iN THE RECORD: Boultbee accuses Kelowna MLA of unfairly targeting women

A Penticton MLA accused a Kelowna MLA of unfairly criticizing women during an hours-long debate in the legislature this week about access to information laws that kept MLAs up well into the night.

Kelowna-Mission MLA Gavin Dew joined his BC Conservative Party colleagues, May 6, calling for changes to the law be delayed.

His party criticized the bill for reducing the public’s access to information and argued for the government to redraw its amendments, calling for a hoist motion, which would delay the bill for nine months.

In doing so, he called Citizens’ Services Minister Diana Gibson’s amendments “half-baked” nonsense.

The comment sparked the ire of Penticton-Summerland MLA Amelia Boultbee, who later said on social media she ran up three sets of stairs to interject with a point of order.

Here’s what they said from the Hansard transcripts:

Kelowna-Mission MLA Gavin Dew: They remind me of being in elementary school when you’re given the trust by your teacher to mark your own test, and you know those people are marking their own test, and they’re putting the check and the X. But they’re also changing the answers to give themselves extra marks. That is what these amendments are, these half-baked amendments that seek to partially dilute the bill, that seek to try to pretend as if any concessions are being made when no, we need a hoist motion.

I have other metaphors, though, because this government has turned FOI from a public right into a bureaucratic obstacle course. That’s why we need to send it back with a hoist motion for them to go away and rethink and redo the test, not scribble in the margins and pretend with these half-baked amendments that don’t make a lot of sense.

Penticton-Summerland MLA Amelia Boultbeee: I stand on a point of order. This is not the first time I’ve noticed this in this House. It is a tone and a way of speaking, particularly about female cabinet members, that the member is engaging in right now — half-baked, dog’s breakfast, scribble in the margins — referring to the work of the amendments in a very disrespectful way.

This was also engaged in by the Leader of the Opposition, referring to the same female cabinet minister yesterday, saying that she had not read her own bill. These men would never speak about other men in this way. It is very disrespectful.

Deputy Speaker, MLA Mable Elmore: Thank you, Members. I’ll ask all members to be mindful of their tone in debate and to keep debate respectful.

Dew: Thank you, Madam Speaker. And, of course, I will keep the tone respectful. I think it would be, frankly, disrespectful to engage with these half-baked amendments in any way other than with total seriousness, and in any way other than with full rigour.

What I’m talking about is amendments. I don’t care who wrote them. It’s irrelevant to me who drafted the amendments. It’s irrelevant to me the gender of the individual who drafted the amendments. To pretend that this assault on freedom of information and that these half-baked amendments have anything to do with the cabinet minister who is designated to bring them forward is completely unserious, and it is beneath the dignity of this House.

I really do think it is important to recognize that, ultimately, it would be entirely disrespectful to the importance of this debate to pretend that any of this was anything other than performative. The reality is this. These are serious times. These are serious amendments. Performative outrage on the other side of the House or among individuals who might like to join the other side of the House is not the way for us to engage, with seriousness, with these amendments or with this hoist motion.

On May 5, interim BC Conservative leader Trevor Halford had questioned whether Citizens’ Services Minister Diana Gibson had read her own bill:

Halford: I want to talk about some of the things the minister has said directly. She says there’s no timeline change. She says bill changes without delay, without unreasonable delay. She says no refusal of legitimate requests. Bill 9 adds four undefined refusal grounds. She says no new fees. Clause 21 adds one to proactive disclosure, so I don’t even know if the minister has actually read her own bill.