NDP calling for ‘disciplinary measures’ for Speaker Fergus, won’t ask him to resign

New Democrats are calling on the House of Commons to impose “disciplinary measures” on embattled Speaker Greg Fergus — but the party will not call for his resignation.

Fergus has been facing calls from the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois to step down ever since he appeared in a video paying tribute to John Fraser, the outgoing interim leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, that was shown at a party convention. Fergus appears in the video in his official office, wearing his Speaker’s robes.

NDP House Leader Peter Julian said his party will be pushing for Fergus to face a “financial penalty” and apologize to the House.

“We’re acting as the adults in the room to make sure we’re moving forward in a way that this doesn’t happen again,” Julian told reporters outside the House on Tuesday. He didn’t say how large a fine Fergus should pay.

If the Liberals, who have voiced their support for Fergus, agree to the NDP’s demands, Fergus likely will be able to keep his job.

The four major parties agreed to have the House procedures committee look into the matter and report back by the end of this week. Fergus has said he would abide by any decision the committee makes.

Julian said the NDP would table a motion calling for Fergus to step down if such an incident were to happen again. He also said his party wants to see clearer rules on partisan activities written into the Speaker’s briefing package.

“This is a new Speaker,” Julian said. “There is a real shortfall in how new Speakers are briefed. That’s something the clerk admitted to and I think it’s something that we have to take responsibility for as an institution.”

Appearing before the committee on Monday, Fergus apologized but maintained that he was told the video was meant to be shown at a private event and not at the provincial party convention.

“I recorded a video message to John Fraser, a longtime friend. Despite assurances to the contrary, it was shown at a public partisan gathering,” he said. “Regardless of it being aired privately or publicly, I should never have recorded it.”

Going forward, Fergus said, the Clerk of the House of Commons will be consulted each time a request is made for Fergus to speak at an event or provide a video message.

Fergus said his office is drafting an “evaluation grid” that it will submit to the clerk’s office for approval. The grid would help the office decide on the propriety of the Speaker’s communications.

But those promises did little to convince Conservative and Bloc MPs that he should continue to sit in the Speaker’s chair.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Fergus should still step down.

“He disqualified himself. He should go and we should find someone … to try and do the job properly, as it should be done, and that should be the end of it,” Blanchet told reporters Tuesday.

Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer, who held the Speaker’s chair from 2011 to 2015, said MPs need a Speaker who can make decisions without running them through “decision making trees.”

“We have to trust that that is coming from a non-partisan and objective place,” Scheer told Fergus at committee Monday. 

“I would suggest that the fact that you didn’t see that suggests you are too close to the partisanship of it, you’re too close with these partisan players [to see] that, for members of other parties, it would be a problem.”

When asked how Fergus could continue without the support of two of the major parties, Julian said Speakers rarely enjoy the full confidence of the House.

“Speakers always have a part of the House that is not in favour of them,” he said.

Fergus was elected Speaker in early October after his predecessor, Liberal MP Anthony Rota, stepped down amid controversy.

During Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Ottawa in September, Rota recognized in the House of Commons a man who had served in a voluntary unit created by the Nazis to help fight the Soviet Union during the Second World War.