What an NCAA rule change might mean for junior hockey in Sask.
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Previously, WHL players were declared ineligible to play NCAA hockey in the U.S.
What’s the point of a Speaker who doesn’t speak up?
For a guy who claims he wanted to fix the Saskatchewan Party from within, Randy Weekes was awfully quiet about issues he’s allegedly faced over the past four years.
Well, to be more specific, he was quiet until after he lost a Sask. Party nomination race in December. Since then, he’s been more than willing to sling accusations at the party he represented for a quarter century.
Weekes – the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan – has butted heads with government MLAs in recent weeks but waited until the last moments of the last day of the spring session to level allegations of harassment, physical threats and more. Weekes claimed he was subjected to a four-year campaign of intimidation to force him to rule more frequently in the government’s favour. He even claimed Government House Leader Jeremy Harrison once brought a gun to the Legislative Building.
I’m not the only one who’s questioning the timing.
If the Speaker faced such a campaign, is it not his responsibility to quickly bring those concerns to light? If MLAs are packing guns, should he not have immediately informed security? Didn’t the public deserve to know that the Speaker was under a co-ordinated and ongoing campaign of harassment from the governing party?
Instead – if you believe Weekes – he sat on his hands for the four years he served as Speaker, raising the issues publicly just moments before walking out of the assembly for what will likely be the last time.
I find that possibility unlikely, as did Premier Scott Moe. The word “disgruntled” springs to mind.
Randy Weekes posted an image of his Sask. Party membership cut in half on Wednesday night. (Randy Weekes/Twitter)
Moe quickly responded to Weekes’ tirade by pointing out the obvious issue – if Weekes has spent four years being harassed, threatened, intimidated and bullied by Sask. Party MLAs, what on Earth was he doing seeking the party’s nomination to run in Kindersley-Biggar?
“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 added that Weekes has never once before brought forward these alleged issues. If that’s not true, Weekes had better quickly find some receipts.
When asked why he didn’t speak up sooner, Weekes said he felt his position as Speaker was in danger. But if Weekes had gone public and proved his allegations beyond the argumentative text messages he’s managed to read into the record, removing him would have amounted to political suicide for the Scott Moe Government.
It’s certainly possible that Weekes has faced harassment in his role. But if he waited until the moment the door was about to hit him on the ass before saying anything, what does that tell us about his effectiveness? Or his courage? Was he deliberately hiding the mistreatment he allegedly suffered from the Sask. Party until the very moment the party had nothing more to offer him?
Compare this to the actions of Jody Wilson-Raybould, who dared to come forward about the inappropriate influence the Trudeau government was exerting on her during her tenure as attorney general. If she’d responded like Weekes, Wilson-Raybould would likely still be in the Liberals’ cabinet, and the public would be none the wiser about the concerted campaign to convince Canada’s justice minister to play favourites.
It’s also possible that Weekes is simply bitter that he lost the nomination and is trying to bring down the party that he feels scorned him based on a few less-than-professional texts and a boatload of unsubstantiated claims.
The thing is, neither possibility makes Weekes look good. He’s either cowardly and inept, or he’s bitter and spiteful. Maybe even all four.