Deaf man prevented from speaking at Nova Scotia legislature gets apology

A deaf man who was prevented from addressing the Nova Scotia Legislature's law amendments committee by Liberal MLAs got an apology on Thursday, but has not tried to address the committee again.

Robert Tupper had been invited to express his views on Bill 148 — a controversial wage package law — at a special hearing on Thursday convened just for him, despite the fact the committee no longer has any power over the bill because it has been reported back to the House.

The move appears to be a face-saving solution the party in power came up with after Liberal MLAs badly fumbled Tupper's first scheduled appearance on Wednesday.

Tupper was not at the House of Assembly on Thursday. Emails have been sent to him to see if he is willing to return.

• Nova Scotia wage package blasted by workers at public hearing

Tupper was scheduled to give his thoughts on the wage package bill before the law amendments committee on Wednesday. He arrived late, but with plenty of time to speak before the deadline Liberals imposed on the committee to cut off submissions.

But instead of giving him 10 minutes to talk, the deputy chair of the committee, Terry Farrell, led a 20 to 25-minute debate about whether it was too late for Tupper to speak. 

With time running out, Liberals on the committee voted twice to deny Tupper his time. They even defeated an opposition motion appealing the first vote, in which some Liberals appeared to have been confused about which way to vote.

They remained silent — which should have counted as abstaining from the vote — but Farrell called a second vote. 

That's when a staffer intervened, appearing to instruct the four Liberals members to vote against Tupper's appearance.

'No respect'

After the committee adjourned, Tupper, through an interpreter, expressed his disappointment.

"There was no respect paid to me in regards to disability from the Liberal caucus," he said Wednesday.

"There was no respect whatsoever to me. And they don't care. They obviously do not care. They should have open respect for all people with disabilities in Nova Scotia — point blank — they should have respect for us."

The snub sparked a flurry of hallway gatherings as staff from the premier's office scrambled to find out what happened, and what to do to fix what they clearly deemed a public relations fiasco.

The plan to hold a special committee meeting Thursday didn't impress the opposition leaders.