The issue was raised by Government House Leader Andrew Parsons at the beginning of the day, objecting to a video posted on Facebook by Kent.
It was a couple of weeks ago in the legislature when Kent got into a dust-up with Finance Minister Cathy Bennett, and called her on providing inaccurate information during a budget debate.
Kent used words like “dishonest” “deceit” and “unethical” which were deemed to be “unparliamentary language” by Speaker Tom Osborne.
Typically when a MHA uses unparliamentary language, they apologize and withdraw the remark. In Kent’s case, he refused to back down, and he was kicked out of the legislature for the day.
Related story:
Kent kicked out of the House
seWhile cooling his heels, Kent posted an edited video of the incident, and posted a video online, a condensed version of the back-and-forth.
“The member for Mount Pearl North created and broadcast online the very unparliamentary language for which he was reprimanded and refused to apologize, and was ejected from this House,” Osborne ruled.
“To make matters worse, while seated in this House today, the member for Mount Pearl North retweeted the very same video.”
What’s odd about all of this is the fact that all the clips in Kent’s video all came from the official House of Assembly broadcast video. All of the same unparliamentary language which Osborne found to be objectionable is archived and posted on the House of Assembly website, and transcribed in Hansard, the official record.
Parsons said by sharing the video Kent was trying trying to exploit a loophole.
“Basically, he’s trying to do through the back door what you’re not allowed to do through the front door,” he said.
Parsons said that there are lots of situations where people say something unparliamentary, and they almost always apologize. What separated Kent, he said, was the fact that he was thumbing his nose at the rules, and using social media to get around the rules.
Monday’s ruling was only a “prima facie” finding of a breach of privilege — latin for “at first sight — meaning that it’s only a preliminary ruling.
The matter is now referred to the House of Assembly standing committee on privileges and elections — a committee which only exists on paper, and has never met in anybody’s memory, because the N.L. House of Assembly does not have a functioning committee system.
The committee, which is dominated by Liberal MHAs, will now study the matter and render a final report, which will be debated in the fall sitting of the legislature.
Kent said he feels that it’s extremely important that those committee meetings happen in public.
