Government members vote down committee investigation into Speaker’s allegations

With the majority government members voting together on the House Services Committee Monday morning, no independent investigator was called to look into allegations made by Saskatchewan’s legislative Speaker.

The committee was re-convened at the request of the NDP to address the harassment and gun allegations made by Speaker Randy Weekes on the last day of the session in May.

The NDP’s Vicki Mowat made three motions. The first was to have a handful of Sask. Party members or aides summoned before the committee to answer questions. Her second motion was to appoint an independent investigator to look into all of the allegations made by Weekes. When that motion failed to pass, Mowat also moved to have an independent investigator brought in to look at only the gun allegations.

The last two motions were voted down with no discussion from the government members. The first motion was significantly amended to instead point to the Legislature’s anti-harassment policy.

Minister Paul Merriman, who replaced Minister Jeremy Harrison on the committee, said during the meeting that the anti-harassment policy is the best place to deal with such allegations.

“It has its process, I don’t want to set the precedent for ourselves as legislators, or for any other business… that you should bypass a process that is set in place for harassment,” said Merriman.

Minister Jim Reiter echoed that sentiment when speaking to media after the meeting.

“In our view, this is just about making sure the proper process is followed. These are serious matters and the proper process should be followed, a process that was determined unanimously by the legislature some years ago,” he said.

The anti-harassment code of conduct wouldn’t be able to address Harrison bringing a gun into the legislative building, but Reiter said that would be a matter that the building’s security team or law enforcement could take up if either chose.

“We don’t think it’s the position of politicians to be directing law enforcement,” said Reiter.

Reiter, Merriman, Premier Scott Moe and others from government have repeatedly said the anti-harassment policy is the way to deal with Weekes’ claims. However, the policy includes a series of requirements and a section stressing the importance of confidentiality in the proceedings.

“Confidentiality is of the utmost importance,” reads the policy.

It said the information can only be made public in accordance with the terms of the policy, “and shall be no more than is sufficient for the public to understand the circumstances and consequences of the resolution.”

Reiter said he believes all harassment policies should have confidentiality built into them. He also pointed out there’s a provision for a public report to be completed, if it’s in the public’s interest.

The policy dictates a complaint should be made within 90 days of the incident taking place, though it does make allowances for extenuating circumstances. Weekes claimed he’s experienced years of harassment, including text messages and threatening gestures, though Moe has said Weekes never brought forward the issues until after he lost a Sask. Party nomination race in December.

If the legislature is dissolved – which would happen in the event of an election, like the one expected at the end of October – an investigation under the anti-harassment policy wouldn’t end, but no final report would be presented to the Board of Internal Economy while the government is dissolved. And if the complainant were no longer a member – as would be the case after the coming election for Randy Weekes, given he is not running again – then the complaint would be considered withdrawn.

“If the complainant is no longer a Member, the matter is deemed withdrawn and no further action shall be taken by the Legislative Assembly,” reads the policy.

Reiter said he thinks there would be enough time for an investigation if Weekes made a complaint now.

“I would have faith in the law clerk to expedite things in a timely manner,” he said.

Reiter said only Weekes is privy to how he feels about the situation, whether he feels what happened was harassment or bullying, and he has to make the call on whether to make an official complaint.

Weekes told the Canadian Press last week that he hadn’t decided whether to make a complaint through the anti-harassment policy yet.

What’s next 

NDP House Services Committee member Meara Conway said she’s disappointed but not surprised with how things turned out at the committee level.

“We’ve seen this as a pattern of conduct from a government that doesn’t think the rules apply to them, that doesn’t live up to their commitment to transparency and to accountability – there’s multiple examples of that,” said Conway.

She said this government can’t be trusted to hold itself accountable.

“We have tried various things and they’ve blocked all of it, including this recent call for an investigation,” said Conway.

Conway said she believes the government is pushing things toward the anti-harassment policy because of its requirements, like the confidentiality focus.

“I don’t think they want the findings of that to see the light of day,” she said. “They want to move on from this. They don’t want transparency around this. They’ve now blocked the investigation, knowing full well that harassment policy will not look into all of the issues raised on May 16.”

Conway said the NDP will be regrouping and seeing what other options are available.

–with files from The Canadian Press