The Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan wrapped up the final session before the next provincial election, expected in the spring, in a fiery fashion as the Speaker of the Assembly, Randy Weekes, spoke at the end of the session, laying out a number of allegations as he addressed the Assembly before it adjourned.
“When I became Speaker, the intimidating and harassing text messages began immediately, trying to influence my rulings,” Weekes said in his address. “My experience with the Government House Leader in the chamber includes threatening gestures. Whenever I ruled against him during a session, he would start yelling at me and stand up and flash his suit jacket and storm out.”
Weekes entered into the record several text messages he received from the Government House Leader, Meadow Lake MLA Jeremy Harrison, and the Deputy Government House Leader, Estevan MLA Lori Carr, including complaints about rulings made during debates.
Weekes also stated Harrison had a strong desire to bring a handgun to the Assembly, and an incident was reported to a special constable after Harrison brought a hunting rifle to the Legislative building.
Weekes brought up the issues at the end of the session, as an outgoing MLA, as he feared his removal from the position by the government if he had voiced the concerns earlier.
After the session, Premier Scott Moe was asked about the allegations that were levelled by Weekes in the chamber.
“At this point, I can’t attribute it to anything more than just sour grapes that he wasn’t successful in the nomination,” Moe told reporters. Weekes had put his name in for the nomination for the riding of Kindersley-Biggar but lost out to Kim Gartner.
“It seems like he’s airing some laundry that he might think is dirty, or shaping it in a way that he might think is problematic for the government or Minister Harrison, someone that he might have an issue with,” Moe added.
The allegations concerned NDP leader Carla Beck.
“I would expect that, as the leader, the Premier would take these allegations seriously, would look to investigate them thoroughly because these really were disturbing, you know, from firearms to real abuse of power, threatening text messages,” Beck stated. “That’s not what we heard from the Premier yesterday, and I do think this is a sign of leadership. He’s lost control of the caucus.”
For Weekes, he said he will continue to serve in the role of Speaker until the Legislative Assembly is officially dissolved for the next provincial election. When that happens, he said he has an opportunity to participate in international electoral observation missions around the world.
“But first, before I travel thousands of miles to support democracies facing challenges worldwide in recent decades with the resurgence of populism and the increase in popularity of leaders with autocratic tendencies, I’m going to carry out the remainder of my term as Speaker right here in Saskatchewan, championing the electoral process and continue being the custodian of this institution and defend and protect our democracy.”