may, if he thinks it necessary to do so, adjourn the House
without putting any question, or suspend the sitting for a time
to be named by him
British House of Commons Standing Orders
~
Hansard HC Deb 22 November 1920 vol 135 cc38-43
Mr. DEVLIN May I ask the Prime Minister why it is, when a question is put to himself and the Chief Secretary to recite all the horrible occurrences that have taken place last Sunday in Dublin, that we have heard nothing about the appearance of the military forces at a football match. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh, oh!"] At which ten people were killed. [HON. MEMBERS: "Sit down!"] I will not sit down. I want to know from the Prime Minister why the House of Commons has not been made acquainted, in the recital of these other things that have occurred, with the onrush of the military into a football field, with fifteen thousand people, indiscriminate shooting, and ten men killed. Why was the House not told that when the other story was being told? May I ask for an answer?
Sir H. GREENWOOD I was never asked that question referred to by the hon. Member, but I am prepared to answer it now.
Mr. DEVLIN rose to put further supplementary questions, amid loud shouts of "Sit down!"
Grave disorder having arisen, MR. SPEAKER suspended the Sitting under Standing Order No. 21.
Sitting suspended at Five minutes after Four o'clock, the public galleries being also temporarily closed.
Mr. SPEAKER resumed the Chair, at Twenty minutes after Four o'clock.
Major MOLSON I wish to apologise to the hon. Member for the Falls Division (Mr. Devlin), to you Mr. Speaker, and to the House. I am afraid that I allowed my feelings to get the better of myself, and I forgot myself.
~
RON MACLEANWelcome to a special holiday edition of House of Commons Night in Canada, continuing with our focus on the apparent decline in standards of debate in our own House of Commons. I'm Ron MacLean here with Don Cherry. Don, there's been a lot of interest over the last few weeks in how Canada's House of Commons conducts itself. Aaron Wherry quoted the Ottawa Citizen as saying, and I'm gonna read this out:
Minority or majority, the constant is the lack of honour and civility in Parliament. What hasn’t changed is the reduction of the role of elected members to bit players in hackneyed political theatre. Every MP, of any party, who acquiesces in this must answer for it to his or her constituents.
DON CHERRYYeah, I think this is an important thing to talk about, especially for all the kids out there watching. I went and had a look on the internet about this - I'm starting to get the hang of this internet thing, although I still don't get Twitter...
RON MACLEAN
You definitely need a Twitter account. I'm imagining @HNIC_Grapes...
DON CHERRY
...Forget it...but I can see the attraction of looking up stuff almost instantly. So I went looking for unparliamentary language in the Mother of Parliaments...
RON MACLEAN
...that's the British House of Commons...
DON CHERRY
...right, where we were tuned into the toe-to-toe debates in the summer, and hey, presto, there's a lot of good stuff.
RON MACLEAN
Such as?
DON CHERRY
For instance the front benches of the British House of Commons are two sword's lengths apart, because MPs could carry side-arms into the Commons!
RON MACLEAN
So, not very different from the NHL.
DON CHERRY
Absolutely! And then I discovered Wikipedia that had a whole section on "Incidents of grave disorder in the British House of Commons..."
RON MACLEAN
And are they going downhill as well?
DON CHERRY
That's the interesting thing! The Brits seem to be getting better not worse. One of the more recent incidents was of Michael Heseltine, a Conservative MP, who on May 27, 1976, in the context of a vote on the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act, seized the Mace and waved it in a threatening fashion at members of the Labour Government who were singing a song at him.
RON MACLEAN
Sounds like Alan Eagleson. Justin Trudeau looks like a model of restraint.
DON CHERRY
It gets better. In 1920, during some of the Irish difficulties, an MP in what is now Northern Ireland wanted to know why the government was concerned about the killing of members of the British military in Ireland, but neglected to mention the random killing of Irish spectators at a Gaelic football match at Croke Park....
RON MACLEAN
The subject matter sounds a little dangerous but not out of control. I don't recall any random killing of spectators at a hockey game in Canada...
DON CHERRY
Yeah, well what happened next was that Devlin was attacked by a Major Molson (no relation) - physically - and hauled over his desk. One of the other Honourable Members in the Government was heard to shout "Kill him!" (as reported by The Times) after which the Speaker adjourned the House because of "grave disorder."
RON MACLEAN
Well, it does make Justin Trudeau seem like a model of restraint...
DON CHERRY
...and then Molson came back and apologized, just like Trudeau did.
RON MACLEAN
So no lives were lost.
DON CHERRY
My point exactly. A lot of feeling got aired, there was a frank exchange of views, and then the business of the House went on as before.
RON MACLEAN
So, in your opinion, there's no cause for despair here in Canada?
DON CHERRY
Absolutely not. It's the game of parliamentary democracy. You have to let 'em play.
RON MACLEAN
And until the New Year, that's it for us on House of Commons Night in Canada.
DON CHERRY
Do you like my new suit with the Winnipeg Jets logo on it?
RON MACLEAN
It's very elegant, particularly with the Art Ross tie.
DON CHERRY
Yeah, well, he played for Brandon.
