The legislative chamber is also a courtroom?

Saskatchewan politics is filled with random events not making any headlines. In this weekly feature, political reporter D.C. Fraser shares some of those stories.

PUBLIC EVENTS CALENDAR

Each Friday, the province sends out a news release notifying media of events government ministers are scheduled to be at the following week. I always look at the list, in part because doing so is part of my job; but beyond that it’s interesting to see all the events government officials attend. For example, this Thursday alone, deputy premier Gord Wyant is attending four events in two cities.

His day will start by giving greetings to Saskatchewan Association of School Business Officials in Regina, then he will deliver remarks to the Saskatchewan Teacher’s Federation in Saskatoon, attend a Crossroads International event and, finally, go to the Order of the Eastern Star of Saskatchewan’s annual convention. Before he travels to Saskatoon for the final three events, he’ll likely also attend the day’s government proceedings in the legislative assembly. Busy guy.

STRANGE TRADITIONS

Canadian politics is steeped in traditions, many (most?) of which are inherited from the United Kingdom and the Westminster parliamentary system we adopted here. Saskatchewan’s legislative assembly is no different.

One person who knows way more about this than I do is Jeremy Harrison, the minister of trade and export development. He is a huge parliamentary nerd, so I asked him what his favourite tradition is.

“One thing I was thinking about the other day is the chamber right here, it’s not just a chamber. It’s actually a court of law as well and Parliament itself a court of law, from the point of inception almost. It hasn’t been used as a court of law for probably 100 years, but the authority still exists.”

I’m thinking, “Neat, I did not know that.” Then he continued.

“So a journalist for example, who called into question the ruling of a Speaker for instance, that could be and technically would be a breach of the privilege of the chamber itself ... the House could actually summon that person before the bar of the House, conduct a trial however they want to conduct a trial and provide a sentence, which could include imprisonment for life.”

Mostly because of his example, and because Jeremy has had his share of heated exchanges with reporters, I jokingly asked, “How often do you sit there thinking, ‘Damn, I wish we could still do this?’ “

Harrison’s response, with perhaps just a hint of facetiousness: “I never think that, because of the high quality of commentary and standards that we have in this province’s press gallery.”

I will be checking to see if that is the case the next time my colleague, Murray Mandryk, writes a scathing column involving Harrison.

HUMBOLDT MEMORIAL

A memorial, including a book of condolences, for those killed in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash will be gone from the Legislative Building on Monday. Last week I wrote about how members of the public were coming to the building to write something in it, and that continued this week.

(Also, last week I mentioned the memorial was temporarily removed for budget day — later, I learned it was just moved to the entranceway.)

The Legislative Building also honoured the 16 people who passed away in the crash by shining green and yellow lights (the team colours) on the building ’s dome for 16 days. Sunday was the last day. The flags of the building have been at half-staff since the Saturday after the accident, but I am told they will also return to full staff on Monday. I expect at least some of the hockey sticks placed outside office doors, or the Broncos signs posted, will remain a little longer. So too will the memory of the 16 who passed.