‘Let her speak’: Conservatives drown out Bill Morneau during budget speech
Conservatives in the House of Commons drowned out Finance Minister Bill Morneau as he spoke about the federal budget Tuesday, their loud chants of “let her speak, let her speak” a reference to former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould and the SNC-Lavalin affair.
Several members on the Opposition benches also yelled “cover-up” and stomped loudly, drowning out Morneau’s voice for several minutes.
After multiple attempts to drown out Morneau’s speech, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer led his party out of Parliament.
Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer walks out in protest as Finance Minister Bill Morneau delivers the budget in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, March 19, 2019.
Morneau’s customary budget speech to the House was delayed by an hour after a series of procedural manoeuvres by the Conservatives.
Earlier, Scheer called the government’s budget “a political prop” in its “unprecedented cover-up” of the controversy that has rocked the Liberal cabinet and prompted Trudeau’s top adviser and the country’s most senior public servant to resign.
The walkout came hours after Conservative MPs briefly stormed out of a meeting of the House justice committee after reporters were given a document outlining a Liberal motion to discuss hate crimes the morning after publicly calling for an end to the SNC-Lavalin investigation.
During the meeting Tuesday morning, the Liberal-majority committee voted to end the probe into the affair.
“As committee members, we have achieved our objectives with respect to these meetings,” read a letter written by Liberal committee members to chairman Anthony House father, himself a Liberal. “Following the testimony of all witnesses, we believe that all rules and laws were followed. Canadians now have the necessary information to arrive at a conclusion.”
Opposition MPs decried the vote, saying the Liberals were shutting the probe down before everyone had the opportunity to speak.
Last week, the Liberal-majority justice committee refused to call back Wilson-Raybould to be questioned about the SNC-Lavalin affair.
Wilson-Raybould has alleged that the Prime Minister’s Office improperly pressured her to drop a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin on corruption charges.
— With files from Rebecca Joseph and the Canadian Press
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