‘Let her speak’: Conservatives drown out Bill Morneau during budget speech

Conservatives in the House of Commons tried to drown out Finance Minister Bill Morneau as he spoke about the federal budget Tuesday, their loud chants of “let her speak, let her speak” a reference to former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould and the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Several members on the Opposition benches also yelled “coverup” and stomped loudly.

After multiple attempts to drown out Morneau’s speech, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer led his party out of Parliament.

Morneau’s customary budget speech to the House was delayed by an hour after a series of procedural manoeuvres by the Conservatives.

However, the finance minister managed to evade a delay in the actual tabling of the budget by presenting his documents to the Clerk of the House rather than in the Commons Chamber, a procedure called “back door” tabling.

WATCH: Finance minister circumvents opposition’s attempts to stall budget announcement

2:34 Finance minister circumvents opposition’s attempts to stall budget

Earlier, Scheer called the government’s budget “a political prop” in its “unprecedented coverup” of the controversy that has rocked the Liberal cabinet and prompted Trudeau’s top adviser and the country’s most senior public servant to resign.

Earlier Tuesday, Conservative MPs briefly stormed out of a meeting of the House justice committee after reporters were given a document outlining a Liberal motion to discuss hate crimes the morning after publicly calling for an end to the SNC-Lavalin investigation.

During the meeting Tuesday morning, the Liberal-majority committee voted to end the probe into the affair.

READ MORE: Opposition MPs briefly storm out of committee meeting as Liberals end SNC-Lavalin investigation

“As committee members, we have achieved our objectives with respect to these meetings,” read a letter written by Liberal committee members to chairman Anthony Housefather, himself a Liberal.

“Following the testimony of all witnesses, we believe that all rules and laws were followed. Canadians now have the necessary information to arrive at a conclusion.”

Opposition MPs decried the vote, saying the Liberals were shutting the probe down before everyone had the opportunity to speak.

0:46 Federal Budget 2019: Bill Morneau presents budget in House of Commons

• Federal Budget 2019: Bill Morneau presents budget in House of Commons
• Federal Budget 2019: Conservatives take slow vote in effort to delay delivery of budget
• Conservative MPs call on Liberals to ‘let her speak’ in reference to Jody Wilson-Raybould
• Conservative MP accuse Liberals of leaking motion from in-camera
• Federal Budget 2019: Conservatives drown out Morneau with chants of ‘let her speak’
• Federal Budget 2019: Conservatives accuse Morneau of releasing budget early

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Last week, the Liberal-majority justice committee refused to call back Wilson-Raybould to be questioned about the SNC-Lavalin affair.

WATCH: Singh says better ways to ‘raise concerns’ then budget disruption

0:40 Jagmeet Singh renews calls for independent investigation on SNC-Lavalin affair

Wilson-Raybould has alleged that the Prime Minister’s Office improperly pressured her to drop a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin on corruption charges.

— With files from Rebecca Joseph and the Canadian Press

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