CATEGORY:SPECIAL REPORT ---------------------------- INSIDE GRENADA FRIDAY July 20,2007 ST.GEORGE'S: A sitting of the House of Representatives yesterday (Thursday July 19, 2007) took a dramatic twist which resulted in the Opposition Leader, Hon. Tillman Thomas, being suspended from Parliament by the Speaker of the House, Lawrence Joseph, for refusing to apologize for the opposition’s walk-out of Parliament on December 20, 2006. On December 20, 2006, during a budget debate in the House of Representatives, the Member of Parliament for the Town of St. George, Hon. Peter David, commenced talking about the Commission of Inquiry (which was set-up to look into allegations of financial impropriety against the Prime Minister) during his presentation. At that point, he was advised by the Speaker of the House, Lawrence Joseph, that he should refrain from substantially getting into the matter since it was subjudice. There was disagreement on the Opposition side with the ruling of the Speaker which resulted in an adjournment of the House. When Parliament resumed, the opposition MP continued dealing with the same subject which again resulted in the intervention of the Speaker and a subsequent walk-out of the opposition in protest against his ruling On Friday March 23, 2007, the House of Representatives met to debate two motions taken together: one was a motion expressing no confidence in the Speaker of the House filed and piloted by the Leader of the Opposition and the other was a motion expressing confidence in the Speaker of the House, filed and piloted by the Leader of Government Business. The motion of confidence in the Speaker was upheld. During yesterday's proceedings in the House, the Speaker read from a prepared document in which he itemized some of the concerns raised by the Opposition, the substantial majority of them he deemed “frivolous and vexing.” The major criticism was the subject of the subjudice ruling which would have triggered the opposition’s walk-out on December 20 of last year. The Speaker than called on the Opposition Leader to apologize for walking out of Parliament on December 20,2006 and their (opposition members)subsequent ‘unparliamentary’ behaviour. (”In light of all that has been said, it seems clear that the walking out of Parliament by the opposition on 20th December 2006, and the subsequent unparliamentary behaviour emanated by the Leader of the Opposition in shouting at the Speaker were totally unfounded…the leader of the Opposition ought to apologize to the House on behalf of himself and on behalf of the rest of the Opposition for his unparliamentary behaviour.”) Hon. Tillman Thomas refused to issue an apology stating instead that "... I think there are more pressing issues about this parliament which we have to deal with.” He expressed the view that the House of Representatives is being used on certain occasions for political advantages. His refusal to issue an apology resulted in the Speaker of the House suspending him for the remainder of the day's proceedings. The other opposition MPs walked out with him, showing their support for their leader and the position he had taken.