ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — After two days of debate, Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne has withdrawn comments he made against two opposition MHAs.
Byrne was ordered to withdraw the remarks by members of the House of Assembly after he claimed Mount Pearl North MHA Jim Lester was “not always on the side of the law” and St. John’s Centre MHA Jim Dinn was marginalizing the voices of Indigenous populations.
All of this started when the two opposition members asked questions of Byrne — Lester about moose hunting regulations and Dinn about the 2.6 million farmed salmon that died on the province’s south coast in August.
After withdrawing his comments against Lester on Monday, but refusing to do the same with Dinn, a two-day debate unfolded in the House of Assembly, ultimately resulting in a retraction from Byrne.
While he didn’t say he regrets making the comments, Byrne says he respects the decision of his fellow MHAs.
“I’m delighted to respond to the will of the House. The House spoke. As a parliamentarian for many years, almost 25, I cherish the traditions of the House and the rules we follow,” said Byrne.
“It makes for the place where we work, the place where we debate important ideas, it makes it work. Today, what we saw is that there was a working decision that was taken. We are now moving forward.”
The initial motion by Opposition House Leader David Brazil called on Byrne to withdraw the comments, apologize and undergo 20 hours of sensitivity training.
On Tuesday, Premier Dwight Ball introduced an amendment to the motion, only requiring Byrne to retract the comment. The motion was seconded by Leader of the Opposition Ches Crosbie.
Crosbie says the amendment was accepted in order to help the House of Assembly get on with the business of the province.
“It seemed that we had agreement that the thrust of the thing was to get Mr. Byrne to withdraw his offensive remarks. He agreed to do that. The business of the House was being held (up) until that happened,” said Crosbie.
“This was a way, by getting agreement, to shorten the whole process and achieve the essential end. That was done.”
Crosbie says Byrne had to be held accountable for his actions.
“He had the option of withdrawing those remarks right away, which he chose not to do,” said Crosbie.
“Don’t forget, Byrne, when he was defending himself in there, was using the defence of justification and doubling down on all the things he said about racism on the other side of the House.
An honourable man, Mr. Dinn, being accused of those things had to listen to them repeated, and repeated, and repeated, and broadcast by Twitter and double down on him to the media ever since last Thursday. Something had to happen to correct that. We’ve achieved that, at least.”
Ball says the amendment came from a meeting of House leaders of all three parties where they looked for an agreement that would satisfy all those involved.
Ball says he is satisfied with how Byrne addressed the vote of the House. He says there are lessons for all MHAs after Wednesday’s vote.
“There’s been a fair amount of discussion about the amount of time this took with the legislature. That responsibility lies with the people who introduced the resolution. It wasn’t government,” said Ball.
“People have been asking if this is a waste of time and heard members use that same language — let’s move on, this is a waste of time — but it wasn’t government that introduced the resolution. It was the Crosbie PCs that introduced the resolution. … For us, there will be lessons to be learned. For me, I’ll continue at every opportunity to continue to get this House working in collaboration.”
Ball also says he would support Chief Mi’Sel Joe of the Miawpukek Mi’kamawey Mawi’omi First Nation coming to address all members of the House of Assembly to speak about racism against Indigenous people, as suggested by Joe in a letter to Speaker Scott Reid.
Dinn says he takes no pleasure over the last few days of debate, but he hopes the episode serves as a reminder to all MHAs the importance of conducting the business of the province in a respectful way.
“I would have preferred that these comments were never brought up. I would have preferred that the minister on the day that they were made, that he would have withdrawn them so we could have gotten on with the work of the House of Assembly,” said Dinn.
“I would like to believe that these last two days have sent a very clear message to all members that we need to come into that House ready to work, ready to challenge each other’s opinions, points of views, actions, but keep it at that level.”
Twitter: @DavidMaherNL
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