'Boorish and rude': Conservatives heckle House Speaker during speech on ills of heckling

House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus was heckled repeatedly on Wednesday over his decision to delay question period in order to deliver a speech to MPs about the issue of heckling.

House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus was heckled repeatedly on Wednesday over his decision to delay question period in order to deliver a speech to MPs about the issue of heckling.

The drama began unfolding around 2:20 p.m. EDT. After members' statements were completed, MPs are to begin question period, but Fergus had other plans. He rose from his chair to inform the House that he planned to first "make a statement about order and decorum in the House."

That didn't go over well on the Official Opposition benches. Perhaps not hearing Fergus, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rose to begin his first question to the government.

"After eight years this government," Poilievre began, before Fergus cut him off to let him know he'd have to wait a few minutes before getting to grill the Liberals.

"The Speaker has the choice as to when to start question period. There will be a full question period that will follow after this declaration from the Speaker," Fergus said.

Conservative MP Michael Cooper could be heard yelling that it was time for question period, then Conservative House Leader and former House Speaker Andrew Scheer rose to remind Fergus that, per the House rules, question period was to begin "no later than 2:15 p.m."

Fergus then noted that it has become common to see question period getting underway a bit late, and while he doesn't plan to make a habit of it, he wanted to get his statement out of the way first.