Public allegations by Randy Weekes made waves in Sask. legislature

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The Leader-Post is looking back on some of the stories that had the biggest impact in 2024. Today: A column by Murray Mandryk takes us back to when former Speaker Randy Weekes shocked the legislative assembly with a tell-all, end-of-session speech accusing colleagues of intimidation and harassment and revealing that a Sask. Party MLA had brought a gun to the legislature.

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It’s not just rare for the neutral Speaker of the Saskatchewan legislature to publicly reveal that he’s been bullied by the same government caucus colleagues who elected him.

It simply doesn’t happen, although there seems little question that Speakers in the Westminster-style parliaments have privately suffered abuses for centuries.

So when now-former Speaker Randy Weekes unloaded on his Saskatchewan Party colleagues at the end of the spring session for the “hundreds of texts” pestering him on his rulings, it was unprecedented.

The last words spoken in the 29th legislature on May 16 before it prorogued ahead of the Oct. 28 election were those of Weekes, who singled out then-finance minister Donna Harpauer, then-deputy house leader Lori Carr and especially then-house leader Jeremy Harrison for harassing texts and other intimidation tactics.

But that wasn’t the last we heard from Weekes.

His battle with Premier Scott Moe, Harrison and other former colleagues resulted in him posting a picture on social media of his cut up Saskatchewan Party membership card. Weekes officially submitted his letter of resignation from the Sask. Party caucus on June 24 and later endorsed the NDP for the provincial election.

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It might not have been the biggest political story of the year, but it had a profound effect on the election outcome.

While the Sask. Party won an impressive fifth consecutive term with 34 seats in the legislature, the NDP under Carla Beck doubled the Opposition’s seats to 27.

Certainly, the Weekes’ controversy had an impact on the individuals cited in his complaints.

The immediate impact was the demise of Harrison as House leader — what ended a running feud that included an incident in which Weekes had earlier kicked Harrison out of the assembly for refusing to apologize after publicly questioning the Speaker’s ruling.

During his May 16 closing speech, Weekes accused Harrison of having an unhealthy obsession with firearms, bringing long-barrel weapons into the legislature on multiple occasions and making what the Speaker perceived as a threatening gun gesture in assembly after one of their unpleasant encounters.

Initially, Premier Scott Moe called Weekes’ accusations “unequivocally false” and suggested the Speaker had “sour grapes’ after losing the Sask. Party’s Kindersely-Biggar nomination.

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But the Speaker’s office revealed a Sergeant-at-Arms’ security incident report verifying Harrison had been reprimanded at least once for such an incident. Harrison resigned from his House leader duties, but has remained in cabinet.

Later during the election campaign, Weekes levelled further allegations of racist remarks by former Yorkton MLA Greg Ottenbreit, who denied the accusations, and Saskatoon Fairview MLA David Buckingham, who apologized.

A few weeks later, Buckingham would lose his seat in the closest race in the province.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

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