PALMER: F-BOMBS LAUNCHED IN CHAMBER
A house divided: Remarks withdrawn, apologies made — and then hostilities continue outside the chamber
For a moment Thursday I wondered if the Hansard channel might have to start including a parental warning that “today’s broadcast may not be suitable for all audiences,” while the printed text comes stamped with the kind of thing you read on rap music albums: “Explicit content.”
For shortly after 11 a.m., during an otherwise routine debate on changes in the Mines Act, the house erupted with an exchange of invective that included not one but two uses of the F-word.
It happened while NDP MLA Doug Donaldson was berating the government for failing to live up to its own pro-resource development rhetoric.
He did so by citing a Fraser Institute survey that ranked B.C. eighth from the bottom among more than 100 jurisdictions as a place to invest in mining because of lingering uncertainty over native land claims.
“Even Venezuela finished ahead of B.C.,” Donaldson taunted, whereupon Mines Minister Bill Bennett began shouting at him from his place across the floor of the house.
Perhaps it was the reference to the unfavourable ranking from a right-ofcentre think-tank, or maybe the suggestion that B.C. ranked lower than a country widely regarded as a leftist basket case.
But whatever the reason for the Bennett outburst, NDP MLA Norm Macdonald was soon returning fire in a no less vitriolic fashion.
The two represent adjacent ridings along the Alberta border — Kootenay East for Bennett, Columbia River-Revelstoke for Macdonald — and their relationship can be described as mutual contempt, compounded by a failure to understand how the other keeps getting re-elected. Still, after more than a decade apiece in the house, you’d think they might have gained a measure of impulse control. Instead, while Donaldson tried to continue his speech, Bennett fired a “f--- you” at Macdonald and the New Democrat echoed him back: “F--- you — is that what you said, Bill?”
Background exchanges don’t usually make it into the official Hansard transcript of proceedings. But the two were shouting and the microphones picked it up.
Assistant deputy Speaker Raj Chouhan, who was in the chair, heard the expletives as well and called the place to order.
“The minister of mines just used very vulgar and embarrassing language — and the member opposite,” he said. “Both of them will apologize to this house.”
Bennett by that point had already left the chamber for a cooling-off session. Macdonald did bow to the chair, albeit while taking a shot at his rival.
“I will certainly apologize to the house, and I look forward to the minister coming in and apologizing to the house. This is not the first time that the minister has done this. He has called me a loser, and now he stands up with an expletive. But I apologize for my behaviour.”
Debate then resumed until a halfhour later, when Bennett returned to the chamber from his time out.
Chouhan: “The chair will ask the minister of mines to stand up and apologize and withdraw his comments.” Bennett: “I withdraw that remark.” Chouhan, not letting him off the hook: “And apologize.” Bennett: “I apologize.” That should have been the end of it. But incredibly, the hostilities continued after Macdonald followed Bennett out of the chamber and the two faced off in the legislature corridor. One who was there assures me that both members needed to be calmed down and led away by their respective colleagues lest the exchange escalate into something out of a pro wrestling ring.
Bennett returned to the chamber just before noon to move adjournment of debate — it was his legislation on the order paper — only to try to relight the fuse vis-à-vis Macdonald.
A day earlier, the New Democrat had insinuated that the mines minister was reluctant to crack down on the operator of the ill-fated Mount Polley mine because the company had contributed to a $1-million fundraiser that Bennett supposedly attended during the 2013 election.
“I actually was not there,” protested Bennett, whose temper is readily triggered by attacks on his integrity. “I don’t know anything about it. And for anyone to suggest that this side of the house can be bought, it’s not much wonder we get upset.”
That brought a return protest from Opposition house leader Mike Farnworth.
For one thing, the Bennett outburst had nothing to do with the business at hand, which was adjournment of debate for the noon break.
For another, the minister was reading from a tablet, a clear violation of the rules of the house, crafted to prevent political staff from feeding members their lines in mid-speech: “Electronic devices must not be used by a member who is in possession of the floor,” the rules of the legislative assembly state.
Speaker of the legislature Linda Reid, having assumed the chair, let the matter pass, though later in the day she would rule that Farnworth was correct in his reading of the rules.
But for now, she had more important business at hand. “I can tell all members that the conduct in this house today is absolutely appalling,” Reid said, rising to the occasion. “That will never occur in this chamber again.”
The B.C. legislature has had worse days in the past. Still, that statement from the speaker was as unprecedented as the F-bombs flying back and forth inside the legislature chamber, and both sides should be ashamed.