Justice Minister and Attorney General Arif Virani apologized under threat of censure after shouting vulgar remarks in the House of Commons, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “I withdraw my comments and apologize,” said Virani in a speech in the House of Commons. Virani did not elaborate. The apology came moments after Conservative MPs recounted the incident in Question Period. Hansard records show Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre questioned him over vehicle thefts. “We have a common sense plan to stop crime,” said Poilievre. “Why will they not implement it?” To defend the Canadian government, Virani said Poilievre purports to be tough on crime. “Who do I listen to about crime measures?” he said. As he was taking his seat, he shouted a profane remark. Former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer pointed out the remark was captured on the audio recording. “The Minister of Justice called the Leader of the Opposition, quote, ‘a f*cking tool,’” said Scheer. “This comes from a government which loves to lecture everybody else about raising the level of debate, decorum and civility.”Once again, Scheer said people are seeing Liberal hypocrisy on display. “The Minister of Justice completely lost his cool, lost his temper and hurled that offensive insult in this place in the House of Commons,” he said. He encouraged people to examine the audio. “It is clearly audible for all to hear,” he said. “This offensive unparliamentary remark needs to be withdrawn and the Minister needs to apologize.”Virani did not dispute the complaint. When he was a new MP, he said at a press scrum in 2015 he was “surprised at the poor decorum in the House.”“If people in the court behaved the way they’re behaving in the House, they’d be thrown out of courts in about four seconds by any judge worth their robes,” he said. “I don’t think we should shout out.”This incident comes after Conservative MP Damien Kurek (Battle River-Crowfoot, AB) was removed from the House of Commons in December for using unparliamentary language by calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a liar.READ MORE: Conservative MP kicked out of Parliament, called Trudeau a ‘liar’“He lied,” said Kurek. “The prime minister promised the Senate would be independent, but the actions this past week prove that is a complete farce.”
