The ‘tory-dledges’ have hired a team of lawyers to fight the resolution
Yukon legislators have voted for a motion calling on the state’s deputy premier to step down after making “racially charged, sexist and derogatory remarks” during a recent speech.
The motion, introduced by the Yukon caucus of the NDP opposition, calls on Social Services Minister Cindy Ady and Grand Chief Jean Pierre-Louis to resign after the deputy premier referred to recent federal budget cuts as “guttural” cuts during a speech to party faithful at the annual Yukon Summer Social.
The “tory-dledges” have hired a team of lawyers to fight the resolution. They have three weeks to respond, after which the resolution will be debated in the legislature. The House of Assembly is made up of 35 members, 20 of whom are Tory MLAs.
The resolution to “resign in disgrace” also calls on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to intervene and have the provincial government’s “support and respect” for the Canada Child Benefit frozen.
Labour minister Rhonda Faver-Cornish told Assembly members the hashtag “#suckit” was trending nationally and globally in the days after the deputy premier’s comments.
“What I have seen since that night is change,” Faver-Cornish said on Tuesday, before adding the comments were indicative of “a culture of inappropriate language and inappropriate actions from not only this government, but the whole society that surrounds us.”
The Yukon, with some 411,000 residents, is the second most sparsely populated province in Canada.
It’s in the midst of the final year of its five-year term as an official territory. The terms of Yukon MLAs are eight years long, and they earn a daily $6 in retirement benefits.
According to a one-page fact sheet, the measure to resign in disgrace seeks:
to ensure that statements and actions made by one or more MLAs of the Yukon government, supported by the government, are immediately withdrawn or investigated and no such statements or actions were made at the recent Annual Yukon Summer Social in Whitehorse
to maintain the status quo in the lower house until such time as government or the Opposition leader can appoint a replacement to act in that role until such time as an election is held and the Government of Yukon appoints an interim member.
The motion, introduced by the Yukon NDP caucus, has been referred to the Labour, Finance and Conservative membership committees for their consideration.
