On the final day of the spring legislative session in Saskatchewan it was a tense environment throughout the chamber.
The current Speaker of the legislative assembly, Randy Weekes, set the stage Wednesday night on social media.
In a post to X, Weekes, the Saskatchewan Party MLA for the Biggar-Sask Valley constituency, posted a photo of his party membership cut in half with the caption, “Enough is Enough.”
During the closing remarks Thursday, Weekes alleged his challenges with the government.
“When I became Speaker, the intimidating and harassing text messages began immediately, trying to influence my rulings,” he said.
Weekes claimed threats came from the government house leader, Jeremy Harrison.
He said Harrison would brag he could sway the Speaker on any ruling and would send harassing text messages towards him.
On March 22, 2023, Weekes claims he received a message from Harrison saying, “that is an absolute bulls–t ruling.”
“My removal as Speaker was discussed on a regular basis in the government caucus.”
Weekes went on to say Harrison showed signs of inappropriate behaviour from the time he was first elected.
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“But what is more disturbing is his obsession with guns and his use of intimidation both verbally and physically,” Weekes said.
“His desire to get permission to carry a handgun in the legislative assembly is particularly disturbing.”
Weekes alleged Harrison at one point brought a hunting rifle to the legislative building and owns other weapons.
Weekes said Harrison is not the only one who sent him messages.
“Last fall the house leader stopped sending inappropriate text messages to me but continued sending them to the clerk.”
Weekes said Lori Carr then began sending messages to the Speaker, and said it intensified during the child pronoun policy introduction.
Weekes lost his nomination for his riding earlier this year.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said the comments made are all coming from Weekes after he lost his nomination.
“It really is sour grapes,” Moe said after the assembly Thursday. “Most of this allegedly occurred prior to December 14th, when the speaker was still running in a nomination for this party. I’ve never talked to him about any of these items of concern.”
“It’s unfortunate but nothing more than a sore loser.”
Moe went on to say Weekes had never discussed any of the issues with him.
“He was actively trying to run to be a part of this party and now trying to run away from it so that’s unfortunate. That’s a choice that he’s making. It’s a choice that I don’t have any control over.”’
“I’m as shocked as anyone as to what the Speaker’s reading into the record. If he truly wanted to be a part of this party and change some things and some of the concerns, he would bring those to me,” Moe said as leader of the Sask. Party.
Opposition Leader Carla Beck said the statements made by Weekes are deeply concerning for the people of Saskatchewan.
“People deserve better than this,” Beck said. “These kind of actions and weak leadership by the premier cause people to have concerns about the decisions being made in this assembly.”
“I hope that the premier is going to look into these very serious allegations. I think the people of the province deserve answers.”
Harrison did not respond to the allegations after Question Period, something Beck said is nothing new.
“This is a minister that ducks questions on the regular,” Beck said. “These are very serious allegations, not only in terms of integrity, but also safety in this building.”
“Actions speak louder than words.”
Weekes was first elected as a member of the legislative assembly of Saskatchewan in 1999 and has been re-elected five times.
In April, he ordered the finance minister to apologize in the house for sending Weekes a text message over how the Speaker was overseeing the legislature.
This week, Weekes read out a nearly three-year-old letter from the province’s former sergeant-at-arms, who said he felt betrayed by the government over changes to legislative security that diminished his role.