COLUMN: View from the Legislature – A long overdue ruling

Manitoba Speaker of the legislative assembly Tom Lindsey issued an important ruling on Monday.

For several years now, Manitobans who observed the proceedings of the Manitoba legislature have been shocked at the behaviour displayed. While politics has never been for the faint of heart, the types of personal attacks that have been disguised as parliamentary debate has become, frankly, disgraceful.

As I’ve said publicly before, while I believe it is the responsibility for the political head of government (the premier in our system) to set the example, the problems did not begin with Wab Kinew. The decorum in the Manitoba legislature has been on a downward slide for many years. And while the downward slide did not begin recently, it has gotten worse recently.

In Canadian legislatures and in Parliament, it is a longstanding rule that members cannot attack the character of another member. As one example, you cannot call another member a liar. That is an attack on character. But, up until Monday, in Manitoba a member could call another member a bigot, homophobe, misogynist, racist or transphobe. The Manitoba legislature was the only elected House in Canada where that was allowed. In fact, not only were words such as bigot and racist allowed to be hurled against another member, they were tossed around so routinely that they lost the seriousness that those words should have.

Instead, they have been used as a substitute for substantive debate. If a debater was unable to make a strong argument or felt that one was being made against them, a shout of “bigot” was not uncommon. This was done in the hopes of simply turning a losing debate in a more favourable direction. I have personally witnessed a member yell (at their loudest of octave) the name of a member followed by “bigot” and “racist”. That was followed by high fives from their colleagues who surrounded them, like a winning goal had been scored.

If a news story was written every time a member in the Manitoba Legislature was accused of one of the five things that the Speaker has now ruled as unparliamentary language (bigot, homophobe, misogynist, racist and transphobe), there would, literally, be a story almost everyday. But there isn’t. Why? One can assume because they are hurled so frequently and without basis that they are not even deemed worth reporting anymore. Where such an accusation would have been a “stop the presses” moment 25 years ago, today it is just part of the auditory din of question period.

The sad reality is that in the Manitoba legislature, these hateful terms, and a few others, have been thrown around so frequently and without any real context that they have lost the meaning and gravity that should be afforded them. But more than that, they have made the debate in the legislature so personal, that there is almost no room for people to act in a bipartisan and reasonable way anymore. After all, it is a challenge, for even someone with the thickest skin to sit down to work out an issue on legislation when those you must confer with have called you a racist and bigot minutes before and, as has happened, just for the crime of sitting in the legislative assembly.

There are many things that must happen for decorum to improve in all elected Houses. Some of them revolve around the internal workings of the legislature or Parliament, and some of them are more societal.

But steps must be taken, and some lines have to be drawn.

Of course, on those rare occasions when a member of the House acts in a way that is as unbecoming as the words bigot, homophobe, misogynist, racist or transphobe would describe, they will no doubt have to answer for those actions publicly through the media and to their constituents. As it should be. As it always has been.

I think for the vast majority of Manitobans, and certainly for those who wish to seek office in the future, they will see Mr. Lindsey’s ruling as one step in making public office worth seeking and more respectable.