Timmins’ MPP is being accused of making fun of a Conservative MPP.
Yesterday’s question period at Queens Park ran off the tracks when Premier Doug Ford accused NDP Gilles Bisson of mocking Tory MPP Kaleed Rasheed’s Pakistani accent. Rasheed was in the middle of asking a question when NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and Ford got into a yelling match over the accusation, forcing the Speaker of the House to call a recess.
Bisson says this all happened during a conversation on Ford’s controversial motion to make Toronto’s city council smaller. Ford is looking to cut 22 seats on council just a few months before the municipal election. Both Ford and NDP and Official Opposition Leader Horwath posted on Twitter about the outburst.
Bisson says he would never say anything of the sort and Ford is trying to distract people.
Bisson says this is a contriversial subject that the PC’s don’t want people talking about. He says he has a French accent himself, so he knows that people can’t always understand him, or he may sound weird to others. Bisson says everyone who knows him, knows he would never mock another person for anything.
The alleged comment is not recorded on the Legislature video because the microphones were turned off during the question. The Speaker of the House said yesterday that he did not hear the accused comment. Rasheed also says that he didn’t hear anything because he was in the middle of speaking.
Timmins MPP Bisson says he is talking with the Speaker of the House about getting Legislature under control. He says he has been there for 28-years and he has never seen the type of behaviour you see in the house now. He says in the middle of all of the controversy is the Premier. Bisson says yesterday everyone saw the outburst that happened and today the Premier wasn’t in question period and everything was very orderly.
Both Ford and Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath tweeted about the outburst:
The MyTimminsNow.Com Newsroom has reached out to Premier Ford and has not received a response.
Click here for the archived video.
