‘I have to draw a line:’ Beck removed from Assembly after accusing minister of lying

Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck got part of the day off Wednesday.

Beck was removed from the Legislative Assembly after accusing Minister of Trade and Export Development Jeremy Harrison of lying and then refusing to retract her comments.

With a group of Regina-based steelworkers in the gallery, the NDP was pressing the government on the construction of pipelines and the role Saskatchewan steelworkers could play in the resurgence of North American manufacturing.

Harrison replied by saying that the NDP had taken every opportunity to vote against pipelines and the energy sector and that federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is opposed to the construction of pipelines.

“The hypocrisy of these members is stunning and I think, Mr. Speaker, that everybody in this province knows it very, very well,” Harrison said. “They have zero credibility on the economy, they have zero credibility on energy and they have even less credibility when it comes to pipelines.”

Young tried again, but Harrison again said the NDP didn’t have any credibility when it came to pipelines.

At that point, Beck rose.

“I think the minister likes to think himself rather clever within the walls of this Assembly,” she said. “Everything that that minister just said is a dead lie.”

Speaker Randy Weekes asked Beck to withdraw her comment and apologize, but she declined three times.

“I’m afraid, Mr. Speaker, I have to draw a line. I will not withdraw,” Beck said the third time, after which she was suspended for the rest of the sitting day.

In the rotunda after Question Period, Beck said she’d had her fill of Harrison misrepresenting the NDP’s position on things like pipelines and the carbon tax.

“Today, I thought I needed to make real plain that I’m done with listening to lies from that minister,” said Beck, who noted she couldn’t make herself say in the Assembly that Harrison hadn’t lied.

The NDP leader said the steelworkers had come to the Legislature thinking they could talk to both sides and have their concerns heard.

“Instead, they got theatrics and division in politics from that minister,” said Beck, who wondered aloud if Harrison would have the courage to say the things he did outside of the Assembly.

Scott Lunny, a director for the United Steelworkers, said the question the delegation had for the government was what it planned to do to promote the products made at Regina’s Evraz mill and get people who had been laid off back to work.

“And what I saw was politics, and Jagmeet Singh and a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with (the steelworkers),” Lunny said. “I think it’s kind of disrespectful.

“They’re here to have those kind of questions answered, to hear what their elected representatives are doing to protect and secure their jobs, and that’s what you get.”

Lunny said there’s a lot of things the government could do to help, including curtailing the use of pipe from elsewhere coming into the province.

Harrison didn’t speak to reporters after Question Period but Energy and Resources Minister Jim Reiter did.

He said the government is sympathetic toward the steelworkers who are facing layoffs and other issues. He also noted he had a meeting with the steelworkers soon and the government would need to hear what they thought could be done to help their cause.

As for the Beck-Harrison matter, Reiter admitted “the rhetoric gets heated” in the Assembly at times.

“I would say while it was heated, it was factual, what the minister said,” Reiter said.

He said some NDP members have a history of opposing pipelines, which formed the basis of Harrison’s comments Wednesday.

“If they’re changing that, then that’s great (and) it’s welcome,” Reiter said, “but the history (of the NDP) is a party that’s opposed to pipelines.”

— With files from 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick