Historic first! Canada parliament elects 1st Black House Speaker after Rota resigns

The Canada House of Commons elected its first Black House Speaker on Tuesday after the former Speaker Anthony Rota resigned last week for unknowingly honouring a former Nazi soldier to parliament. Greg Fergus has been elected as the new House Speaker making the Liberal Party lawmaker the first Black Canadian to hold the post.

The 338-seater House voted for Greg in a secret ballot. There were four candidates for the post of House Speaker including Fergus and he came ahead of the other three.

PM Trudeau congratulates 1st Black House Speaker 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated Greg and said that his stepping up to this position will be inspiring for all Canadians who want to venture into the world of politics. “Today you’re the first Black Canadian to become speaker,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. “It should be inspiring for all Canadians, especially younger generations who want to get involved in politics.”

Taking to X, Trudeau wrote “Congratulations, Mister Speaker! As the first Black Canadian to take on this role, you have made history. And as you begin your work, I’m confident you’ll help us demonstrate civility in our debates – and remind us we are all here for the same reason: to serve Canadians.”

The role of the House Speaker is to be an impartial arbitrator of the parliamentary procedure and maintain decorum and order during the debates in the House. Only in the case of a tie in the decision of the house, the speaker is supposed to vote. It plays a ceremonial role as an institutional representative of parliament.

Former House Speaker Anthony Rota

The previous Speaker Anthony Rota resigned due to the controversy of honouring a Nazi veteran in the Canadian Parliament during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s. Rota, a member of the governing Liberal party had to give up his post as he was the one who took the initiative to introduce the veteran soldier in the parliament on September 22.

The 98-year-old Ukrainian Yaroslav Hunka, who served in the first Ukrainian division, also known as the SS division “Galicia” during World War II was honoured by the Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, Anthony Rota in Canada’ Parliament.

The speaker recognised and hailed the 98-year-old Nazi veteran as a war hero who had emigrated to Canada without doing a full background check of him. Later Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized for the gaffe last week.

The opposition criticised the move, following which Rota apologised twice. Despite apologising twice the senior speaker of the House of Commons was not sparred and the opposition continued to press for his resignation and said that “it wasn’t enough.

Hence after facing ardent criticism, Anthony Rota resigned as the House speaker on September 26.