Independent MLA wants court to kill PC resolution to expel her

The province’s only independent MLA, Elizabeth Smith-Mcrossin, is asking a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge to pass a resolution brought forward last spring by the secretary of community services to remove her from the legislature, to declare “null and void”.

Karla MacFarlane introduced Resolution 598 on April 3, calling on the House to declare that Smith-McCrossin “has misled the House and that she should not sit until she has retracted her remarks and apologized.”

The move was sparked by comments made by Smith-McCrossin the previous week during the debate on the use of non-disclosure agreements in cases of sexual assault or harassment.

The former PC MLA, who has sat as an Independent since 2021, accused the PC caucus of “forcing” a young female staffer to sign a non-disclosure agreement to prevent the woman, who later worked for Smith-McCrossin, from reveal what happened between her. and former leader Jamie Baillie.

Smith-McCrossin submitted a redacted document that she claimed was evidence of the non-disclosure agreement between caucus and Kait Saxton.

In 2018, caucus forced Baillie to quit his job for what it called “inappropriate behavior” towards a female staffer.

MacFarlane, the interim leader after Baillie was dumped, forced everyone to sign a document to silence them about what happened.

“The NDA doesn’t exist,” MacFarlane told reporters last spring. “It doesn’t exist in our files or anywhere else because it didn’t happen.”

While the government has never called for a vote on the resolution and Smith-MCrossin has not issued an apology, the resolution remains on the order form and can be called for at any time.

Smith-McCrossin filed a motion in court in Amherst, NS, on Monday to have the resolution declared “null and void.”

Smith-Mcrossin told her constituency’s CBC News on Wednesday that the resolution’s persistence is an attempt to silence her.

“I will continue to speak the truth and remain honest and be the voice of my people, but it is intimidating to see a motion on the order form trying to remove me,” Smith-McCrossin said. “It’s intimidating. I don’t believe it should be there.”

‘We will respond in court’

Smith-Mcrossin came closest to retracting her accusation against the PC caucus by saying she was passing on the information as she understood it to be true.

Prime Minister Tim Houston’s press secretary, Meagan Byrd, said in an email Wednesday that since Smith-McCrossin “admitted that her comments on the House floor were not factual,” there was no need to vote on the resolution.

“However, just as there is no way to remove her untruthful comments from the record, there is also no way to remove a motion from Hansard,” Byrd wrote. “We will respond in court.”

While a motion cannot be removed from Hansard, which is the official record of the House, legislative rules say that a member who introduces a motion can withdraw it as long as all other MLAs agree.

Smith-McCrossin has said she found the copy of the document among her former employee’s belongings after the woman died of a brain hemorrhage last year. The woman’s parents released a statement saying their daughter was “ghost robbed” and “treated like an outcast” after she signed a non-disclosure agreement and quit her job with the Tories.

A date is set for August 3 when the lawsuit will be heard by a judge.