Former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer said the CBC and other government-funded media are working to protect Speaker of the House of Commons Greg Fergus. “Here are the facts: Speaker Fergus attended a Liberal partisan event billed as a ‘Cocktail Militant’ for Liberal volunteers outside his own riding,” tweeted Scheer on Thursday. “Helping to drum up support for Liberals in other ridings is a major breach of impartiality.”.Scheer said this is the third display of partisanship by Fergus, as there was the video for the Ontario Liberals leadership vote; the Washington, DC, trip and partisan remarks; and now this. He called this “all totally unacceptable.” When he was speaker, he said the only fundraiser he attended was for his own riding. This is an event all speakers can partake in, as they must run under a party banner and have other candidates facing off against them. While the mainstream media is trying to vilify Scheer, he said there should be no comparison. “Yet Justin Trudeau is getting what he paid for: Media outlets that make baseless attacks against Conservatives to distract from the real scandal,” he said. Fergus was told on Thursday to issue a 14th apology and decide on the amount of a fine he would pay for breaching the rules of impartiality.READ MORE: Speaker Fergus to apologize for fourteenth time, pay fineThe House of Commons Affairs Committee turned down the requests made by 149 Conservative and Bloc Quebecois MPs who had called for his resignation.“For us in the Liberal Party, he made a mistake, he apologized,” said Government House Leader Karina Gould. NDP House leader Peter Julian told the House of Commons on Thursday Scheer participated in three partisan fundraisers during his time as speaker of the House of Commons from 2011 to 2015.Julian said partisan fundraising is unacceptable for any speaker. Opposition Leader’s Office spokesperson Sebastian Skamski said the situations were different, as Scheer’s fundraising was for his own re-election efforts.
