GUNTER: Fergus the partisan speaker needs to go

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Speaker Greg Fergus may not mean to be biased in favour of the Liberals in the House of Commons. Perhaps his partisanship is just drilled so deep into his marrow that he doesn’t even realize how biased he’s being.

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That doesn’t matter. Fergus acts in a partisan, pro-Liberal way too often. So, therefore he must go.

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He has put his thumb on the Liberal scale too many times. And in his all-powerful role – where objectivity and impartiality are key – whether his bias is conscious or unconscious doesn’t matter. He’s too tainted to be trusted as neutral arbiter of Commons business.

Ever since Fergus expelled Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre from question period on Tuesday, there have been accusations against the Speaker that he was deliberately trying to protect Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a time when Poilievre was scoring political points for hammering at the Liberals’ stubborn devotion drug decriminalization, which has been an unmitigated disaster at ending addiction and overdose deaths.

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The policy has increased street crime and deaths, not lowered them.

Trudeau started the fracas with Poilievre by ignoring the opposition leader’s questions about the drug policy and instead asking the Conservative why he consorts with white nationalists – a reference to an impromptu visit Poilievre made two weeks ago to a Maritimes tax-protest camp where one of the RVs sported the symbol of a white supremist group on its door.

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Misdirection and false accusations are all the Liberals have right now, since every policy initiative they take, including last week’s budget, sinks them further and further in the polls.

Moments later, Poilievre called both Trudeau and his drug policy “wacko.” (Apparently, the truth is not a defence in Parliament the way it would be in a libel suit.)

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Trudeau responded by calling Poilievre “spineless.” Yet, Speaker Fergus only saw fit to throw Poilievre out.

Fergus was right about Poilievre’s language being “unparliamentary,” but no more unparliamentary than Trudeau’s.

And Poilievre was guilty, as Fergus said, of “calling into question the character of an individual member of parliament.” But so, too, was Trudeau. Indeed, I would argue it is worse character assassination for Trudeau to claim Poilievre is “actively courting the support of groups with white nationalist views,” than it is for Poilievre to label Trudeau and his policies wacko.

Where Fergus displayed his bias was in seeing and acting only on Poilievre’s infractions of the Commons’ rules and not Trudeau’s.

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Compounding Fergus’s one-sidedness was the fact the Speaker didn’t go through all the steps necessary to warn an MP, particularly one who is also a party leader, that he was in danger of expulsion. Fergus acted arbitrarily and without regard for Poilievre’s due process.

Fergus also expelled Alberta Conservative MP Rachael Thomas for challenging his uneven application of House rules.

Thomas Mulcair, the former NDP and Opposition Leader, told CTV that Fergus had acted in a manner that “was manifestly, obviously partisan.” Before becoming NDP leader, Mulcair has been his party’s House leader and is very familiar with Parliamentary rules.

Fergus clearly exercised a double standard, coming down harder and faster on the Conservatives than the Liberal. Such poor judgement is completely unacceptable in someone with has much unchallenged power as the Speaker of the House of Commons.

It is also part of a pattern of partisan bias on Fergus’s part since becoming Speaker. In December, Fergus landed in hot water for making a video tribute, dressed in his Speaker’s robes, to mark the retirement of the outgoing leader of the Ontario Liberals.

Even if you believe none of this rises to a level of bias that disqualifies Fergus from his job, in his post even the perception of bias is enough. And there is enough perception of bias to force Fergus to resign to preserve public trust that the House of Commons if not merely a Liberal institution.

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