Today’s session of the House of Assembly was anything but ordinary.

After a lengthy recess, House Speaker Scott Reid moved to debate on a Point of Privilege raised by the Opposition on comments made by Minister Gerry Byrne in the House of Assembly last week.

The comments were made at PC member Jim Lester and the NDP’s Jim Dinn. Byrne suggested Lester had participated in illegal hunting activity and accused Dinn of racist behaviour.

Byrne earlier today took 40 minutes to clarify his comments, concluding that he would withdraw his comments about Lester, but not those about Dinn.

All this comes on the heels of last year’s House of Assembly harassment scandal.

Tory David Brazil, who rose on the original Point of Privilege, demanded that Byrne apologize for “bullying and harassing behaviour” and that he take an additional 20 hours of anti-harassment sensitivity training, to be paid for out of Byrne’s salary.

Debate was cut off at 5:30 but will resume tomorrow morning.

Earlier Story

Proceedings in the House of Assembly this afternoon were anything but normal as things kicked off on a Point of Privilege raised by the Opposition. It’s all in reference to comments made by Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne last Thursday.

David Brazil stood on the Point of Privilege, saying Byrne’s comments on about PC MHA Jim Lester and NDP MHA Jim Dinn were completely unacceptable.

Brazil went back to last year’s bullying and harassment scandal as well as the standard that MHAs agreed to set. He quoted the Premier about collaboration and zero tolerance for disrespect, harassment and bullying.

Brazil says Byrne’s comments were unparliamentary and a breach of privilege.

Gerry Byrne had his chance to respond, speaking for over 40 minutes. In the end, he indicated he would be happy to “humbly” withdraw his comments about Lester. But his comments about Dinn, accusing him of marginalizing Indigenous people, remain.

Jim Dinn had his own chance to respond to the Point of Privilege. Dinn said he would understand the outrage if he made the comments himself—adding he can’t apologize for a comment he didn’t make.

Jim Dinn up speaking now before the House takes a break for a ruling on all of this. @VOCMNEWS #nlpoli

— Ben Murphy (@BenMurphy590) November 12, 2019

He concluded by saying he would not be backing down from his question about the warm water event that led to the die-off of about 2.6-million salmon.

The House went into recess at the order of the Speaker, Scott Reid. They will take time to determine whether there is a point of privilege.