Opposition filibuster ends in profanity as Liberal chair adjourns meeting
Larry Bagnell: 'So I adjourned and Mr. [Scott] Reid was not happy. He had a bit of an outburst'
An opposition filibuster, launched in response to the Liberal government's moves on parliamentary reform, ended in profanity on Tuesday as Conservative MP Scott Reid loudly objected to the Liberal chairman's decision to adjourn a meeting of the procedure and House affairs committee.
The outburst, and Reid's pursuit of Liberal MP Larry Bagnell, the chair of the committee, after the meeting, was captured by House of Commons cameras.
Conservatives and New Democrats have been filibustering the committee's proceedings since March.
But the motion that was being stymied — Liberal MP Scott Simms' attempt to have the committee study the government's reform proposals — is set to be withdrawn in light of the Liberal government's decision to proceed through other means. The committee will also soon be charged with studying a complaint by two Conservative MPs that they were recently prevented by security officers on Parliament Hill from getting to a vote in the House.
Bagnell told reporters on Wednesday that "events had sort of surpassed our discussion on that motion" and so he adjourned the scheduled meeting.
"So I adjourned and Mr. Reid was not happy," Bagnell said. "He had a bit of an outburst about being unhappy."
On Twitter, Reid argued that Bagnell's move to adjourn contradicted his previous handling of the committee.
"This is the most grotesque abuse of a chairman's authority I've seen, in 16 years around this place," Reid tweeted.
After 2 months of insisting that a mtg can't be adjourned the consent of the majority, Larry Bagnell just adjourned the mtg without consent.
—@ScottReidCPCHe did so in the midst of my attempt to raise a point of privilege on this very point.
—@ScottReidCPCThis is the most grotesque abuse of a chairman's authority I've seen, in 16 years around this place.
—@ScottReidCPCMeanwhile, opposition MPs were separately unhappy at the government's move to end debate in the House about the actions of Hill security.
That debate, in different iterations, has tied up the House for parts of five days this month. The Liberals seemed, at one point, to have ended the debate with a procedural manoeuvre, only for the Speaker to rule that move was a matter of privilege, causing the debate to restart.
Once debate is concluded on Wednesday, the matter will be sent to Bagnell's committee for further study.