I was sitting in the press gallery in the House of Commons at Question Period, quietly minding my own business, when, lo and behold, I saw Conservative MP Royal Galipeau (left) charge up out of his seat, dash across the floor, climb up into the Liberal backbenches, grab MP David McGuinty (right) by the shoulder and vigorously wag his finger in front of McGuinty’s face. I couldn’t hear what was said and so, after Question Period, I asked McGuinty what had happened:
McGuinty: I just rose on a point of privilege in the House of Commons to ask the speaker to formally investigate the conduct of his deputy speaker. The Member of Parliament from Ottawa Orleans, Mr. Galipeau, physically crossed the floor immediately after I finished my second question to the government and grabbed me by the shoulder and was screaming out of control, out of control using unparliamentary language, threatening me, telling me that I was a coward, that I was giving him no chance to defend himself.
Akin: What was the issue with him?
McGuinty: The issue was the whole question of the court challenges program. I raised it, reminding people that when the member, Mr. Galipeau, was not a Member of Parliament, he ferociously fought for the keeping open of the Montfort Hospital but since becoming a member in this government he has done precious little, if anything, to fight for the program that was cut, les contestations judiciaires, as they say, the whole court challenges program. So he crossed the floor and was completely out of control, completely out of control.
Akin: I saw him wagging his finger in your face.
McGuinty: That's right. And he was screaming at me out of control and, again, it's interesting this is the second time this happens in this Parliament. It happened once before when the member from Nepean–Carleton, Mr. Poilievre crossed the floor and physically threatened Paul Szabo, the MP from Mississauga–South. He had to subsequently get up and apologize, withdraw his remarks. And this was something worse though. I've never seen this. So I've asked the speaker to formally investigate now. It was also caught on tape because as he was screaming at me the member right in front of me from Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Lachine, Marlene Jennings, was getting up to ask a question and much of this was caught on tape.
McGuinty formally asked Speaker Peter Milliken to investigate the matter. Galipeau is Milliken’s deputy, a fact which McGuinty says makes the issue all the more important:
McGuinty: It's just that having a Member of Parliament standing over you and gesticulating and pointing his finger and screaming at you and alleging that you're a coward and that you have no guts and so on and so forth, out of control, I think — I really do believe that the member lost — completely lost it. He completely lost it. Stormed across the floor of the House of Commons and was screaming at me in front of five other members of parliament. Mr. Galipeau.
Dominic Leblanc sits just in front of McGuinty and saw the exchange:
[Galipeau] was using some profane words. He was, he was clearly out of control. He had decided to come charging across the floor during question period. I mean people were in the middle of asking questions, he came charging across the floor and leant right into David McGuinty with his finger in his face and a whole series of profanities. It was, it was a rather bizarre spectacle.
Galipeau says he was provoked because he believed McGuinty, in a question that was answered by Environment Minister John Baird, attacked Galipeau’s work to protect francophone language rights. Apparently, Baird didn’t do enough in his answer to defend Galipeau’s honour:
Galipeau: I did cross the floor to talk to him and, yes, I was pretty upset. But i was only upset becasue I was surprised. I was surprised that an MP that I’ve always treated with respect should attack me because I’ve never, since my election, said a single partisan word in that House, not at the Chamber of Commerce, not at the Canadian Legion, not anywhere. So it just took me by surprise that a Member of the House would attack me and on what issue? That I don’t defend francophone rights? I’ve been defending francophone rights longer than he’s been alive! The other thing is, how can I be threatening to him? He’s bigger than I am. He’s stronger than I am. He’s younger than I am. I didn’t threaten him. He’s done something against the rules. I didn’t break a rule. He broke a rule. Frankly, if I had been wiser, I would have talked to him after the Question Period.