The Official Opposition was thwarted at the House Services Committee meeting today (Mon), after asking Speaker Randy Weekes to convene the meeting to request a full investigation into his allegations around guns, bullying and harassment, which he made on the final day of the spring sitting.
Ethics and Democracy Critic, Meara Conway says there were three motions before the committee. The first was to have four people – the Premier, Minister Jeremy Harrison, House Leader Lori Carr and the Senior Advisor to the Premier – testify before the committee. Conway states that government committee members used their majority to rewrite the motion so no one would be called to testify.
The other two motions were to appoint an independent investigator to look at all of the allegations and what the NDP alleges was the subsequent cover-up, and more specifically to investigate Harrison bringing a long gun to the Legislative building. Both of them were blocked.
Instead, the government will conduct an investigation through the Legislature’s anti-harassment policy, which doesn’t have the scope to investigate allegations around guns or whether there was a cover-up by government when these allegations arose. Conway also states that this means the investigation won’t be transparent because it won’t be public.
Premier Moe has stated previously that he believes the Speaker has sour grapes about not being chosen as the candidate to run in his current riding.