, to work here, to speak here.

Not only was this the furthest thing from a feminist act, in and of itself this act made not only my colleague—and she can certainly speak to her own experiences—but any young woman, any woman, anybody who sits in this House feel unsafe and deeply troubled by the conduct of the Prime Minister of this country.

Alleged Actions of Prime Minister in ChamberPrivilegeGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

Hull—Aylmer Québec

Liberal

Greg Fergus LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Innovation

Mr. Speaker, I too witnessed this event. I would not like to try to take this any further than what has been described, which frankly I think might have been exaggerated, but what I would like to say is that I did see the hon. member—

Alleged Actions of Prime Minister in ChamberPrivilegeGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh.

Alleged Actions of Prime Minister in ChamberPrivilegeGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan

Order, order. We are here talking about members' privileges. We are talking about order in the House. Let us show the respect that we are looking for here. We are talking about respect for other members. Let us show some, all of us, please. The hon. member for Hull—Aylmer has the floor.