MPP told ‘shut your mouth’ at Queen’s Park

MPP for Simcoe-Grey Brian Saunderson tells MPP for Windsor West to "Shut your mouth."

During debate at Queen’s Park, a Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) was told “shut your mouth” by a fellow MPP.

Unruly debate, questioning, heckling… all cornerstones of the democratic process in the House of Commons or Queens Park.

Booing and insulting is common in the coliseum of provincial legislature. Verbal back-and-forth, is essentially, part of the gig for elected officials, but can it go too far?

On June 1, during a debate on Bill 119, NDP member for Windsor West Lisa Gretzky interrupted PC MPP for Simcoe-Grey, Brian Saunderson.

According to the official transcript, Saunderson was talking about victims of intimate-partner violence getting restraining orders from their abusers.

“If clients came from out of the province with a restraining order, they actually have to go to court, to get the court to approve that order in Ontario, so -” Saunderson was saying, when Gretzky interrupted.

The interjection at that point is noted by the official legislative transcript, but what exactly Gretzky said is not specified.

“You had your turn, shut your mouth,” was Saunderson’s response.

Speaker Effie J. Triantafilopoulos stepped in right away, asking Saunderson, “would the member kindly retract that comment?”

“Which comment was that, Madam Speaker,” Saunderson replied.

After another interjection, Triantafilopoulos encouraged both ministers to “take a breath,” before repeating her request for Saunderson to redact his comment, to which he agreed.

A few moments later, Gretzky called out Saunderson for his comment.

“I’m proposing an invitation to my colleague from Simcoe–Grey to reflect on his behaviour and understand how that is part of the problem in this province —" said Gretzky, as members of the legislature starting shouting again.

“Just be calm, please. Please be calm,” Triantafilopoulos then said to the outbursts in the room.

In an interview with CTV News on Friday, Gretzky admitted she did interject while Saunderson was talking.

Saying in part, “I had said, that often times, restraining orders don’t often keep women and children safe, if they’re not enforced.”

“We have not talked, I haven’t heard anything from him or anyone from the conservative government,” said Gretzky.

“I don’t need the apology,” Gretzky added. “My hope is that he truly does, as I had asked him to, reflect on the behaviour, language and the tone that he chose and understand how that is harmful not just to me, but to women and girls around this province,” she said.

In a statement to CTV News, Saunderson said the comment was made in response to “continued interjections” and had nothing to do with the member’s question on the justice bill.

Apologizing, Saunderson said “my comment was unacceptable and unparliamentary, and I retracted it immediately. It was in no way related to the member’s gender or to the substance of the debate.”

" I have reached out to MPP Gretzky but have not yet had the opportunity to speak with her directly,” he added.

“It’s important that all these people, all these elected officials, remember that Canadians are watching,” said CTV News Political Analyst, Sharan Kaur.

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“They have to set an example. They are elected officials, let’s behave according to that,” Kaur said.

CTV News has reached out to the office of the premier for comment and has not yet heard back.

This article was written with files from CTV News’s Mike Lang.