MLA Smith-McCrossin asks Speaker to rule motion threatening to expel her is out of order

The only Independent member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin, is asking the Speaker to rule a motion threatening her with expulsion from the chamber is out of order.

The motion was put forward last spring by the woman who has just become the province’s first female Speaker, Karla MacFarlane.

Smith-McCrossin raised the point of order not long after MacFarlane ceded the chair to a deputy Speaker in order to avoid a conflict of interest.

Smith-McCrossin called the motion “inherently inappropriate” and unfair to her as the representative for Cumberland North.

MacFarlane put forward the motion on April 3, after Smith-McCrossin made an impassioned plea for the government to restrict non-disclosure agreements in cases involving sexual assault.

During debate earlier in the spring sitting, Smith-McCrossin tabled an unsigned document she said was a copy of a non-disclosure agreement a former Tory staffer was coerced into signing with the Progressive Conservative caucus in 2018.

MacFarlane responded by introducing the resolution that called on Smith-McCrossin to retract her accusation and apologize or be ejected from the House until she did.

On Thursday, Smith-McCrossin put forward arguments that the resolution was unconstitutional, infringed on her freedom of expression and her parliamentary privilege, and broke with parliamentary procedure. She said it was akin to a move to find her in contempt of the House and, as such, should have been sent to a committee rather than a majority vote in the chamber.

Opposition leaders supported her position, suggesting that allowing a majority government to use its votes to eject anyone they disagreed with would set a dangerous precedent.

“This is more than a slippery slope, this is an act of aggression towards a member,” said Liberal Leader Zach Churchill.

He called the resolution “a use of overwhelming tactics to silence a member.”

“We firmly believe that it needs to be struck from the order paper,” he said. “The member cannot have a guillotine hanging over her head.”

NDP Leader Claudia Chender echoed those sentiments.

“If the government doesn’t like what someone says, they can remove them and that is something that should be worrying to anyone who suggests that they are a member of a democratic system,” she said.

Asked about the resolution outside the chamber, Premier Tim Houston called it an “appropriate resolution.”

“I think it should stand.”

The deputy Speaker has informed the House he will need time to come to a decision.