Speaker silences Poilievre for a day after he accused foreign minister of pandering to Hamas

Speaker Greg Fergus ruled Tuesday that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre won't be allowed to speak in the House of Commons for the rest of the day after he refused to withdraw his claim that Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is pandering to Hamas.

In question period Monday, Poilievre asked Joly to condemn what he called «genocidal chants from hateful mobs» during recent protests over the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. Police have opened investigations into alleged hate speech following some rallies and charges have been laid in some cases.

Joly, reading from a prepared statement, recognized the one-year anniversary of Hamas's brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel and said, «We stand with Jewish people.»

Poilievre again asked about the antisemitic chants. Justice Minister Arif Virani responded: «What we stand up against, absolutely, is the amount of hatred that we have seen.»

Poilievre then told the House of Commons Joly should have taken a more definitive stand against the rhetoric heard at these protests.

«I gave the foreign affairs minister two opportunities to condemn the increasingly common and terrifying antisemitic chants we hear in the streets, such as 'Israel will soon be gone' and 'There is only one solution! Intifada, revolution!' » he said.

«Twice she refused to condemn those remarks. She continues to pander to Hamas supporters and the Liberal Party as part of her leadership campaign rather than doing her job.»

Speaker cites Liberal MP case as precedent

Joly protested Poilievre's remarks and Fergus agreed Tuesday that Poilievre was out of line.

In his ruling on the matter, Fergus cited Liberal MP Yvan Baker claiming earlier this year that Poilievre's Conservatives were somehow linked to Russian President Vladimir