Poilievre expelled from House for calling Trudeau ‘whacko’

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OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was kicked out of the House of Commons Tuesday after refusing to apologize for calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a series of unparliamentary words such as “wacko” and “extremist.”

“It’s been an exceptional day,” Speaker Greg Fergus said after expelling both Poilievre and Conservative MP Rachel Thomas from the House during a raucous question period on Tuesday.

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The drama began when Trudeau and Poilievre starting trading barbs, the prime minister arguing that Poilievre was “shamefully” flirting with extremism when he was seen near the logo of far-right group Diagolon last week and the Conservative clapping back at Trudeau’s previous blackface pictures.

But Conservative MP Rachael Thomas was the first MP to be expelled Tuesday when she called Fergus’s handling of the House “disgraceful” and refused to withdraw and apologize for the comment.

“Challenging the chair is against the rules of this House,” he told Thomas, who reiterated that Fergus was acting in a “disgraceful” manner. Fergus expelled her shortly after.

But the Conservative bench-clearing drama kicked up many notches when Poilievre called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “wacko” because his government has not yet approved the B.C. government’s request to limit its decriminalization policy for illicit drugs.

The unparliamentary language caused Fergus to jump to his feet and immediately reprimand the Conservative leader while the Conservative benches cheered their leader.

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“There are a couple of things which are going on today which are not acceptable and I ask all members to please control themselves,” Fergus said before asking Poilievre to retract the term “wacko.”

Poilievre only half obliged, saying he replaced the qualifier with an another unparliamentary description of Trudeau: “extremist.”

Fergus cut off Poilievre mid-sentence and reiterated his demand that Poilievre “simply” withdraw his latest comment on Trudeau.

The exchange between an increasingly frustrated but stoic Fergus continued as Poilievre kept responding to Fergus’s requests to withdraw his comments by alternating his description of Trudeau between “wacko”, “radical” and “extremist.”

After Poilievre ignored Fergus’s final warning, the speaker grabbed a paper sitting to his left, ripped a post-it note off the front and read a declaration kicking the Conservative leader out of the chamber.

“Mr Poilievre, I have to name you for disregarding the authority of the chair. Pursuant to the authority granted to me… I order you to withdraw from the House and from any participation by videoconference for the remainder of this day’s sitting,” Fergus said.

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The House then erupted into a cacophony of noise as the Conservative leader left the chamber, followed slowly by his entire caucus.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet later congratulated the speaker for using his “common sense” when expelling Poilievre, a swipe at the Conservative leader’s oft used expression. The comment earned him laughter and a standing ovation from his caucus.

NDP MP Alex Boulerice also took a swipe at Conservatives by saying that he was thankfully that only “adults” remained in the room after Poilievre was expelled.

Eventually, Fergus himself commented that it was an “exceptional day”.

Despite being offered multiple opportunities by the speaker to retract his comments and replace his unparliamentary language with more acceptable terms, Poilievre complained on social media that he had been censored just minutes after he was expelled.

“Today the Liberal speaker censored me for describing Trudeau’s hard drug policy as wacko,” he wrote on X. “This is a wacko policy from a wacko PM that’s destroying lives.”

Asked if Poilievre was being censored by the Liberals, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said that Poilievre “has never shut his mouth in his life”, accused him of repeatedly saying “dumb things” and suggested “it would be good if he shut up.”

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NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was the last party leader to be expelled from the House in 2020 after he refused to apologize and withdraw comments calling Bloc MP Alain Therrien racist.

A search of House of Commons transcripts dating back to 2001 shows the word “wacko” has been uttered by Liberal, NDP and Conservative MPs in nine previous instances. But in each case, the qualifier was not directed at a specific individual, whereas Poilievre used it to qualify Trudeau.

National Post
cnardi@postmedia.com

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