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Swann’s song critical of premier |
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Written by Dave Mabell
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Friday, July 03 2009, 9:42 PM |
When a Member of the Legislative Assembly steps out of line, the party’s leader must demand an apology.
That’s the call from Liberal Leader David Swann, following accusations from a retired sergeant-at-arms of the Alberta legislature. Oscar Lacombe, invited to a retirement celebration for one of his successors this May, says he was “verbally attacked in the most vicious manner” by Cardston-Warner-Taber MLA Broyce Jacobs.
Lacombe, formerly a security aide to Premier Peter Lougheed, says he wrote to Speaker Ken Kowalski, to Conservative House Leader David Hancock and to Premier Ed Stelmach asking for an apology. After a month with no response, he talked to reporters.
“I was saddened that no one would take this individual to task,” he said earlier this week.
Neither Kowalski, Hancock nor Jacobs were available when contacted by the Lethbridge Herald to respond to Lacombe’s claims. But late Friday, Swann said a party leader has an obligation to speak up when an MLA steps out of line.
“I would certainly bring down the broom on anyone who was behaving that way,” he said — as he says he did when one of his Liberal members misspoke earlier this year.
Swann says he did not witness the May incident, which occurred not long after Lacombe had been formally introduced to MLAs during their May 27 sitting. But if witnesses substantiate the complaint, Swann says Premier Stelmach must take action.
“I would certainly expect the premier and Broyce Jacobs to do the honourable thing, and apologize.”
For his part, Lacombe — a descendent of the Metis family that included legendary Catholic missionary Albert Lacombe — describes Jacobs’ words as “unprovoked, surreal and unprofessional.
“Given the context of the day and the place where this Member was carrying on, it was dishonourable behaviour, bringing shame and disrepute to the House, the Speaker and the institution of Parliament itself.”
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