House Speaker kicks Pierre Poilievre out of Commons over unparliamentary comments

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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was kicked out of the House of Commons on Tuesday for calling Justin Trudeau “wacko,” prompting accusations of partisanship against the Speaker who did not censure the Prime Minister for saying Mr. Poilievre showed “shameful, spineless leadership.”

The Tories left the House en masse after their leader was kicked out. Speaker Greg Fergus is a Liberal MP, but he is expected to govern the House in a non-partisan manner.

The attacks between the Prime Minister and Conservative Leader have become increasingly personal and charged in the past few months but were ratcheted up further Tuesday. The Liberals have been trying to sharpen their critiques of Mr. Poilievre as they try to climb their way out of a double-digit hole in public opinion polling that shows the Conservatives would handily win government if an election were held today.

This week, the Conservatives have seized on British Columbia’s request that Ottawa scale back its pilot project that decriminalized possession of small amounts of certain illegal drugs, including heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine. Premier David Eby acknowledged concerns and said the use of hard drugs in public spaces should be recriminalized. The pilot project was greenlit by Mr. Trudeau’s government.

On the governing side, the Liberals have jumped on Mr. Poilievre’s impromptu decision to attend an anti-carbon tax protest that included a flag with an expletive aimed at the Prime Minister and what appeared to be the symbol of an anti-government, far-right group called Diagolon. They were further emboldened Tuesday by the Conservative Leader’s comments that if he formed government he would take the unprecedented step of using the notwithstanding clause to overrule the courts on criminal sentencing rules.

In Question Period, the testy exchanges began almost immediately, with Mr. Trudeau refusing to say whether he would accept B.C.’s request to reverse the drug decriminalization pilot program. Instead he used his time to accuse Mr. Poilievre of “actively courting the support of groups with white nationalist views.”

Mr. Trudeau urged Mr. Poilievre to denounce the groups, but the Conservative Leader instead condemned Mr. Trudeau and described him “as a practising racist, dressing up in hideous racist costumes.”

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The comments earned him a caution from Mr. Fergus and Mr. Poilievre then pivoted to the drug decriminalization pilot program and asked “will the Prime Minister reverse his extremist policies and the death they bring?”

“The leader opposite is showing us exactly what shameful, spineless leadership looks like,” Mr. Trudeau replied. “He shakes hands with white nationalists and then goes to actively court the support of those members.”

The Prime Minister’s comments prompted outrage from the opposition who questioned the Speaker’s competence. Conservative MP Rachael Thomas accused Mr. Fergus of “acting in a disgraceful manner.” The Speaker then booted Ms. Thomas from the House but only gave Mr. Trudeau a caution and a chance to “reframe” his comments.

Shortly after, Mr. Poilievre again drew the ire of the Speaker.

“When will we put an end to this wacko policy by the wacko Prime Minister?” Mr. Poilievre asked about the drug decriminalization program.

Mr. Fergus asked him to withdraw the unparliamentary comment but the Conservative Leader refused, instead suggesting “wacko” be replaced with “radical” or “extremist.”

Mr. Poilievre was then ordered to withdraw from the House for the remainder of the day, though he is free to return on Wednesday and is not required to apologize.

Party leaders have been kicked out of the House before, including in 2020 when NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called a Bloc Québécois MP racist.

Later on Tuesday, the Conservative Leader doubled down on his statements, saying on social media the Prime Minister’s “stance on hard drug use in public is wacko.”

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner called Mr. Fergus’s decision to boot Mr. Poilievre an “abrogation of democracy.”

“The fact that the Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada was thrown out of there for doing his exact job is shameful,” she said.

The Conservatives pointed out that the word wacko has been used previously by MPs, including in 2022 by NDP MP and House Leader Peter Julian who was not censured for saying Conservatives were making “wacko claims.”

However, Liberal House Leader Steven MacKinnon said Mr. Poilievre used “violent rhetoric” when he blamed the Prime Minister’s policies for drug deaths. “He basically accused the Prime Minister of having policies to murder people and to have people die,” he told reporters outside the House.

In a separate scrum, Mr. Julian criticized Mr. Poilievre for failing to withdraw the comment when asked by the Speaker.

“Mr. Poilievre seems to want to burn everything down,” Mr. Julian said, noting also the Conservative Leader’s support for using the notwithstanding clause.

The clause gives governments the power to suspend certain rights guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for up to five years.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr. Poilievre told reporters he would trigger the clause to extend the sentence of Alexandre Bissonnette, who was convicted of murdering six worshippers at a Quebec City mosque in 2017.

Mr. Bissonnette was initially sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 40 years. But the Supreme Court struck down the law that allowed such long sentences in 2022.

Mr. Poilievre opposed the decision and said he would use the notwithstanding clause to override it. He repeated that position on Tuesday.

“Six innocent Muslims murdered, and he gets only 25 years? I think that’s a disgrace,” Mr. Poilievre said. “When I’m Prime Minister, he will stay behind bars and he will only come out in a box.”

With reports from Ian Bailey and Sean Fine