REGINA — The Saskatchewan NDP are painting Sask Party Cabinet Minister Jeremy Harrsion as a liar about recent revelations he brought a hunting gun to the legislature.
The NDP is accusing Harrison of lying when he denied claims made by the speaker of the house on the last sitting day of the legislature last month.
The NDP’s Meara Conway has laid out a timeline she believes shows Premier Scott Moe knew Harrison did indeed bring a gun to the legislature, despite his public denials.
“The premier knew almost immediately that he had misled the public and did nothing for a full week,” said Conway. “Instead of coming clean, he essentially opted to cover for his minister, clearly hoping they would get away with the lie.”
The NDP says the premier knew several days before he spoke with reporters that Harrsion had informed him that he did indeed bring a gun in a case to the legislature. Moe said Harrison told him a “day or two” later that he did carry a gun into the legislature.
According to Conway, that means the premier had been told by Harrison before he faced reporters again on May 23, when he stated he was “bewildered” by the accusations.
It wasn’t until May 27, that the premier admitted that Harrison had told him about the gun.
Harrison claimed he was going hunting and stopped at the office for some paperwork but he didn’t want to leave the weapon in the car. Harrison went on to say security staff at the legislature were aware.
That statement was called into question when a document was released from the Seargent at Arms at the time that they were not informed, and Harrison almost triggered a security alert.
“It’s clear from the timeline that Moe only chose to act when it was clear Harrison’s story could be contradicted and they were going to get caught in a lie,” Conway added. “The failure in leadership comes right from the top. Premier Moe has created a culture that approves of misleading the public.”
The NDP have been calling for a full investigation into the situation, including following up on the comments Speaker Randy Weekes made on the last day of the sitting.
Weekes expressed concerns about attempts by the Sask Party Government to intimidate him into ruling in their favour. Weekes had been defeated in a Sask Party nomination fight in his Moose Jaw riding and won’t run as a Sask Party member in that riding in the election this fall.
The Sask Party Government has stated it would only agree to a review under the legislature’s anti-bullying policy, not an all-encompassing review of all of the speaker’s allegations.