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Speaker Tom Lindsey said Monday that MLAs on both sides of the chamber are a problem, with excessive heckling and unparliamentary language and behaviour. (Mikaela MacKenzie \/ Free Press files)<\/p>\n
Nahanni Fontaine questioned the speaker\u2019s ban, saying her role as government house leader is to ensure NDP colleagues \u2014 in the only caucus with a trans man, Indigenous woman, black man, Sikh, Asian Canadian members, a black queer and gender non-conforming member of legislature \u2014 are protected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are racist, if you\u2019re a misogynist, if you are transphobic, if you are anti-Black, if you are anti-Indigenous \u2014 if you are all of these things and you do that in the chamber, you can just do it now. There\u2019s no consequences,\u201d she told reporters after question period.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I and my colleagues are meant to just accept that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindsey told the house that the banned words don\u2019t mean the behaviour they describe is acceptable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that these words are now unparliamentary does not allow members to use language that could be interpreted as bigoted, homophobic, misogynist, racist, transphobic or offensive in nature,\u201d he said before the start of question period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be listening very closely to language used on the record to ensure that all members are being respectful and not being offensive or disorderly in their comments. I will also be listening for members using creative variations of the words I\u2019ve listed and those comments may also warrant a caution or be ruled out of order,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese changes do not infringe on the privilege freedom of speech enjoyed by all members.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Manitoba\u2019s assembly isn\u2019t alone in banning the five words.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese words would be ruled unparliamentary in other legislatures because, like the word \u201cliar,\u201d they constitute reflection on a member\u2019s character or integrity rather than debating policy,\u201d said Lindsey, the MLA for Flin Flon, who was elected under the NDP banner but serves in the non-partisan Speaker\u2019s role.<\/p>\n
MLAs on both sides of the chamber are a problem, with excessive heckling and unparliamentary language and behaviour, he said Monday.<\/p>\n
Lindsey said he\u2019s been approached by people on the street expressing concern about the lack of decorum in the chamber. He said he has heard from teachers who don\u2019t want to take students to observe question period because of MLAs\u2019 behaviour.<\/p>\n
Visitors\u2019 services at the legislature passed along concerns raised by the students: \u201cThey found question period to be loud and overwhelming. Students were shocked and confused after hearing disrespectful language between members,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents asked what everyone was so angry about. Why are they all mad? Why are they shouting at each other? Students asked why members are allowed to call each other names,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents said that it\u2019s very disrespectful for members to yell at each other and not to listen to who\u2019s talking.\u201d<\/p>\n
They see a roomful of adults yelling at each other and calling each other names \u2014 the opposite of how teachers and parents are teaching them to act, the speaker said.<\/p>\n
After previously issuing several warnings to MLAs, Lindsey said the bad behaviour has to stop and that members will be warned three times before being called out by name rather than their title, and ejected from that day\u2019s sitting.<\/p>\n
After question period, the speaker directed Progressive Conservative MLA Wayne Ewasko (Lac du Bonnet) to apologize for heckling last month: \u201cHey \u2014 quit drinking\u201d at Premier Wab Kinew.<\/p>\n
Lindsey said he listened to audio after government house leader Nahanni Fontaine complained April 15 that Ewasko\u2019s comments directed at Manitoba\u2019s first First Nations premier were disparaging and amounted to anti-Indigenous racism.<\/p>\n
Lindsey, who said he listened to audio and heard Ewasko say, \u201cHey \u2014 quit drinking\u201d to the premier, asked Ewasko to unequivocally apologize for the remark.<\/p>\n
Ewasko said he accepted the Speakers\u2019 ruling, and hoped that members on the government bench would do better in the future.<\/p>\n
Lindsey asked again if Ewasko would apologize and his response was if the premier was offended by what he said, he apologized for the remark, \u201cbut in no way, shape or form\u2026 was this meant as a racist comment, whatsoever \u2014 it was talking about his behaviour in the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Ewasko didn\u2019t unequivocally apologize after being asked a third time, the Speaker called him out by name and ejected him from the chamber for disregarding the authority of the chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to congratulate us on meeting a new low,\u201d Lindsey said after Ewasko departed.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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Outside the chamber, PC Leader Obby Khan commended the Speaker for his decision to ban the words<\/p>\n
\u201cThis language is always hurled from the government to our side,\u201d Khan said. \u201cWe\u2019re not the ones using these five words against them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside the chamber, the premier, flanked by most of his caucus, said Ewasko\u2019s comment was discriminatory and played on an ugly racist stereotype. Kinew said he accepted Ewasko\u2019s apology. He urged young people experiencing discrimination to rise above the \u201ccheap shots\u201d and hateful remarks and move on.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With files from Gabrielle Piche\u00a0<\/p>\n
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n
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Carol Sanders Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
Legislature reporter
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