Speaker accuses Sask. Party MLAs of intimidation and harassment

On his way out the door, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan is accusing government MLAs of harassing and intimidating him over his rulings during his four years in the position.

“What I’ve had to endure has been unacceptable,” Randy Weekes said on Thursday as the session was wrapping up.

“The ferocity from the government house leader is just unreal.”

He spoke at the tail end of the final sitting of the spring session, reading into the record descriptions of aggressive gestures, harassing and intimidating texts, and what he felt were physical threats – all of which Weekes said were meant to influence his rulings as speaker.

But while Weekes aired a long list of grievances, Premier Scott Moe said the Speaker’s comments stem from “sour grapes” after losing a Saskatchewan Party nomination race.

Weekes said he’s received hundreds of texts from Government House Leader Jeremy Harrison and Deputy House Leader Lori Carr, but until now he’s just ignored them. During his comments Thursday, Weekes read out a text he said he received from Harrison.

“‘That’s an absolute b******t ruling, completely wrong and Iris (a clerk) will tell you that,’” read Weekes.

He said the messages crossed a line.

“There’s degrees of discussions that the house leaders can have with the Speaker, but this is just open intimidation,” said Weekes.

Last month, Weekes also read into the record some of the texts he’d previously received about rulings he’d made, leading Donna Harpauer, Saskatchewan’s deputy premier and finance minister, to stand and apologize.

“Randy, if you can blatantly lie, tarnish reputations of elected and unelected individuals with innuendoes, but no proof, we have no avenue to push back,” the message from Harpauer read. “Then, this assembly has become a joke and a stage for an Opposition puppet show. Disappointing.”

Weekes also said he’s seen Harrison make threatening gestures after his rulings, and described two instances of physical intimidation – once when he said a government staffer rushed at him when he left the chamber, and again when Weekes said an MLA came at him and nearly head-butted him during a social function.

“The purpose was to intimidate me and make me change my rulings for the future,” Weekes said.

He said the treatment started from the very beginning of his term, adding that Mark Docherty, the previous Speaker, had to endure the same thing.

Weekes said he didn’t speak up sooner because there were always threats about removing him from the position.

“It was a constant threat. The words that got back to me from caucus members (were) that I was hated. The word hated was used quite often,” said Weekes.

Weekes also claimed that Harrison brought a gun into the Legislative Building, that he has a hard time keeping staff, and that he lies openly in the house.

“He just wants what he wants and he doesn’t care much about precedent or any of the process that I explained,” he said.

When asked whether this was Jeremy Harrison problem or a party problem, Weekes said all Sask. Party MLAs and Ministers serve at the pleasure of the premier.

Premier Scott Moe defended Harrison, saying he knows the rules of the assembly, can be ambitious at times, and works well with the opposition.

“The legislature is a place where emotions run high on occasion,” Harrison said last month following a dispute with Weekes.

In December, Weekes lost the Sask. Party nomination race in the Kindersley-Biggar riding to Kim Gartner.

“I wanted to be a candidate and run for the Saskatchewan Party and change the party within,” said Weekes.

“Once I lost the nomination, I don’t have anything politically to lose, but the intimidation continued, so what do they expect me to do? I’m supposed to go away happy? I’m sorry, no. They played all their cards and I don’t have anything to lose politically. Well, this is what’s been going on.”

Moe chalked Weekes’ comments up to his loss in the nomination race, dismissing the allegations as those of a sore loser.

“At this point, I can’t attribute it to anything more than just sour grapes that he wasn’t successful in the nomination,” the premier said.

Moe said he’d never heard the concerns before from Weekes, and if the Speaker had them he should have brought them to the party leader or, in the case of the alleged concerns about guns, to security staff.

“It seems like he’s airing some laundry that he might think is dirty, or shaping it in a way that he might think is problematic for the government or Minister Harrison, someone that he might have an issue with,” said Moe.

Weekes posted a photo to social media Wednesday evening ahead of the last day of session showing his Sask. Party membership card cut in two, captioned “Enough is Enough.”

Saskatchewan NDP leader Carla Beck called the allegations from Weekes very disturbing, and said she hopes the premier is going to look into them.

“Frankly, this is a premier who has lost control of his caucus, it would appear,” Beck said.

She said the people of Saskatchewan deserve answers.

Weekes was elected to his Biggar-Sask Valley in 1999 for the Sask. Party and was put in the Speaker’s chair in 2020. He said he’ll finish out his term, which continues until a new Speaker is chosen.