Budget speech interrupted with ‘let her speak’ chants from Conservatives
Posted March 19, 2019 4:48 pm.
Last Updated March 19, 2019 6:43 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA (CITYNEWS) – The Federal Conservatives did everything they could to delay and disrupt the budget from being announced in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau was supposed to deliver his budget speech at 4 p.m. EST in the House of Commons, but the Conservatives forced a vote on a motion to allow MPs on the fisheries committee to travel, on which a number of Tory MPs voted both for and against.
They then rose, one by one, to apologize for voting twice, each managing to work in a denunciation of the Liberals’ refusal to recall Wilson-Raybould to the committee. “Let her speak” was the common refrain.
Some points of privilege and points of order followed, eating up more time. Morneau finally started speaking at 5 p.m. EST but was drowned out by opposition MPs chanting, “Let her speak.” Commons Speaker Geoff Regan’s calls for order were not heeded.
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer then led the Conservative MPs in a walkout. He told reporters his party will use every tool in the toolbox to hold the Trudeau government to account.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told reporter Cormac Mac Sweeney he doesn’t think this is the right way to protest the government, but it’s clear Canadians are not satisfied with this government, and a public inquiry is needed.
Earlier, Scheer called the budget “a political prop” in its “unprecedented cover-up” of the SNC-Lavalin affair, which has cost Trudeau two cabinet ministers, his top adviser and the country its most senior public servant.
