REVEALED: 'Anonymous' letters supporting embattled House of Commons Speaker came from prominent Liberals

Liberal members of a Parliamentary committee assessing whether House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus violated the terms of his office reportedly tried to pass off letters from prominent Liberals as “anonymous letters” supporting Fergus.

“Liberals wanted everyone watching to know that members of our committee received ‘anonymous letters’ supporting Greg Fergus as Speaker,” opposition MP Eric Duncan (CPC-Stomont-Dundas-South Glengarry) posted on X Monday. 

“Unfortunately, the metadata evidence shows that these letters were written by a Liberal-appointed Senator and a former Liberal MP,” said Duncan, a member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) 

A Liberal member of the committee suggested public support for Fergus was appearing in the form of correspondence.

“Mr. Speaker, I know you're probably not aware of that but late last night, many members of [the] PROC [committee] received letters supporting you in your role as speaker,” claimed government MP Sherry Romanado (L-Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne)

But Duncan suspected something suspicious about the letters.

“I'm wondering just in reference to Ms. Romanado and all those comments that she referenced in emails that we received last night, including the members’ across personal parliamentary emails,” Duncan said in a point of order at the committee meeting. 

“I'm looking for unanimous consent if I can table those two letters that were provided to us by email last night, and also included in that a copy of the metadata from both of those when you open up the Microsoft Word document, you can actually go and see who the original authors of those two are,” Duncan continued. 

“I'd like to table not only the letters but along with each that the author of the one letter dated yesterday came from a liberal appointed senator, Sen. Andrew Cardozo and O’d also in the second letter like to table not only the letter, but the metadata that shows that the author of that original letter was a former Liberal Member of Parliament, Frank Bayliss.”

Both the Conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois want Fergus to resign for violating the non-partisan commitment of his office.

Fergus apologized last week for a video tribute he prepared in honor of outgoing interim Ontario Liberal leader John Fraser. The video was played at last weekend’s Ontario Liberal Party leadership convention.

But he soon demonstrated his partisanship again by attending an event in Washington, D.C. and fondly recalling his election as the president of the Young Liberals of Canada.

The incident was documented in a video posted on X.